Rebecca Barber is a PhD scholar with the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland. Prior to undertaking her PhD she had a career with international humanitarian NGOs, managing human rights and legal assistance programs, as well as multi-sector humanitarian response programs in humanitarian crises in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa.  She has also worked as a humanitarian advocacy advisor with Oxfam and Save the Children, and as a lecturer with the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership at Deakin University. 

Her writing on international peace and security law, human rights and humanitarian action has been published in numerous international law journals as well as books, foreign policy forums and mainstream media. She is a member of the international humanitarian law advisory committee for the Australian Red Cross and the advisory board of the International Rule of Law Initiative. She is currently working with the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect on the development of a guidance document on the powers of the UN General Assembly to prevent and respond to atrocity crimes.