Christie Edwards (LL.M. '10)

Christie Edwards is an internationally recognized and published legal expert with over twenty years of experience working on international humanitarian and human rights law, gender, international policy and advocacy, and international community development. Christie has led successful non-profit management and implementation programs, strategic planning, and grants management in senior leadership roles at national and international levels with prominent NGOs and international organizations. Since 2024, Christie has served as Head of the Country Cluster Delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, leading the strategic and operational coordination of delegations from 8 nations, encompassing internal and external partners of the Red Cross Red Crescent movement, governments, international organizations, civil society organizations, NGOs, private sector entities and other public and private sector stakeholders in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. In the 2 years prior, as Head of Policy and Programmes and Legal and Executive Director at Geneva Call, Christie was responsible for the development of global programs focused on changing the behavior of armed groups and de facto authorities towards a better respect of civilians. From 2017 to 2022, Christie served as the Deputy Head/Acting Head of the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, addressing issues of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, and hate crimes. Previously, as the Director of International Humanitarian Law at the American Red Cross, Christie led ARC’s legal education, public, and youth outreach efforts on IHL, directly reaching over 60,000 people per year with a social reach of over 24 million. Finally, Christie serves as the Co-Chair of the International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), co-founded ASIL's Women's Mentoring Program for over 500 participants worldwide, and co-chaired the 2021 ASIL Annual Meeting.

She received her JD from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, focused on international human rights law, and her LLM from AU Washington College of Law, with dual specializations in gender and international human rights. Christie has also worked at a torture treatment clinic for political refugees, served as counsel for asylum seekers, managed and implemented human rights, political advocacy, and civil society building programs in the MENA region following the Arab Spring, and taught courses on International Human Rights, Gender and Conflict, and Women, Rights, & Gender Equality as an Adjunct Professor at TJSL and GWU Elliott School of International Affairs.

Christie has published law review articles on forced contraception as a form of torture, the cultural context of sex trafficking in China, the use of gender budget analysis to achieve educational parity for women and girls, legal advocacy strategies for women's rights in Morocco, and ISIL’s use of forced contraception as a form of torture. She also speaks regularly for local and international conferences on international human rights and humanitarian law issues.