Short Biography
Dr Shannon Maree Torrens is an international and human rights lawyer from Sydney, Australia. She is admitted as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Her PhD/doctoral thesis, which she completed at the University of Sydney Law School focused on international criminal law and modern international criminal courts and tribunals. She has a BA (Media and Communications, Government and English) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Honours) also from the University of Sydney, with a specialisation in public international law, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and legal theory. Shannon has worked in international criminal law at the international criminal tribunals and courts for Rwanda (ICTR), the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Sierra Leone (SCSL) and Cambodia (ECCC). In addition, she has served as a legal advisor for the Marshall Islands Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York in the UN General Assembly Sixth Committee (Legal), including working on the country's engagement with the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She has also worked as an Editorial Advisor for the Cambodia Law and Policy Journal. Shannon has worked in the area of human rights at Redfern Legal Centre in Sydney and has advised the Wik indigenous community in Cape York, Australia. In addition, she has worked with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Australian Embassies to Italy and the Holy See (the Vatican). Shannon has lectured, published and presented papers in the areas of international criminal law and human rights internationally.
