Instructor

Lead instructor
Slava Balan is an international lawyer, human rights and gender equality consultant and advisor. Slava worked with governments, national human rights institutions, civil society groups, and the United Nations in the areas of human and minority rights, gender equality and women empowerment, elections, democracy and rule of law. He advised and consulted the development of several major strategic policy documents within the United Nations and in Europe. Slava taught a course on Human Rights-Based Approach to Governance, Law and Policy-Making at the University of Ottawa and abroad. Slava finalizes his PhD in Law at the University of Ottawa and serves as the Executive Director of the International Commission of Jurists – Canada.

Course advisor
Professor Errol P. Mendes is a lawyer, author, professor and has been an advisor to governments, corporations, civil society groups and the United Nations. He has acted as a human rights Tribunal and Boards of Inquiry adjudicator in Canada under the Ontario Human Rights Code and as a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. In 2005-2006, he served as a Senior Advisor in the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada. He also served as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in 2009. He was appointed as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School in 2013 and a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University in 2020-2021.

His areas of expertise include private and public sector governance law and policy, international business and trade law, public international law, constitutional law and human rights law. He has taught in these areas at law schools across Canada and is presently a full professor of Law at the University of Ottawa in the nation’s capital He was a Commissioner on the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 2009-2019 and National President of the International Commission of Jurists, Canadian Sections since 2014. He is the author, co-author or editor of eleven books in his area of expertise. He was invested into the Order of Ontario on January 20, 2016. On May 25, 2016, he was awarded one of the highest honors of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Law Society Medal. In November 2019, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.