Mr. Chaloka Beyani
Dr. Beyani was appointed Special Adviser of the Secretary-General for the Prevention of Genocide at the Under- Secretary-General level in August 2025.
Holding the post most recently as the Associate Professor of International Law in the Law Department, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), since 1996, Mr. Beyani brings practical legal, diplomatic and political experience in international law and human rights, including national constitutions and treaty making. He is an international expert on internally-displaced persons, population transfers, mercenaries and private military companies, sexual and reproductive health, human rights-based approach to development and climate change, having served as Legal Adviser to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Development Fund for Women, the European Union, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the African Union.
Mr. Beyani served as a Member of the LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights, including as former Chair of its Advisory Board, and the LSE Centre for Climate Change, as well as Member of the UK Foreign Secretary's Advisory Group on Human Rights (2010-2024), Member of the Expert Advisory Group for the United Nations Secretary General¡¯s High-level Panel on Internal Displacement (2019-2021); United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (2010-2016); Member of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons of the African Union on the Formation of an African Union Government (2008-2009); and Member of the joint African Union and European Union ad hoc Expert Group on Universal Jurisdiction (2009).
Mr. Beyani is holder of a Doctor of Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK (1992), as well as a Master of Laws and a Bachelor of Laws, University of Zambia (1984, 1982). A Visiting Professor of International Law at the University of Toronto, Canada and Santa Clara University, US, he also served as Research Fellow at Wolfson college, Oxford, with Lectureships in Law at Exeter and St. Catherine's colleges, Oxford, and a Crown Prince of Jordan Fellow, Queen Elizabeth House, as part of the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford. He served as a Lecturer of Law at the University of Zambia. He is fluent in English and Zambian languages.
Previous Special Advisers
- Virginia Gamba (acting 2024 - 2025)
- Alice Wairimu Nderitu (2020-2024)
- Adama Dieng (2012-2020)
- Francis Deng (2007-2012)
- Juan M¨¦ndez (2004-2007)
