Our People

Christopher Alexander

Christopher completed his LLB(Hons)/BA at Monash University. Since undertaking the Eleos Anti-Death Penalty Clinic as a student, he has been actively involved in the abolitionist movement, collaborating with local and international partners on the development of advocacy tools. He has also contributed legal assistance in death row matters.

Most recently, Christopher co-authored ‘State-Sanctioned Killing of Sexual Minorities: Looking Beyond the Death Penalty’ (February 2021), a joint report between Eleos Justice and Capital Punishment Justice Project. Beyond Eleos Justice, Christopher has also provided research assistance to the Faculty of Law, Monash University, and the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University.

Jean Allain

Professor Jean Allain research is broadly in the area of international law, with a focus on international human rights and a developed expertise, globally, on legal issues of human exploitation including forced labour and Slavery.

Sally Andersen

She has taught in the Law Faculty at Monash University for over 10 years in criminal law, lawyers’ ethics, contract law, foundations of law and torts. She has also been involved in research in consumer law and has also been involved in various programs at Monash, including the Law for Non-Lawyers - Introduction to Law online course. Sally is very passionate about teaching and providing students with the best learning outcomes.

In 2019 Sally was excited to be invited to join Eleos Justices’ Anti-Death Penalty Clinic at Monash Law. She loves being involved in Clinic and supporting the important work being done in the fight against the death penalty. She has brought her passion for teaching into the clinical environment and has been involved in guiding and supervising students in developing and providing casework, research and advocacy briefs for the Clinics’ partners’ across the Asia-Pacific region.

Natalia Antolak-Saper

Dr. Natalia Antolak-Saper is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Monash University.

Her research interests are criminal law and procedure, sentencing and the death penalty. Her death penalty research focusses on fair trial guarantees, drug law reform and deterrence. Her research is notable for being comparative and bringing a socio-legal perspective. Most recently, she co-authored a report for Harm Reduction International entitled 'Drug Offences and the Death Penalty: Fair Trial Rights and Ramifications'.

Her current research agenda includes deterrence and the death penalty, and alternatives to imprisonment for drug offenders.

Richard Bassed

Richard is the Deputy Director and Head of Academic Programs at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne, Australia. Richard is also Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Monash University. He has a bachelor’s degree in dental surgery from the University of Sydney, a Graduate Diploma in Forensic Odontology from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from the Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University. Richard is a Fellow of the Faculty of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology within the RCPA, and is the course coordinator for the Monash University Masters of Forensic Medicine.

Richard’s research interests include; forensic aspects of post-mortem CT interpretation, personal identification using advanced imaging techniques, improving the evidence base in Forensic Medicine and Science – especially in relation to intentionally inflicted trauma, evidential aspects of bite-mark analysis, and the application of machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to the analysis of forensic medical and scientific evidence.

Ryan Beckmand

Ryan is in the extended research phase of his Masters of Law and International Development (LLM) at Monash University, and holds an active research interest in international law and extrajudicial killings.

Through his involvement with Eleos Justice, Ryan has provided research-based support to inform the preliminary vision statement of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. He has also contributed research support in death row cases.

Lennon Chang

Dr Lennon Yao-Chung Chang is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University. He is the Vice Chairman of the Asia Pacific Association of Technology and Society which he co-founded in 2012. He is also the founder of Cyberbaykin: Myanmar Cyber Security Awareness campaign.

Dr Chang is interested in researching crime and governance of cyberspace, technology facilitated justice, restorative justice and disinformation. His current research focuses on internet vigilantism in Asia, that is, how technology has been used by netizens to realise “justice”. He is also working with governments and NGOs in ASEAN countries on research and training programs to build cyber security capacity and cyber security awareness.

Dobby Chew

Dobby completed his LLM in Law at Birmingham City University and currently serves as the Executive Coordinator for the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN). He has been actively involved in the abolitionist movement, campaigns and advocacy in Malaysia. Apart from his work on the death penalty in Malaysia, Dobby is also a co-founder of Security Matters, an NGO established in 2020 to provide physical and digital support for human rights defenders, as well as a committee member of Liga Rakyat Demoratik.

Dobby’s research interest is on the intersection of culture and human rights. He is currently pursuing a PhD on the topic of cross-border cultural influences on the death penalty among Mandarin-speaking communities.

Stephen Cordner

Stephen works in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University as a Professor.

Paula Gerber

Paula Gerber is a Professor at Monash University Law School and a leading expert on protecting and promoting the rights of LGBTI persons. She has written numerous journal articles and book chapters on issues relating to persons of diverse genders and sexualities, including, ‘Living a Life of Crime: The Ongoing Criminalisation of Homosexuality within the Commonwealth’ (2014) 39(2) Alternative Law Journal 78 and ‘Protecting the rights of LGBTIQ people around the world: Beyond marriage equality and the decriminalisation of homosexuality’ (2021) Alternative Law Journal. Most recently she edited the 3-volume research series entitled 'Worldwide Perspectives on Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals', published in January 2021.

Professor Gerber is a former member of the Board of the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and is the immediate Past President, and current Director of Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation working to protect the human rights of LGBTI persons in the Asia-Pacific region.

Nadir Hosen

Nadir Hosen is an academic staff at the Faculty of Law, Monash University, who has conducted research on Islamic law and Indonesian law. Recently, he has involved helping the case of Sakak bin Jamak, who was in death row in Indonesia, along with the Indonesian Legal Aid and Monash Anti Death Penalty Clinic.

Thaatchaayini Kananatu

Thaatchaayini Kananatu is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the Business Law and Taxation Department, School of Business, Monash University Malaysia. She holds an LLB Law (Hons.) (Cardiff), LLM/Masters in International Law (Oxford Brookes), and a PhD (Monash) in socio-legal studies. Her research interests include law, gender and race; law and social movements; as well as ethics, human rights and social justice. She is the author of Minorities,Rights and the Law in Malaysia (2020, Routledge) and is co-editor of Vulnerable Groups in Malaysia (2020, De Gruyter) with Sharon G. M. Koh. She is also a British High Commissioner’s Chevening Scholar. Her past project includes a research collaboration with the Monash Anti-Death Penalty Clinic and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) entitled 'Drug offences and the Death Penalty in Malaysia: Fair Trial Rights and Ramifications' (2019). She is currently researching vulnerable persons in the criminal justice system.

Souha Korbatieh

Souha Korbatieh is a first year PhD student at Monash researching capital punishment in modern Muslim states. She is seeking to compare Muslim states that impose capital punishment and identify the traditional basis of punishment to consider options for reassessment and limitation within the Islamic legal framework.

Samira Lindsey

Samira completed her LLB (Hons), BA (International Relations) and DipLang (Indonesian) at Monash University. Since 2018, Samira has provided research assistance to academics at Monash University’s Faculty Law and Swinburne’s Faculty of Business Law. She is currently working as a barrister’s assistant at the Victorian Bar and as a litigation paralegal in a boutique Melbourne firm.

In 2019, Samira completed an in-house placement with the Monash Anti-Death Penalty Clinic under the supervision of Sara Kowal. She collaborated with Indonesian legal aid lawyers and Australian practitioners on casework and reform advocacy. In 2020, Samira co- authored a publication with Sara Kowal, Dr Natalia Antolak-Saper, Chow-Ying Ngeow and Dr Thaatchaayini Kananatu entitled 'Drug Offences and the Death Penalty in Malaysia: Fair Trial Rights and Ramifications' published by Monash University. Samira is fortunate to have assisted Julian McMahon AC SC on death-row matters. In 2020, she is looking forward to assisting Eleos Justice on a new project examining the elderly on death row and continues to collaborate with Monash University and other NGOs on anti-death penalty initiatives.

Bebe Loff

Associate Professor Bebe Loff is Director of the Michael Kirby Centre for Public Health and Human Rights at Monash University.

Prior to joining Monash University she was responsible for the legislative programmes of Ministers of Health in Victoria. She has worked in various capacities for a number of United Nations agencies including the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNAIDS. She has been a member of several ethical review committees including that of the World Health Organization, the Australian Health Ethics Committee (a principal committee of the NHMRC). In addition, she was for a time, an Australian correspondent for The Lancet and a regular human rights commentator.

Jennifer Paneth

Jia Vern Tham

Jia Vern completed her BA (Honours) at Monash University Malaysia, and is now a researcher at The Centre, a Malaysian think tank. Her research interests include electoral autocracies, sentencing and the death penalty, as well as intergroup relations. In 2020, she led a Peninsular-wide research project on how Malaysians perceive the death penalty, and uncovered nuances in public opinion towards capital punishment.

Jia Vern is also a first year PhD student at Monash University Malaysia looking into the perceived deterrent effect of the death penalty on drug offences in the country. She is seeking to understand offenders’ motivations and how the risk of capital punishment affects their behaviour, with hopes of exploring alternative sentencing for drug offences in Malaysia.

Scott Walker

Scott is a final year LLB(Hons) student at Monash University. He is currently completing his Honours thesis which critically analyses the international human rights law compatibility of compulsory mental health treatment. Scott currently works as a paralegal in health law assisting in litigated, regulatory, and coronial matters at a global law firm.

In 2021, Scott completed an in-house placement with the Eleos Anti-Death Penalty Clinic. Scott has since been involved in several Eleos Justice projects, most recently providing research assistance to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in collaboration with the Monash Department of Forensic Medicine. Moving forward, he is interested in pursuing research at the intersection of human rights, health and disability law as well as further work on the death penalty as torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.