Ishita Chakrabarty

Ishita Chakrabarty joins Accountability Counsel in 2023. As an Asia Development Justice Fellow, she will work closely with Communities Program to amplify the voices of communities in defending their human rights and environmental rights.

Ishita recently graduated with an M.A in International Law from the Graduate Institute Geneva, where she pursued her studies as a Wilsdorf scholar and with specialisations in global governance and migration.

Prior to this role, Ishita worked as a Research Officer with the Quill Foundation in India, on matters concerning persecution of religious minorities, and their substantive rights to citizenship. She advocated for reform in counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering norms as they disproportionately affect civic space and minorities. Amongst others, Ishita was instrumental in thinking through the domestic jurisprudence on cruel inhuman and degrading treatment, and extra-custodial torture, in the context of police violence and state-sponsored violence. Ishita is an avid researcher with strong interest in socio-legal studies. She has published several academic articles and co-authored book chapters on international criminal law and migration. More recently, she worked as a Programme Assistant at the Climate Vulnerable Forum Secretariat, looking at aspects of loss and damage, climate migration and disaster displacement, return migration and diaspora contributions to climate adaptation and resilience. In that capacity she has worked with UN agencies, and international organizations partners. Her role at the CVF Secretariat further piqued her interest in climate and environmental justice.

At Accountability Counsel, Ishita aims to understand how international financial actors and national policy makers within developing states may have caused harm to the environment and human rights of their citizens and how affected peoples can hold these financial and political institutions accountable.