Researcher biography

Rebecca Barber is a Senior Legal Officer with the Office of International Law, Australian Attorney General’s Department. She was previously a senior research fellow with the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, University of Queensland, where among other things she led the development of a Framework for Action for the Responsibility to Protect and a manual for States on the powers of the UN General Assembly to prevent and respond to atrocity crimes. She has published widely on UN Charter law, international peace and security law, state responsibility, international human rights and humanitarian law and the responsibility to protect. Rebecca has received several awards for her research including early career publication prizes from the International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2021) and the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (2023) and an Australian Legal Research Award (2022). She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of International Peacekeeping.  Rebecca holds a PhD from the School of Law, University of Queensland and undergraduate degrees and a masters degree in public international law from the University of Melbourne. Rebecca previously had a career in international humanitarian assistance and advocacy, with assignments in Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific.