Yassin Brunger

Dr Brunger's research focuses on the history, theory and practice of international criminal justice. She teaches and supervises PhD students in the areas of international law, human rights, transitional justice, and feminist theory.

Dr Yassin Brunger is a Lecturer in Human Rights Law at Queen’s University Belfast and a Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Peace and Security. An internationally recognised scholar, she is known for her pioneering work at the intersection of Black, Pan-African decolonial, and feminist interventions in international criminal law, human rights and transitional justice. Her research interrogates the racialised and carceral logics embedded in global legal institutions, with a particular focus on Africa, and is informed by feminist legal theory, critical race scholarship, abolitionist thought, and Pan-African epistemologies.

Dr Brunger’s scholarship is both theoretically rich and grounded in real-world impact. Her current book project (under contract with Cambridge University Press) critically examines the relationship between the International Criminal Court and the UN Security Council, exposing how institutional practices shape—and often limit—the lived realities of justice. She is also co-editor of the 2025 Australian Feminist Law Journal special issue, “An Abolitionist Movement for International Criminal Law?”, which brings together leading voices to reimagine the possibilities of global justice. Her work appears in top international journals such as the Leiden Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Criminal Justice and the American Journal of International Law Unbound, and in influential edited collections with Hart-Bloomsbury and Oxford University Press.

Dr Brunger has held several prestigious Visiting Fellowships, including at the University of Melbourne, the University of Cambridge, the Australian National University, and the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies.

She serves as editor of Feminist Review and is on the editorial board of Feminist Legal Studies.

Beyond academia, Dr Brunger has contributed expert evidence and policy insight to the International Criminal Court, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, truth commissions in The Gambia and Colombia, and the UK Criminal Cases Review Commission. She has secured competitive research funding, including UKRI grants, to lead projects that bridge academic research and community engagement—most notably her work with The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, where she co-produced multilingual resources and ran community-based workshops in rural, marginalised areas.

A passionate educator, Dr Brunger has been repeatedly recognised for teaching excellence. She designs and delivers research-led, socially engaged teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and is a dedicated mentor to doctoral researchers, particularly women and scholars from minority backgrounds.

Her leadership extends across equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. She was the founding Director of the QUB Gender Network and the inaugural Co-Chair of iRISE, Queen’s Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and International Staff Network—roles for which she received awards for sustained, exceptional contribution. She has led over two dozen high-profile EDI events, influenced institutional policy, and played a pivotal role in Northern Ireland’s first celebration of Black History Month.

She is a former Panel Chair for the Race Equality Charter framework that enables universities to identify and critically reflect on the institutional barriers faced by minority ethnic staff and students and also former Executive Board Member for the African and Caribbean Support Organisation in Northern Ireland (ACSONI). 

Through her writing, teaching, advocacy, and public engagement—from delivering keynote talks at diplomatic gatherings to producing accessible legal resources for local communities—Dr Brunger works to transform how justice is understood and practised globally. 

Dr Brunger teaches on the following courses:

LAW7801 Criminal Justice Processes

LAW7813 Human Rights in Practice

LAW3024 Gender and the Law

LAW3135 Legal Methods and Skills

Previous teaching:

LAW3034 Public International Law

LAW3093 International Criminal and Transitional Justice 

LAW3002 Evidence Law

LAW1025 Criminal Law

Service Roles

LLM Dissertation Coordinator (2023-2026)

Previous roles

UG Admissions Director (2016-2021)

Chair, IRISE QUB Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic and International Staff Network (2019-2021)

Co-Director QUB Gender Network (2019-22)