Advisor

“As a Canadian and the parent of two children with mixed Tamil/Jewish heritage, I feel a special responsibility to document the ongoing human rights catastrophe in Sri Lanka and contribute to efforts aimed at accountability and ending impunity.”

Sharry Aiken

She is an associate professor in the faculty of law at Queen’s University where she teaches international refugee law, international human rights law and other public law courses. A past president of the Canadian Council for Refugees, Prof. Aiken currently serves as co-chair of the CCR’s Legal Affairs Committee and vice-chair of the board of directors of the Canadian Centre for International Justice Prof. Aiken travelled to Sri Lanka as a young adult and experienced the country as a fairly typical backpacker. However, many years later, her refugee law practice brought her into contact with dozens of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, affording a very different window into the country and its problems. More recently, as an academic, Prof. Aiken has been researching the causes and consequences of asylum flows from its Tamil refugee diaspora.