Stephanie T. Kleine-Ahlbrandt

Stephanie T. Kleine-Ahlbrandt is an expert in human rights and rule of law and specializes in China and sub-Saharan Africa. Currently an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, she is researching the human rights implications of China’s deepening engagement with the African continent. She is on sabbatical from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, where she is responsible for human rights and technical cooperation on administration of justice with the government of the People’s Republic of China.

Previously, Ms. Kleine-Ahlbrandt investigated human rights violations and genocide for the United Nations in Rwanda (1994–95) and monitored and reported on the human rights situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (1996). She has also worked with the special adviser on national human rights institutions to the UN high commissioner for human rights, several UN special rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights, and the legal affairs directorate of the Council of Europe. Ms. Kleine-Ahlbrandt has lectured and published widely on international human rights mechanisms, education, women’s issues, and human rights–based approaches to development and complex humanitarian emergencies. She received a master’s degree from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva, a certificate of political science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Université Robert Schuman, in Strasbourg, and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University.