Lisa Davis is the Senior Associate Dean of Clinical Programs, Professor of Law, and Co-Director of the Human Rights & Gender Justice Clinic (HRGJ) at CUNY School of Law. They also serve as Special Adviser on Gender and Other Discriminatory Crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and previously held the role of Special Adviser on Gender Persecution. In that capacity, they drafted the ICC Office of the Prosecutor’s first-ever policy on the crime of gender persecution.
An internationally recognized expert on gender-based crimes and human rights in conflict and crisis settings, Davis has worked extensively on women’s and LGBTQI+ rights. Their legal and advocacy work has been cited by the UN Security Council, UN General Assembly, the Supreme Court of India, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the International Law Commission, Human Rights Watch, and others. Davis has also testified before the U.S. Congress, the European and U.K. Parliaments, the UN Security Council, and various international and regional human rights bodies. Their commentary has appeared in major media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, and Reuters.
As a Special Advisor to the International Criminal Court, Prof. Davis helped shape the landmark gender persecution charges in the Afghanistan arrest warrants—the first in history to recognize LGBTQI+ victims of persecution as a crime against humanity. Davis worked closely on this case, including meeting with queer Afghan survivors who endured horrific Taliban violence. By issuing these warrants, the ICC became the international tribunal to determine it is a crime against humanity to persecute people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Davis has also worked closely with Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, or JEP), the country’s transitional justice tribunal. This collaboration contributed to the JEP’s 2023 landmark Macro-Case 02 decision, in which the tribunal charged armed actors with crimes against humanity for persecution based on gender, race, and ethnicity—recognizing the ways these forms of persecution often intersect. The decision also cites Davis’s article Dusting Off the Law Books as part of its legal analysi
Prof. Davis’ litigation and advocacy have influenced landmark jurisprudence across the globe. In Karen Atala and Daughters v. Chile, they co-authored the sole amicus curiae brief arguing that sexual orientation and gender identity are protected classes under international law—leading to a groundbreaking 2012 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights prohibiting discrimination on those grounds.
Davis also served as lead counsel in a case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of displaced Haitian women and girls subjected to sexual violence in post-earthquake camps. The case resulted in the Commission’s first-ever precautionary measures recognizing state responsibility to prevent third-party gender-based violence.
In 2022, Davis served on the Accountability Working Group for the W7, the official gender engagement group for the G7 process. In 2016, they delivered the civil society statement at the UN Security Council’s open debate on conflict-related sexual violence.
A member of the JRR–UN Women SGBV Justice Experts Roster, Davis has advised on several international accountability mechanisms for atrocity crimes. Their scholarship includes the widely cited article, Dusting Off the Law Books: Recognizing Gender Persecution in Conflicts and Atrocities, which has influenced both international legal judgments and academic discourse.
Davis is a graduate of CUNY School of Law and former Editor-in-Chief of the CUNY Law Review. In 2023, they co-founded the Institute on Gender, Law and Transformative Peace in 2023.
