Kate Barth is a Senior Legal Advisor with ICNL’s Global Programs Team. She manages several of ICNL’s multiregional programs to improve the law governing civil society, including  ICNL’s work on the PROTECT (Protecting Rights, Openness and Transparency, Enhancing Civic Transformation) project in Kenya, Malawi and Myanmar, where she works to counter shrinking civic space through advocacy, capacity-building and research support to civil society. Her expertise and research focus on protection and due process mechanisms at international human rights bodies. Kate has published on a wide range of topics, from the best tactics for international human rights advocacy to legal provisions inhibiting development in multilateral loan instruments.

Prior to joining ICNL, Kate served as the Legal Director for Freedom Now. In this role, she represented prisoners of conscience before international human rights tribunals and conducted political and public relations advocacy campaigns to press governments for the release of Freedom Now’s clients. Previously, Kate was a Legal Officer with Lawyers Collective where she worked on the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health and managed the Global Health and Human Rights Database (a free online database of domestic, regional and international law relating to health and human rights). Kate also worked for several years as a Project Finance associate with Allen & Overy LLP. Kate received her J.D. magna cum laude and with Order of the Coif honors from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she served as a Senior Editor on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and was named a Sonnenschein Scholar. Kate also holds an M.Sc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Comparative Literature magna cum laude and with Phi Beta Kappa honors from Brown University. She is a member of the New York State Bar.