Dr. Roojin Habibi is the Research Director of the Global Health Law program and an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law (Common Law Section). Bridging the fields of international law, health law, and human rights, her research focuses on normative interpretation and change in global health law and governance. Her mixed methods and collaborative approach to research have led to the convening of several international conferences as well as publications across a range of venues, including journals of public health and medicine, law and social science reviews, commissioned reports, foundational law textbooks, and public news and media outlets.
Dr. Habibi’s research has a track record of global impact. In 2019, she was the lead author and rapporteur of the “Stellenbosch Consensus Statement on Legal National Responses to Public Health Risks,” providing the world’s first in-depth interpretation of the legal parameters governing the application of cross-border health measures under the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) 2005 International Health Regulations. This consensus statement, developed in collaboration with leading global health law scholars from around the world, served as a catalyst for the formation of the “Global Health Law Consortium,” a permanent research collaborative to which Dr. Habibi has been a member and has helped shape since 2020.
From 2021 to 2025, she provided her expert input on negotiation processes for a WHO pandemic instrument and amendments to the International Health Regulations. In 2022, she was appointed by the WHO Director-General to the high profile Review Committee regarding amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005), providing technical recommendations to WHO Member States on more than 300 proposed amendments to the Regulations. Alongside these roles, she has led on consensus-building initiatives at the frontiers of global health law and human rights, founding a partnership between the Global Health Law Consortium and the International Commission of Jurists that culminated in the 2023 Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Public Health Emergencies.
Dr. Habibi remains an active member of expert panels focused on global health governance, law, and pandemic preparedness. She is a member of the PAHO Strategic Advisory Group on Epidemic and Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness, as well as the Pax Sapiens Expert Panel on the Pandemic Compensation Initiative. She is the founding co-chair of the American Society of International Law’s Interest Group on Global Health Law and serves as a consultant to international organizations, national governments, and non-governmental organizations. She is also an Academic Member of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre. She has been a Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on health research and advocacy projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Open Society Foundations, the United Kingdom Research Institute, and the Brocher Foundation.
Dr. Habibi currently teaches in the areas of public and constitutional law and public and global health law. She holds a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Ottawa’s French Common Law program, a specialization in transnational law from the University of Geneva Faculty of Law, a Master’s of Science in Global Health from McMaster University, and a PhD in Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, where she was also a 2022 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholar. She is a Barrister and Solicitor in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario and is fluent in English, French, and Farsi.
For updates on Dr. Habibi’s research, teaching, media, and public engagements, visit www.roojinhabibi.org or follow her on Bluesky via @RoojinHabibi.Org.