Our People

Mai is the inaugural director of Eleos Justice and her academic focus is on the death penalty. She is a social scientist by training and has led and worked on projects on the death penalty in Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. Her monograph The Death Penalty in Japan: Will the Public Tolerate Abolition? (Springer, 2014), and her documentary film which captured a social experiment exploring what the death penalty meant to ordinary Japanese citizens, influenced the decision by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations to become an abolitionist organisation in 2016.

Mai's interest in the death penalty is not limited to scholarly understanding of punishment and the criminal justice system. After completing a European Commission funded project, Mai has created and currently co-runs an NGO CrimeInfo which promotes the abolition of the death penalty in Japan.

Mai has a PhD from King's College London. She relocated to Australia in February 2019 and joined the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University. Prior to joining the ANU, she worked at the School of Law, University of Reading; the Centre for Criminology, the University of Oxford; and at the Institute for Criminal Policy Research (UK).

Sara Kowal

Manager - Partnerships & Clinic

Sara is Manager of Partnerships and Clinic for Eleos Justice, as well as Vice-President of the Capital Punishment Justice Project.She has practised exclusively in criminal law since 2003 and has extensive experience in defending complex prosecutions.

In 2018, Sara was appointed to establish the Anti-Death Penalty Clinic at Monash, the first stage of Eleos Justice. The Clinic has been extremely popular with students and has been enthusiastically embraced by our partners.

In November 2019, Sara joined the Executive of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN). She also sits on three country-specific working groups of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Matthew Goldberg

Senior Fellow

Matthew Goldberg is a barrister and a senior fellow at Monash Law. He is responsible for leading Eleos Justice's UN Advocacy Project.

In 2019, Matthew was one of Australia’s civil society representatives to the UN Human Rights Council where he worked alongside Australia’s Permanent Mission to the UN in order to secure the Council's adoption of the Resolution on the Question of the Death Penalty.

Matthew is a former president of Reprieve Australia (now the Capital Punishment Justice Project) and he was responsible for expanding the organisation's work to Asia whilst maintaining legacy projects in the US. Mathew has extensive experience working with legal teams in defence of those on death row.

He was a co-founder of the Mercy Campaign, an online movement calling for clemency in death penalty proceedings within Indonesia. More than 250,000 people signed the campaign's petition and Australia's federal parliament was united in its support.

Matthew continues to serve as a board member of the Capital Punishment Justice Project and he is also a delegate to the Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Christopher Alexander

Research Assistant

Christopher is a research assistant at Eleos Justice. He holds an LLB(Hons)/BA from Monash University, and works across both law and the social sciences. Most recently, Christopher co-authored two major Eleos Justice reports: ‘State-Sanctioned Killing of Sexual Minorities: Looking Beyond the Death Penalty’ (February 2021) and ‘Killing in the Name of God: State-Sanctioned Violations of Religious Freedom’ (October 2021).

Christopher’s commitment to the abolitionist movement extends beyond research: he contributes legal assistance in death row matters, and is involved in the development of anti-death penalty advocacy tools. Christopher also provides research assistance to the Faculty of Law, Monash University, primarily in the fields of criminal law, international law, and human rights, and has previously worked as a research assistant at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University.

Our Fellows

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

Sally Andersen completed her law degree in Western Australia and has practised in a variety of areas, including criminal and commercial law.

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.

Our Affiliates & Visitors

Patrick Emerton

Patrick Emerton researches on a range of topics in constitutional law and theory; legal, social and political philosophy; and the theoretical foundations of international and human right law. His work on just war theory has been published in Philosophy and Public Affairs and in leading collections. That work combines an individualistic morality of self-defence with a rich theory of political institutions to defend a relatively traditional account of the morality of warfare - that is, a high threshold for going to war, together with a defence of the moral equality of soldiers when it comes to killing and the liability to be killed.

Ffion Gorman

Ffion completed her LLB(Hons)/BA at Monash University, and has a background in criminology and human rights. She is currently working at a family violence community legal centre providing culturally safe, sensitive, and accessible services to indigenous women.

At Eleos Justice, Ffion provides research assistance to Matthew Goldberg (Senior Fellow). Her work is primarily policy-based, informing the development of advocacy tools and strategies as part of Eleos Justice’s UN Advocacy Project. She is currently investigating the death penalty as a form of torture.

James McLaren

James is a final year LLB(Hons)/BCom student at Monash University. Since completing the Eleos Anti-Death Penalty Clinic in 2020, James has assisted Eleos Justice by conducting research, drafting evidence-based documents, and assisting in the development of strategic advocacy.

Daniel Pascoe

Daniel joined the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong in 2014 as an Assistant Professor, being promoted to Associate Professor in 2020.

Daniel’s research focuses on criminal law and punishment in comparative perspective, also extending to Southeast Asian law, Islamic Law, transitional justice and legal pedagogy. His research on the death penalty has appeared in various periodicals including the Asian Journal of Law and Society, The International Journal of Human Rights, The Australian Journal of Asian Law and the International and Comparative Law Quarterly.

Daniel's written submission and oral testimony contributed to the Australian Parliament's 2016 report 'A World Without the Death Penalty'. His first monograph, entitled: Last Chance for Life: Clemency in Southeast Asian Death Penalty Cases was published by Oxford University Press in 2019. Daniel was a Visitng Scholar at Eleos Justice between March and August 2021.

Ambika Satkunanathan

Ambika Satkunanathan is an Open Society Fellow (2020-2022). From 2015 to 2020, she was a Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, where she conceptualised and led the first ever national study of prisons. Prior to that, for eight years, she functioned as the Legal Consultant to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sri Lanka. Her research, advocacy and activism have focused on transitional justice, custodial violence, penal policy, militarization, gender and Tamil nationalism.

Her report 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 Oxford Handbook of Gender & Conflict, the Routledge Handbook on Human Rights in South Asia, and Contemporary South Asia.

Ambika is a member of the Expert Panel of the Trial Watch Project of the Clooney Foundation and a member of the Network of Experts of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. Ambika holds a Master of Laws (Human Rights) degree from the University of Nottingham, where she was a Chevening Scholar, and has earned bachelor’s degrees (LL.B / B.A) from Monash University, Australia.

Our Partner: Capital Punishment Justice Project

Simone Abel

Simone Abel is CPJP's Chief Executive Officer. She joined CPJP in 2020, having previously been a Director of Reprieve UK for seven years. In this time, Simone helped professionalise and grow Reprieve as its Director of Strategy and Policy, its Director of Operations, and then its Director of Legal and Governance. Her focus has been on extreme rights abuses at the hands of powerful governments, including the death penalty.

Before this, Simone was the Executive Director of René Cassin, a London-based human rights organisation. She subsequently served as a Director on René Cassin’s Board. Simone has also worked in the General Counsel team at a global human rights organisation's New York office, and as a commercial lawyer in the US and in the Sydney office of law firm Mallesons. Simone has a Masters of Laws (with a focus on international law and human rights) from the University of NSW, and has published articles on human rights law issues, including an award-winning one in 2012 on indirect discrimination. She is a NSW licensed solicitor and has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from the University of NSW. Simone enjoys working with CPJP's partners in the region, and its strong local network, including its volunteers.

Stephen Keim SC

Stephen Keim is Chair of CPJP. Stephen is a barrister working out of chambers in Brisbane and Hobart. From his childhood growing up with nine siblings and parents who cared about the less fortunate, Stephen has always had an abomination for the death penalty and a love of progressive causes. Stephen is patron of two Brisbane anti-death penalty organisations, Australians Against Capital Punishment and the Julian Wagner Memorial Fund.

Julian McMahon

Julian McMahon AC SC is a barrister in Melbourne working in criminal law. He was President of Capital Punishment Justice Project from 2015 to 2020. In 2002, Julian was briefed on the matter of Van Tuong Nguyen, a young Australian arrested in Singapore carrying heroin from Vietnam to Australia. Van was executed in 2005. Since that case, in addition to being a local barrister, Julian has been working on death penalty cases and related issues. He has had death row clients in numerous countries, some executed, some not. He was part of the team who defended Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, executed in Indonesia on the 29th of April 2015.

In 2017, Julian was made a Companion of the Order of Australia. In 2016, he was awarded the Law Council of Australia’s President’s medal.

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