Sarah Kerremans is a Phd researcher at the Human Rights Centre since November 2021. Before starting her doctoral research, she lived and worked over twelve years in Latin America.
Under the supervision of prof. Tine Destrooper she will analyze the relevance of a new human rights duty-bearer concept from a human rights users’ perspective. She explores the case of half a century of human rights violations and oil violence in Peru’s historical oil circuit and in particular of indigenous resistance in this part of the Amazon. Her research forms part of the broader inter-institutional research project ‘Future-Proofing Human Rights: developing thicker forms of accountability´.
Sarah Kerremans can build upon an extensive lived experience regarding human rights in practice: after having worked as a legal advisor for asylum seekers and migrants in Belgium, she engaged for almost a decade with grassroots environmental organizations and indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon. She then worked at the Belgian Embassy in Lima where she was involved in the follow up and monitoring of development cooperation themes and human rights´ crises in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Sarah Kerremans studied law at the KU Leuven and completed her law degree with a master in European law at the Institut d’ études européennes (ULB). She completed her professional experience in migration law with a Summerschool on European asylum and migration law (Brussels-Odysseus Network) and in Peru she strengthened her abilities in the domains of indigenous rights, extractivism, ecoterritorial conflict and gender related topics. She has a strong interest in intercultural justice and translation and in (a constant dialogue with) the Global South´s knowledges.
University Degrees
• Master European Law, Institut d’études européennes, ULB, Belgium, 2005.
• Law Degree, KU Leuven, Belgium, 2004.
Additional (inter)national (human rights) courses taken
• Specialization in intercultural justice – Diploma for judges and prosecutors – Legal Court of Loreto- UCP- Legal Defense Institute (IDL), Peru, 2013
• Summer school European Asylum and Migration Law, Odysseus Network, ULB, Belgium, 2008
Co-founder and Board Member of the Chaikuni Institute (Peruvian Amazon)
