
Anna Crowe
Associate Director, International Human Rights Clinic
Lecturer on Law
Anna Crowe is Associate Director and Lecturer on Law in the International Human Rights Clinic. Her work focuses on the right to a legal identity, particularly in the refugee context, and the right to privacy. She also works in the field of humanitarian disarmament. Anna supervises students on research, fact-finding, and advocacy projects in these areas. In the Clinic, she has developed and implemented projects with the Norwegian Refugee Council, Control Arms, Privacy International, and Article 36, among others.
Before she joined the Clinic, Anna was a Legal Officer at Privacy International, a leading human rights organization that campaigns against unlawful communications surveillance across the globe. She also spent a year in Colombia as a Henigson Human Rights Fellow, working with the International Crisis Group in the field of transitional justice.
Anna is a graduate of Harvard Law School and an alumna of the International Human Rights Clinic. Prior to Harvard, Anna was a constitutional lawyer for the New Zealand government in the Crown Law Office and served at the New Zealand Supreme Court as a clerk to the Chief Justice for two years. She has also previously worked as a Teaching Fellow at Victoria, University of Wellington Law School and clerked at a top New Zealand law firm. In addition to an LLM from Harvard Law School, she holds conjoint law and arts degrees from the University of Auckland.
Related Work
Publications
The Arms Trade Treaty’s Gender-Based Violence Risk Assessment (International Human Rights Clinic, Stimson Center, February 2021)
Preventing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Detention Settings: Principles and Commentary (International Human Rights Clinic, All Survivors Project, October 2020)
Interpreting the Arms Trade Treaty: International Human Rights Law and Gender-Based Violence in Article 7 Risk Assessments(International Human Rights Clinic, Control Arms, April 2019)
Supporting Kakuma’s Refugees: The Importance of Freedom of Movement (International Human Rights Clinic, Norwegian Refugee Council, August 2018)
Supporting Kakuma’s Refugee Traders: The Importance of Business Documentation in an Informal Economy(International Human Rights Clinic, Norwegian Refugee Council, August 2018)
Recognising Nairobi’s Refugees: The Challenges and Significance of Documentation Proving Identity and Status(International Human Rights Clinic, the Norwegian Refugee Council Kenya, November 2017)
Victim Assistance in the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty: A Comprehensive and Detailed Approach(International Human Rights Clinic, Article 36, June 2017)
Securing Status: Syrian Refugees and the Documentation of Legal Status, Identity and Family Relationships in Jordan(International Human Rights Clinic, Norwegian Refugee Council Jordan, November 2016)
The Right to Privacy in Venezuela (submission to Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review) (International Human Rights Clinic, Privacy International, and Acceso Libre, March 2016)
The Right to Privacy in Zimbabwe (submission to Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review) (International Human Rights Clinic, Privacy International, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, and Digital Society of Zimbabwe, March 2016)
Registering Rights: Syrian Refugees and the Documentation of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in Jordan(International Human Rights Clinic, Norwegian Refugee Council, October 2015)
Securing Safe Spaces Online: Encryption, Online Anonymity, and Human Rights(International Human Rights Clinic, Privacy International, June 2015)
Making a Commitment: Paths to Curbing the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas(International Human Rights Clinic, Human Rights Watch, June 2015) Co-author: Bonnie Docherty
ARTICLES & CHAPTERS
“Human Rights-Humanitarianism in Disarmament Law” in Disarmament Law: Reviving the Field (Dunworth & Hood, eds., 2020)
“‘All the regard due to their sex’: Women in the Geneva Conventions of 1949”(HRP Working Papers series, December 2016)
“International Humanitarian Law and the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas”Peace in Progress (February 2016)
“Privacy and M4D Initiatives”(Chapter: Mobile Participation: Access, Interaction and Practices, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, October 2015)
“Unmasking the Five Eyes’ global surveillance practices”GISWatch: Communications surveillance in the digital age (2014) Co-author: Cary Nyst
“Abandoned Ordnance in Libya: Threats to Civilians and Recommended Responses”
The Journal of ERW and Mine Action (Summer 2013) Co-author: Bonnie Docherty
“The roles of civil society in the development of standards around new weapons and other technologies of warfare”International Review of the Red Cross, No. 886 (2012) Co-authors: Brian Rappert, Richard Moyes, and Thomas Nash
OPINION
“Shining a Light on the Right to Privacy: Surveillance in Venezuela and Zimbabwe,”(Human Rights Program Blog, April 27, 2016)
“The Need for a Special Rapporteur on the Right To Privacy at the UN”(Privacy International Blog, November 4, 2014)
“The Five Eyes: Is this a club we want to be part of?”(The New Zealand Herald, June 11, 2014)
“United Nations’ drones: a sign of what’s to come?”(Privacy International Blog, December 10, 2013)
“The promise, and problems, of mobile phones in the developing world”(OpenDemocracy.net, November 1, 2013
“The Five Challenges of Negotiating Transitional Justice in Colombia”(International Crisis Group Blog, September 19, 2013) Co-author: Christian Voelkel