E. Tendayi Achiume

E. Tendayi Achiume is a Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at University of California, Los Angeles. She serves as the United Nations special rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Professor

E. Tendayi Achiume
Achiume speaks about discrimination for United Nations Brazil in 2018
Academic background
Alma materAtlantic College
Yale University
Yale Law School
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Constitutional Court of South Africa

Early life and education

Achiume was born in Zambia.[1] When she was growing up, Achiume had an inspirational physics teacher, and first considered a career in physics and engineering.[2] She attended the Atlantic College in Wales, where she first became interested in international law.[1] Achiume earned her bachelor's degree at Yale University. She moved to the Yale Law School for her Juris Doctor, where she also earned a certificate in Development Studies.[3] During her training she specialised in international migration and refugee rights.[1] She was particularly interested in the humans rights abuses against Zimbabwean refugees who were seeking asylum in South Africa.[2] After earned her doctoral degree, Achiume moved to South Africa, where she worked as a legal clerk for Dikgang Moseneke and Justice Yvonne Mokgoro in the Constitutional Court of South Africa.[4][5] She also served as a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand.[6]

Research and career

Following her positions as a legal clerk, she was awarded a Bernstein International Human Rights fellowship to join the migrant rights project at Johannesburg's Lawyers for Human Rights.[5]

In 2014 Achiume joined the faculty at University of California, Los Angeles.[7] At UCLA, Achiume leads the International Human Rights Clinic, a programme which teaches students international human rights through clinical projects. The projects led by Achiume include providing legal support for Indigenous peoples of the Americas, legal policies in Los Angeles and incarcerated women.[8] As part of the programme, Achiume worked with Dignity and Power Now, an organisation in Los Angeles that looks to support incarcerated people and their families. She and her students looked at violations against incarcerated women of colour who suffered from mental illness. She demonstrated that these women were regularly denied physical or mental health support.[9] She chaired the 2016 American Society of International Law annual meeting.[10] In 2017 Achiume was appointed to the United Nations Human Rights Council as the UN special rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.[11] She was the first woman to hold such a position.[11]

In 2018 Achiume visited the United Kingdom to study the prevalence of race crimes and how they were being exacerbated by Brexit.[12][13] Her verdict was that the Home Office hostile environment policy had “entrenched racism” across the United Kingdom.[14] She encouraged the Government of the United Kingdom to evaluate its policies on discrimination and to investigate the criminalisation of young Black men.[15] Achiume identified that the anti-foreigner rhetoric that developed during the Leave.EU campaign was permeating society, and that austerity measures were disproportionately impacted communities of colour.[15] In particular, she pointed out that “hateful and stigmatising discourse had become 'normalised' – even involving some high-ranking officials”.[16] This visit was documented in her first report to the United Nations General Assembly, in which she concluded that “ethnonationalist populism” posed a considerable threat to racial equality.[17]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Achiume studied the rise in racism and xenophobia that spread alongside SARS-CoV-2.[18][19] In particular, she said that people perceived to be of Chinese or East Asian descent were subject to xenophobic attacks.[19] Achiume emphasised the need for education in combating racism, and that racial and xenophobic discrimination should become a more substantial part of education.[19]

Selected publications
  • Achiume, E. Tendayi (2016-06-12). "Syria, Cost-sharing, and the Responsibility to Protect Refugees". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Achiume, Tendayi (2013-07-16). "Beyond Prejudice: Structural Xenophobic Discrimination Against Refugees". SSRN 2294557. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Achiume, E. Tendayi (2019-06-01). "Migration as Decolonization". Stanford Law Review. 71 (6): 1509–1574. ISSN 0038-9765.
  • Achiume, E. Tendayi (2017). "Reimagining International Law for Global Migration: Migration as Decolonization?". AJIL Unbound. 111: 142–146. doi:10.1017/aju.2017.48. ISSN 2398-7723.

References
  1. "UCLA law school assistant professor appointed to UN Human Rights Council". Daily Bruin. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  2. "Emerging Scholar Profile: Achiume Combats Intolerance Internationally". Diverse. 2018-01-24. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  3. "E. Tendayi Achiume '08 Named United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Intolerance". law.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  4. Madsen, Mikael Rask (2018-06-28). International Court Authority. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-251504-9.
  5. "Tendayi Achiume – ACMS". Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  6. "E. Tendayi Achiume | The New Humanitarian". www.thenewhumanitarian.org. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  7. "UCLA Law Magazine Fall 2014". Issuu. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  8. "Courses Page". law.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  9. "Students of UCLA Laws Intl Human Rights Clinic Prepare Report LA Jails". law.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  10. "ACHIUME E. Tendayi". European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  11. "Achiume Bio". Jean v Nelson at 35. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  12. "OHCHR | End of Mission Statement of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance at the Conclusion of Her Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". ohchr.org. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  13. "UK has seen 'Brexit-related' growth in racism, says UN representative". the Guardian. 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  14. "Austerity measures and hostile environment 'entrenching racism' in UK, says UN". The Independent. 2019-06-15. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  15. "OHCHR | UN rights expert hails UK for anti-racism action but raises serious concerns over Immigration Policy, Prevent programme and Brexit". ohchr.org. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  16. "UN expert warns of 'stark increase' in hate crimes across UK, post-Brexit vote". UN News. 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  17. "A/73/305 - E - A/73/305". undocs.org. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  18. "A Conversation With U.N. Special Rapporteur E. Tendayi Achiume: COVID-19, Racism, and Xenophobia". Just Security. 2020-05-29. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  19. "UN expert hits out at COVID-19 xenophobia". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
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