Mary O'Callaghan - IWRAW-AP

Mary O’Callaghan is looking forward to interning with IWRAW-AP this sumMary O'Callaghan Photomer. She will primarily be based in Kuala Lumpur and also has the opportunity to accompany the organisation to the 75th CEDAW Session in Geneva.

Mary has always been passionate about human rights. This passion led her to study a Bachelor of International Studies, specialising in International Development and International Human Rights Law. Moreover, after spending a semester abroad in the City of Peace and Justice, she was inspired to take on the Juris Doctor at Monash.

In 2018, she worked for an NGO that improves access to education for young girls and boys in remote hill tribe villages in Northern Thailand. She loved her role as a monitoring and evaluation intern and was particularly interested in analysing sex-disaggregated data so that she could provide gender-sensitive recommendations for the organisation’s programs.

Volunteering as a paralegal at Refugee Legal and providing program support for the Detention and Advocacy department at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre further immersed her in the human rights field, reaffirming her desire to spend her life working in this sector. In particular, she has developed a strong interest in the intersectionality between women’s rights and the rights of refugees.

Mary is currently interning at Waller Legal, a firm that works exclusively to provide legal representation to those who have suffered sexual abuse. She enjoys the work she is doing and cannot wait to employ her new knowledge and skills at IWRAW.

Mary is excited to be assisting IWRAW in hosting a global feminist convening, as well as preparing for the strategic mapping meeting on the macroeconomic policy impact on women's rights with their partner the Bretton Woods Programme. She also cannot wait to take part in the CEDAW programme and is excited to use her French language skills. She ultimately hopes to gain a greater understanding of feminist narratives in the Asia Pacific and seeks to develop new skills in international rights advocacy.