PEAK Staff Profile

Ai Kihara-Hunt
Professor – Japan in East Asia

Contact : aikiharahunt[at]g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Profile

画像 Dr. Ai Kihara-Hunt is Professor at the Graduate Program on Human Security, Director of the Research Center for Sustainable Peace, and Director of International Law Training and Research Hub at the University. She also serves as Secretary for the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS). Her main area of research is UN Peace Operations, in particular the UN Police, accountability and human rights. She teaches International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law, human security and peacebuilding. Between 1998 and 2016, she worked in Nepal, East Timor/Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Japan with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR), UN Peace Operations (UNTAET, UNAMET) and other UN offices and entities, as well as in universities. Her publications include: Holding UNPOL to Account: Individual Criminal Accountability of United Nations Police Personnel (Brill, 2017).

Research Interests

United Nations Peace Operations, UN Police, Accountability, International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law, the Rule of Law, and Peacebuilding. Specific topics include: individual criminal accountability for crimes committed in United Nations Peace Operations; prevention and accountability for sexual exploitation and abuse in the UN; UN-African Union cooperation in accountability of individual personnel; rule of law implementation in East Asia; UN Police and International Humanitarian Law; human rights best practices by non-state actors in response to COVID-19; human rights sanctions acts.

Selected Publications