Aruni Jayakody

Dr Aruni Jayakody is a Lecturer in the School of Law at RMIT University. Her teaching and research focus on public international law, international human rights law and transitional justice. Aruni holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Queensland, and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and PhD from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Her doctoral research combined international law and international relations to explore why states commit to and comply with international human rights law, with a particular focus on Sri Lanka’s and Nepal’s engagement with the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

  Before joining RMIT, Aruni worked as a legal researcher and advisor in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, supporting both state and non‑state organisations. From 2018 to 2021, she served as the Senior Legal Consultant to Sri Lanka’s Office on Missing Persons, where she advised on the rights of missing and disappeared persons and their families, investigations into missing and disappeared persons, and magisterial inquiries into human remains. She has also provided technical guidance on the design and operationalisation of national and international mechanisms on missing and disappeared persons. Her expertise on the search for the disappeared and coordination between humanitarian and criminal investigations has informed projects led by Swisspeace, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and OHCHR.