Law programme
JUDr Barbora Bukovská
Senior Director for Law
Since 1994, Barbora has worked with different organisations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on cases involving equal opportunities, access to justice, the rights of prisoners, deprivation of liberty, reproductive rights and others. In 2001, Barbora founded the Centre for Civil and Human Rights in Kosice, Slovakia, where she led efforts to eliminate the practice of forced sterilisation of Romani women in Slovakia, as well as other human rights abuses. From 2006 to 2008, she was the Legal Director at the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre, an international organisation based in Hungary, working on the rights of people with disabilities in Europe and Central Asia.
Barbora is a member of the Czech Bar Association and the Bar Association of the State of New York, and is qualified to practise law in those jurisdictions. Within her legal practice, she has filed more than 50 cases on various issues to the ECtHR and has published a number of reports and articles on a broad range of human rights. Barbora graduated from the Law School of Charles University in Prague and earned a doctorate in law in Slovakia, and an LLM degree from Harvard Law School. In 1998 and 1999, she was a visiting scholar at Columbia University Law School in New York.
David Banisar
Senior Legal Counsel
David has worked in the field of information policy for nearly 20 years and was previously Director of the Freedom of Information Project at Privacy International. He has authored books, studies and articles on freedom of information, freedom of expression, media policy, whistleblowing, communications security and privacy. He has also served as an advisor and consultant to numerous organisations, including the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the UN Development Programme and the Open Society Institute.
David was a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Policy Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC. He has a Juris Doctor in law and public policy from The Columbus School of Law, at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
Boyko Boev
Senior Legal Officer
Boyko Boev (LL.M. 2000 Sofia University, LL.M. 2004 Columbia University School of Law, New York) is a Senior Legal Officer at ARTICLE 19. A specialist on media regulation, public service broadcasting, defamation and transparency of media ownership, he provides legal input to ARTICLE 19’s media development projects. He has analysed media laws from around 20 countries from Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia for their compliance with international law and freedom of expression standards and has conducted numerous trainings on media law for judges, lawyers, journalists and campaigners for free media. Before joining ARTICLE 19 in 2008 Boyko was a practicing human rights lawyer in Bulgaria and a human right officer with OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw.
Sejal Parmar
Senior Legal Officer
Sejal Parmar (LLB Law (hons), LSE; PhD Law, EUI, Florence) joined ARTICLE 19 as Senior Legal Officer in 2008. Her work focuses on the relationship between freedom of expression and the right to information, on the one hand, and other rights (such as the right to equality, freedom of religion and the right to health), on the other. She leads ARTICLE 19’s legal and policy work on UN human rights bodies’ resolutions on “defamation of religions” and the interpretation of international law on incitement to hostility, discrimination and violence. She regularly delivers oral statements, presentations and trainings to a broad range of audiences and writes policy papers, legal analyses and amicus briefs. Sejal is also currently Visiting Lecturer in International Human Rights Law at Queen Mary, University of London.
Gabrielle Guillemin
Legal Officer
Gabrielle joined ARTICLE 19 as Legal Officer in 2011. Prior to that, she worked as a lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights for four years. She holds an LLB – Maitrise de droit français (1st Class) from Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne – King’s College London and an MSc Human Rights (Distinction) from the London School of Economics. Gabrielle’s work focuses on Internet and ICT issues.
Stephanie Muchai
Legal Officer
Stephanie is a human rights lawyer who joined ARTICLE 19 in 2011. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a BA in Communications from the University of Newcastle, Australia. She also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law. She has previously worked in international law, constitutional law, human rights law, public interest law and legal aid. She has participated in various processes that promote legal reform and has experience in coordinating human rights projects as well as other related initiatives.