Dr. Sari Kouvo is a Finnish citizen residing in Belgium, spending half her time in Afghanistan. Her areas of expertise include Afghanistan, international law, post-conflict rule-of-law reform, gender and human rights. Prior to joining ICTJ, she was Human Rights and Rule of Law Advisor to the European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan. She also served as Researcher on Afghanistan at Amnesty International and a researcher and lecturer within the Department of Law at Gothenburg University. She is a member of the European Union’s Civilian Response Teams for Multifunctional Crisis Management and is a founding member of both the Center for Global Gender Studies and the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Gothenburg University. She has been a visiting fellow at the NATO Defense College (Italy), the Center for Law, Gender, and Sexuality at Keele University (UK), the Institute for Human Rights at Abo Academy University (Finland), and the Center for International and Public Law at Australian National University.

Her publications include Making Just Rights? Mainstreaming Gender and Women’s Human Rights (Iustus Publications, 2004), “The United Nations and Gender Mainstreaming: Limits and Possibilities” in International Law: Modern Feminist Approaches, (Hart Publications, 2005), “Ihmisoikeudet,” in Maailmanpolitiikan arkipäivää: 10 käsitettä feministiseen kansainvälisten suhteiden tutkimukseen, (Avainsanat, 2006), and “Righting the Course? Humanitarian Intervention, the War on Terror and the Future of Afghanistan” (with Fatima Ayub) in International Affairs (2008).