London, UK & Damascus, Syria

Sumaya Daghestani will spend her fellowship year at the Syrian Legal Development Programme’s Human Rights and Business Unit, contributing to workstreams in economic justice, corporate accountability, capacity-building on business and human rights, and responsible reconstruction during Syria’s transitional moment.

At HLS, Sumaya focused on international law through coursework, clinics, and extracurriculars. Courses including Public International Law, International Criminal Law, Law and Inequality, and Transitional Justice allowed her to deepen her expertise in areas directly relevant to her fellowship. She served as a Clinical Student with the Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic and the International Human Rights Clinic, as well as completing two independent clinical terms. She also co-led an HLS Advocates for Human Rights project on amnesties in Syria’s transitional justice framework.

Sumaya’s involvement on campus included serving as Co-President of the Middle East and North African Law Student Association, member of the Muslim Law Student Association, member of the Board of Student Advisors, and Article Editor for the Harvard Human Rights Journal. During law school, she interned at the Corporate Accountability Lab, the Center for Justice and Accountability, and the Syrian Legal Development Programme.

Prior to law school, Sumaya was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at AlHussein Technical University in Amman, Jordan. She simultaneously interned at the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, where she tracked human rights developments in Syria and Tunisia and supported the Center’s UN engagements. Earlier, she worked as a Freelance Researcher for the UN Office of the Syrian National Coalition.

She received her B.A. with high honors in Plan II Honors and International Relations and Global Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Sumaya grew up in McAllen, Texas in a Syrian-American family dedicated to working towards a more just and prosperous Syria.