Tara J. Melish teaches, writes and practices in the areas of human rights and public international law. Active in advocacy and litigation initiatives before United Nations and Inter-American human rights bodies, she has worked as associate social affairs officer in the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, as United Nations representative of Disability Rights International in the drafting negotiations of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as staff attorney at the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), researcher to the South African Land Claims Court and Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, and legal adviser or consultant to a range of national and international human rights organizations.