Biography

Pearl Eliadis is an award-winning lawyer, educator, and author who has successfully led complex, global human rights and governance projects for multilateral agencies, including the UN, in China, Ethiopia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan and Timor Leste.

Between 2000-2003, Pearl led several UN missions to Rwanda as part of the UN's work to establish and strengthen the country's national institutions after the genocide. Before that, she was Senior Director at the Policy Research Initiative (Privy Council Office) in Ottawa and, previously, Director of Policy and Education at the Ontario Human Rights Commission (1995-2001). She currently serves as adjunct professor at McGill’s Faculty of Law and is cross-appointed at the Max Bell School of Public Policy.

She has written on human rights, public policy, and public policy evaluation with a social justice focus. Edited books include Designing Government: From Instruments to Governance (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005) and Evaluation: Seeking Truth of Power? (Transaction Publishers 2011). The 2014 monograph, Speaking Out on Human Rights: Debating Canada’s Human Rights System (2014, MQUP) won the Huguenot Society of Canada Award.

Research interests include enabling national human rights institutions, transitional justice, enable civil society, democracy and dissent, women’s rights and domestic violence, and evaluation and capacity assessment in the justice and human rights sectors.

Pearl is deeply engaged with civil society organizations, and has served in leadership roles with human rights and social justice organizations. She is a Senior Fellow of the Raoul Wallenberg Human Rights Centre, a full member of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Canada 125 Commemorative Medal for her community work. She was named a Human Rights Change Maker in 2017 by Equitas and has been appointed three times as President of the Quebec Bar Association’s specialized human rights committee and expert group.

Pearl holds a B.Sc. from McGill University, as well as a B.C.L. and an LL.B. from the Faculty of Law. She has a graduate degree B.C.L. (Oxon)) from the University of Oxford.