The Expert is a human rights researcher currently working as a Research Fellow at the University of Hull and as a consultant for human rights organizations.
They have wide-ranging knowledge of historical and ongoing human rights violations globally, involving both civil & political and economic, social & cultural rights.
The Expert’s current academic specialism focuses on the role of climate change and natural disasters in undermining the human rights of refugees and migrants.
The Expert is a human rights researcher currently working as a Research Fellow at the University of Hull and as a consultant for human rights organizations.
Having 18 years’ experience with the human rights organization Amnesty International, including as Middle East Editor, the Expert has wide-ranging knowledge of historical and ongoing human rights violations globally.
The Expert’s current academic specialism focuses on the role of climate change and natural disasters in undermining the human rights of refugees and migrants. They are skilled at linking environmental factors to human rights violations and identifying perpetrators for such violations, forming arguments that fit within the 1951 Refugee Convention definition of persecution. They have conducted extensive research into environmental push-factors for migration in Vietnam and the Caribbean and have contributed to studies on climate-related mobility in numerous other countries across all regions.
The Expert has co-written and edited numerous publications on human rights violations including torture and other ill-treatment; international fair trial law; refugee law; impunity for historical injustices; freedom of expression, association and assembly; children’s rights; modern slavery and human trafficking; human rights defenders and Indigenous People’s rights.
The Expert holds a PhD in Climate-Related Migration and an MA in Human Rights from UK-based universities.
Fleury, S., O’Connell, C., Witt, F. & Machie, A. (2021) “Towards a holistic approach to contemporary slavery and climate change”, Anti-Slavery International (Report) https://www.antislavery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ASI_ConferenceReport_Final.pdf
Fleury, S. (2022) ‘Written evidence submission by Saphia Fleury for the Parliamentary Inquiry on Defence and Climate Change’, UK Parliament (Written evidence), https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/108725/pdf/
Fleury, S. (2022) ‘Written evidence by Saphia Fleury (ASU0015) to the Human Rights Joint Committee inquiry on Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in the UK’, UK Parliament (Written evidence), https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/114229/html/
Fleury, S. 2023, "Applying the ‘useable past’ to the protection of climate migrants: child displacement from Vietnam and Montserrat" (PhD thesis), https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4311824
Fleury, S. 2023, "Policy briefing: Protecting environmental migrants through human rights-based relocation schemes" (Policy briefing), https://www.hull.ac.uk/research/institutes/wilberforce/docs/policy-briefing-climate-migration-relocation-saphia-fleury.pdf (cited in an amicus curiae brief to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights)
Fleury S. 2024, "Political or environmental refugees? Re-examining the flight of the Vietnamese boat people", SciPost (Journal article), https://www.scipost.org/MigPol.4.1.001
Fleury, S. (2024) ‘Written evidence to the Public Accounts Committee submitted by Dr Saphia Fleury to the Inquiry on Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership’, UK Parliament (Written evidence), https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/129338/pdf/