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Prof. (Dr.) Saumya Uma is a Professor at Jindal Global Law School and heads its Centre for Women’s Rights. She has over 28 years’ combined work experience as an academic, law researcher, lawyer, trainer, writer and campaigner on gender, law and human rights. She has served as a research consultant on human rights, with international agencies such as the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNOHCHR) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). Additionally, she worked as the National Coordinator of ICC-India: the anti-impunity campaign on International Criminal Court and its relevance to India – from 2000 to 2010.
Dr. Uma teaches and researches at the intersection of gender, human rights and the law. In particular, she writes on feminist jurisprudence; international criminal justice and its relevance to India; victim and witness protection; justice and accountability for mass crimes; South Asian women’s movements and the feminist envisioning of justice; human rights law and lawyering; gender based violence and reparative justice; access to justice; social exclusion and marginalization; clinical legal education; and feminist pedagogy. She has researched and authored eleven books, edited/co-edited books by reputed publishers such as the Oxford University Press, and has written and published over sixty book chapters, articles in journals, newspapers and popular online media platforms.
Although firmly grounded in the discipline of law, Dr. Uma believes that a holistic approach to law is one that takes within its fold scholarship from other disciplines in social sciences and humanities, including sociology, political science, history, economics and women’s and gender studies.
Dr. Uma holds a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from National Law School of India (NLSIU), Bangalore; two postgraduate law degrees – LL.M. in Family Law and Human Rights from the University of Mumbai, India and LL.M. in International Human Rights at the University of Nottingham, U.K. She received the prestigious British Chevening scholarship for human rights, administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, U.K. for pursuing the latter degree. She completed her doctoral research from her alma mater – NLSIU. The research focused on developing an Indian legal framework on victim and witness protection, with a specific reference to gender based violence.
Dr. Uma has several years of teaching experience at renowned universities in India such as National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU) – Mumbai and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) prior to joining Jindal Global Law School in January 2020