Evelyn Mary Aswad is an American legal scholar and the Herman G. Kaiser Chair in International Law at the

University of Oklahoma College of Law The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Board of Regents. Accordi ...

, and was previously an official in the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

.''Foreign Service Journal'', Vol. 91, Iss. 1-6 (2014), p. 54. , she serves as a member of Facebook's independent Oversight Board. Aswad received a

B.S.F.S. The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It grants degrees at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Founded in 1919, SFS is the oldest continuo ...

from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

Walsh School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It grants degrees at both Undergraduate education, undergraduate and Postgraduate education, graduate lev ...

in 1992, and in the summer of 1993 received a grant from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

to study issues relating to the use of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

. She received her J.D. from the

Georgetown University Law Center Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...

in 1995. That same year, Aswad published a noted

law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also provide ...

article, ''Torture By Means of Rape'',Katharine T. Bartlett, Angela P. Harris, ''Gender and Law: Theory, Doctrine, Commentary'' (1998), p. 842. "arguing that rape committed by government officials for political purposes should be recognized as torture under international law". Aswad then worked as an attorney for the

, where she became director of the Office of Human Rights and Refugees, serving in that position until 2013, when she joined the University of Oklahoma College of Law as a professor of

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

holding the school's Herman G. Kaiser Chair in International Law, and as director of its Center for International Business and Human Rights. Aswad "specializes in the application of

international human rights International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law is primarily made up of treaties, agr ...

standards to content moderation issues", and her scholarship "has focused on issues like freedom of expression online, how foreign and domestic laws affect human rights standards, mass atrocities, global corporate responsibility standards and how the United States engages the world on human rights". She has proposed in several articles "that social media companies use universal human rights protections in their content moderation decisions". In May 2020, she was selected to serve as one of the 20 founding members of Facebook's Oversight Board, and in July 2020, Aswad was tapped to lead "comparative research on First Amendment and international human rights law's protection for speech online", funded by a grant to the University of Oklahoma College of Law and other institutions from the

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

. In July 2023, following a recommendation from the oversight board to deplatform Cambodian head of state

Hun Sen Samdech Hun Sen (; , Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN, UNGEGN: ; born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and former military officer who currently serves as the List of presidents of the Senate (Cambodia), president of the Senate. He previous ...

, the government of

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

listed Aswad as one of 22 people connected with Meta who were banned from entering the country.

References

External links

50 Making a Difference profile: Evelyn Aswad
''The Journal Record'' (October 11, 2019) {{DEFAULTSORT:Aswad, Evelyn Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni Georgetown University Law Center alumni United States Department of State officials University of Oklahoma faculty Human rights lawyers Facebook Oversight Board members Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)