Roojin Habibi

Roojin Habibi (she/her) is an Iranian-Canadian scholar, international consultant and lawyer specialized in global health and human rights law. Her work is guided by the premise that the interplay of laws, norms and power relations from global to grassroots levels is what ultimately shapes health equity and the realization of health as a human right.

As Research Fellow at the Global Strategy Lab, Fellow of the Canadian International Council, and doctoral candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School (York University), Roojin bridges law, human rights, and global health, and interweaves methods from the health, social, and juridical sciences. She holds a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Doctoral Award, has published in a range of peer-reviewed medical and public health journals, scholarly legal journals.

Having worked for government, nongovernmental and international organizations, Roojin is committed to generating scholarship that has salience and impact both within and beyond academia. Her academic career is inspired and enriched through deep engagement and dialogue with the broader community, evidenced by her contributions to national and international speaking events; interviews with print, radio, and television media; as well as her past and current collaborations on health rights advocacy with external partners such as the International Commission of Jurists, the HIV Legal Network, Birth Rights Bar Association of Canada, and the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health.

Roojin actively teaches and provides research supervision to students who are passionate about having a positive impact on human rights and global health. For the past three years, she taught Medicines Policy, Economics, and Ethics online to over 150 students in graduate programs ranging from public health to law and business at the University of Sydney. She regularly delivers guest lectures at Canadian and US academic institutions, including the University of Washington, University of Ottawa, and Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Beyond teaching, Roojin is passionate about building the runway for the next cadre of leaders in health justice and advocacy. Her formal and informal mentorship experience is underpinned by the goal of fostering professional and academic fulfillment.

Roojin's passion for the betterment of the human condition through the full realization of rights and freedoms is rooted in her own lived experience as a child of Kurdish migrants fleeing the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. She holds a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Ottawa's French Common Law program, a specialization in transnational law from the University of Geneva Faculty of Law, and a Master’s of Science in Global Health from McMaster University. She is a Barrister and Solicitor in Good Standing with the Law Society of Ontario, and fluent in English, French and Farsi.

International legal dimensions of cannabis legalization: reconciling national priorities with international obligations

McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy Annual Conference

Montreal, QC, April 27, 2018

Current and future roles of global health law

International Studies Association Annual Convention

Baltimore, MD, February 25, 2017

2018 Calgary Luncheon Speaker Series (Canadian Global Affairs Institute)

Calgary Petroleum Club, Calgary, AB, November 30, 2018