Kim Thuy Seelinger is an expert on sexual violence in armed conflict and forced displacement. She has conducted several interdisciplinary studies focused on protection and accountability in Central America, the Mediterranean, and Africa. This work has been integrated into global guidance for humanitarian response as well as the investigation of conflict-related sexual violence.
Seelinger currently serves as Special Adviser on Sexual Violence in Conflict to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, in The Hague. She is also a technical advisor for the Global Survivors’ Fund, established by 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winners Dr. Denis Mukwege and Ms. Nadia Murad. Previously, Seelinger was an inaugural member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ Advisory Group on Gender, Forced Displacement, and Protection.
Seelinger’s writing appears in diverse journals such as the Journal of International Criminal Justice, the California Law Review (online), the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, and PLOS Medicine. She co-edited “The President on Trial: Prosecuting Hissène Habré” (Oxford Univ. Press, 2020) and has won various honors for her work, including a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency (2015).
Prior to joining the Brown School, Seelinger taught at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she directed the Sexual Violence Program at the Human Rights Center (2010-2019).
At WashU, Seelinger connects the Brown School to the Law School, where she is a visiting professor. She also directs the university-wide Center for Human Rights, Gender and Migration at the Institute for Public Health.