Biography:

Melissa Martins Casagrande holds a J.D. and a Masters degree in Public Law and Policy from the Universidade Federal do Parana in Curitiba, Brazil and was admitted to the Brazilian Bar in 2001. She is currently a Doctor of Civil Law candidate at McGill University in Canada. Her doctoral research, undertaken in affiliation with the Institute of Comparative Law and the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, focuses on the constitutional rights of indigenous and other socio-ethnically distinct peoples in Latin America. Her professional experience includes teaching and research at universities in Brazil and Canada and consultancy work for non-governmental organizations in the fields of international human rights and humanitarian law, human rights education, civil society engagement in international law and women’s rights.

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