Mazen El-Khansa
Leader at the Observatory on Human Rights at the UN
Originally from Montreal, Mazen is entering his third year of the Civil Law (LL.L.) program at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law.
For Mazen, international law and human rights were not first discovered in a classroom. Trilingual in French, English, and Arabic, and raised between languages that each carry their own understanding of the world, he developed an early awareness of the gap between rights as they are proclaimed and rights as they are experienced. As the eldest of five siblings, he also learned that responsibility toward others is a practice before it becomes a principle. This conviction continues to shape his commitment to ensuring that human rights are more than abstract promises.
His academic and professional experiences reflect this vision. As a law student at the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), Mazen worked on a constitutional challenge based on sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter, translating lived experiences of discrimination into legal advocacy. As a research assistant to Professor Jennifer Quaid, he contributed to research on the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and corporate criminal liability, examining how international legal norms influence the conduct of powerful actors. His internship with the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, as well as his experience in two federal ministerial offices—including the Office of the Minister of National Revenue—provided him with firsthand insight into the institutions that make the law effective in practice.
This foundation has fostered a strong international outlook. As Vice-President External Affairs of the International Law Students’ Society, Mazen will represent the Civil Law Section at the 2027 Jean-Pictet Competition in International Humanitarian Law. He has also distinguished himself in advocacy and public speaking competitions, earning second place in the Grey Casgrain Moot Competition, third place in the Woods Oratory Competition, and the Best Speaker Award at the Lavery Debate Competition. Earlier in his academic journey, he represented Collège André-Grasset at the National Model United Nations in New York, where his delegation received both Honorable Delegation and Distinguished Delegation distinctions.
At the Observatory, Mazen hopes to deepen his work on the Faith4Rights framework and international criminal law, two areas connected by a shared belief that global dialogue can bring diverse perspectives and societies together in pursuit of a common cause. More broadly, he is driven by the intersection of international relations and international law, and by the ways in which legal norms and diplomatic practice can work together to advance human rights.
