Harini Sivalingam | Board of Directors

Harini Sivalingam obtained her LL.B. at Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto) and her LL.M. in International Comparative Law at McGill University (Montreal). She has worked as a lawyer in private practice in the area of immigration and refugee law, and at a community legal aid clinic providing legal information, advice, and representation to under-serviced communities.
Pursuing her passion for human rights, Harini has interned at the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva, monitoring United Nations meetings and drafting analytical reports on human rights issues. Harini is involved in anti-racism activism and community organizing. In 2001 Harini attended the World Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa, as the youth representative for the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians. Harini attended several sessions of the UN Human Rights Council as an representative of LRWC in 2009.
Currently Harini is a PhD Candidate in the Socio-Legal Studies program at York University in Toronto, Canada pursing research on how legal processes shape and influence the journeys of maritime forced migrants. Her dissertation research examines the lived experiences and decision-making processes of Tamil forced migrants who arrived in Canada aboard the MV Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea. Her research interests include forced migration studies, critical security studies, critical race theory, and post-colonial studies.
Harini has been an community organizer and activist in Canada for over 20 years.