Our Team

Director

Téa Braun

Téa oversees the implementation of all of the Trust’s core legal work and manages the overall operation of the Trust. She has global experience in strategic litigation, training and technical assistance on international human rights law and comparative constitutional law, with a particular focus on matters relating to women’s human rights and LGBT human rights. She previously held inter-governmental appointments as Gender Equality Advisor to the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and Human Rights Advisor to the Commonwealth Secretariat, and worked as an associate lawyer in the litigation department of a leading Western Canadian law firm. She has advised multiple governments, civil society organisations and litigants across Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean, and has represented inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the UN Human Rights Council and through submissions to a range of UN human rights treaty bodies.

Téa is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, Canada (non-practising) and holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex (England) where she was named Alumna of the Year 2014 for services to human rights. She is a Strategic Advisor to the global Gqual Campaign which promotes gender parity in international tribunals, and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association from 2015-2017 and a member of the Editorial Board of the Commonwealth Human Rights Law Digest from 2011-2012.

Head of Legal

Victoria Vasey

Before joining the Trust, Victoria was Legal Director at the European Roma Rights Centre and, most recently, Director of North Kensington Law Centre. Previously, Victoria was a criminal defence barrister in London. She has experience of litigating strategic human rights cases, with a focus on equality law, in many European jurisdictions and before the European Court of Human Rights, the European Committee of Social Rights and UN treaty bodies. She has delivered training in human rights and strategic litigation to human rights defenders, students, lawyers and judges.

Victoria’s first degree is from Oxford University and she holds a DESS (Masters) in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas).

Head of Strategic Communications

Emma Eastwood

Emma provides specialist media and communications support to the Trust’s partner organisations around the world, as well as leading on our own communications strategy. When required, she assists our partner organisations to develop locally-relevant, research-based messaging in order to drive communications plans which can shape domestic narratives on LGBT rights and realities. Emma is a communications expert and storyteller with 25 years of experience in international human rights activism. She previously worked as Senior Media Officer at Minority Rights Group International, where she provided communications support to their strategic litigation programme, as well as media training for minority and indigenous rights activists and training in ethical reporting for journalists. She began her NGO career as a human rights observer during the civil war in Guatemala with Peace Brigades International, and then went on to work in media and training with PBI Colombia in London.

Programme Manager – Legislative Reform

Grazia Careccia

Grazia oversees the implementation of the Trust’s programme on legal reform. This includes overseeing the Trust’s work as part of the Equality & Justice Alliance, a consortium of international organisations established to promote equality for and eliminate discrimination and violence against women and girls and LGBT people. Grazia is an experienced human rights advocate with 15 years of professional experience, including in managing legal research, strategic litigation and advocacy programmes. Before joining the Trust, she was the Director of Diakonia’s International Humanitarian Law Resource Centre in Jerusalem. Previously, she managed Child Soldier International’s programme on security sector reform and held the position of Head of the Legal Research and Advocacy Department with Al-Haq, in Ramallah. Her professional experience in the Middle East started in 2006 with Al-Haq as the Coordinator of the Accountability Project and a legal researcher. In her early career, she also worked with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Redress and Human Rights Watch. She holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, a BA and an MA in Political Science from the University of Pisa.

Senior Advocacy Advisor

Alistair Stewart

Alistair is a human rights activist with almost twenty years’ experience of advocating for the rights of LGBT people, domestically and globally. He has a background in community organising, strategic advocacy and digital communications, in roles at the Kaleidoscope Trust and as a consultant for British parliamentary bodies. At the Kaleidoscope Trust, Alistair was responsible for high level advocacy and network development, building the organisation’s ties with LGBT activists from around the world and working with them to lobby heads of government, ministers, politicians, diplomats and policy-makers in the UK, the Commonwealth and other international forums. Alistair has provided expert policy advice to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT Rights, civil society organisations and intergovernmental bodies. Alistair helped to establish the Commonwealth Equality Network, a forum of LGBT and human rights organisations from over 40 countries working to challenge inequality in the Commonwealth, based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He has a BA (Hons) in Economics, Politics and Public Policy and an MA in Postcolonial Cultures and Global Policy, both from Goldsmiths University.

Senior Legal Consultant

Victoria Barnes

Victoria is a practising solicitor advocate and a former associate at the international law firms of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she focused on international litigation and arbitration. During her time at both Debevoise and Gibson Dunn, Victoria was an integral part of the legal teams supporting HDT’s work.

In 2014, Victoria left practice to study for an LLM in international human rights law and following that undertook a period of consultancy work with HDT focusing on the criminalisation of adult consensual same-sex sexual conduct in the Commonwealth. She later joined the Trust as Head of Legal, and since 2019 works as our Senior Legal Consultant.

Legal Projects Consultant

Callum Lynch

Callum previously worked for the Human Dignity Trust as a Legal Intern. He works to support both the litigation and legislative reform work of the organisation. He is a Law LLB and International Human Rights Law LLM graduate. As part of his LLM at the University of Essex, he wrote a research essay on the challenge of securing rights and legal protections for LGBT people in Africa and is passionate about the realisation of equality for LGBT people worldwide. He has worked within a number of human rights organisations – from REDRESS, to Liberty, to Stonewall, to Right to Remain, to Detention Action – on a range of human rights issues.

Callum volunteers with Diversity Role Models, delivering workshops in UK schools to eliminate LGBT-phobic bullying. He is also Chair of the Young Lawyers’ Committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association.

Administrator

Chris Atkinson

Chris has been involved in business administration for most of his career. He worked for a major energy company for many years, based both in the UK and abroad; more recently, he was Administrator at a theatre company for the homeless and subsequently at Doughty Street Chambers for five years. He currently works as part-time administrator for the Human Dignity Trust, as well as for a professional association seeking to promote better equality law.

Legal Intern

Elliot Hatt

Elliot joined the Trust in January 2019. He is a Law LLB and International Human Rights Law LLM graduate, studying at the University of Sussex. He is passionate about LGBT rights and consistently engaged with the topic at university, including writing his postgraduate dissertation on the rights of trans people and the need for a human right to legal recognition of self-perceived gender identity. Prior to working at HDT, Elliot worked at the Equal Rights Trust, a London-based NGO working on equality and non-discrimination, and has additional voluntary experience in the charity sector.