Ambika Satkunanathan, Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust (Sri Lanka)

Ambika Satkunanathan is a human rights advocate based in Sri Lanka. For more than twenty years she has worked with persons and communities impacted by human rights violations, especially in the conflict-affected North and East, and assisted them with accessing remedies. From Oct 2015 to March 2020, she was a Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, where she led the first ever national study of prisons. Prior to that  for 8 years she was a Legal Advisor to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

She is a board member of the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Torture, and a member of the Expert Panel of the Trial Watch Project of the Clooney Foundation and of the Network of Experts of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. 

Her research, advocacy and activism have focused on counter-terrorism law and policy, drug control and rehabilitation, transitional justice, custodial violence, penal policy, militarization and gender. Her research on drug control, detention and rehabilitation in Sri Lanka, the first such study, was published in August 2021 by Harm Reduction International. Her publications include contributions to the International Journal of Transitional Justice, the Oxford Handbook of Gender & Conflict, the Routledge Handbook on Human Rights in South Asia, Feminist Studies and Contemporary South Asia. 

She was an Open Society Fellow from 2020-2022. She has a B.A. and LL.B from Monash University and a LL.M in Human Rights from the University of Nottingham, where she was a Chevening Scholar. 

As Chairperson of the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, an indigenous grantmaking organization she has actively raised funds for the organization, which supports human rights, good governance and peace-building work undertaken by community organizations. As part of this role, she has contributed to the global discourse on philanthropy through both engagement with civil society networks and discussions, such as actively engaging in the BOND Conference, including as one of the plenary speakers in 2018, as well as analysis and writing on the issue. Her contributions include articles to the Civicus State of Civil Society Report as well as publications of the Global Fund for Community Foundations, Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace, and Alliance Magazine.

Ambika is a founder board member, and was Vice Chair of the Urgent Action Fund Asia Pacific until April 2023.