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Jens Poessel

Education

Jens Poessel is a German lawyer admitted to the Bar in Frankfurt am Main and an international development practitioner. With strong academic roots in human rights law, he acquired his graduate diploma in law at the University of Hamburg and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Public Law at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. His LL.M. thesis, entitled "A Human Rights Approach to Sustainable Development within the WTO", examined the relationship of human rights realization in international trade and globalization. The thesis was subsequently published by the United Nations University in the book "Developing Countries and the WTO – Policy Approaches", edited by Professor Gary P. Sampson and W. Bradnee Chambers.

Experience

Jens has worked in the human rights field for over a decade, beginning as a volunteer country coordinator for Haiti and Cuba within the German section of Amnesty International. Following completion of his academic studies in Germany and South Africa, he started working as a lawyer in Hamburg, before joining a project on criminal justice sector reform for an international development organization in 2011. Since then, Jens Poessel has worked in justice sector reform projects throughout Africa and Southeastern Europe, thereby successfully contributing to improvements in the protection and realization of human rights.

Research

Jens' research focuses on the issue of realization of access to justice for all, based on the case of Zambia. Empirical studies show that Zambia has not been able to adequately protect and promote the human right to access to justice over the past decades. The research seeks to identify the missing links that could improve the situation in the country and investigates possible solutions to realize access to justice for all. In order to develop a comprehensive understanding of how the different actors in the criminal justice system work together in a complex whole, the research carries on the development of a theoretical base for access to justice and puts it in perspective with the reality on the ground. The results of the research may be applied to other country contexts as well.

Jens is supervised by Dr. Lars Waldorf.

Contact details

Email: jp1429@york.ac.uk