Kirsty Anantharajah

Contacts
Kirsty is an admitted lawyer in the ACT, who specialises in refugee law. She provides voluntary legal service at Refugee Advice and Casework Service.
Kirsty has a Bachelor of Arts/Laws (Honours, First Class) from the ANU. Her honours thesis, ‘Game playing in human rights regulatory regimes: Sri Lanka’s interactions with the Universal Periodic Review,’ examined Sri Lanka's engagement with international human rights regulation.
She has also conducted research on the constitution and land rights in post-war Sri Lanka for the Law and Society Trust (‘Solaimuthu Rasu: A Critical Analysis’ (2014) Law and Society Trust Review 24: 319.)
Kirsty is particularly interested in the post-war challenges facing Sri Lankan women, and she worked for the IDRC funded Sexual Violence and Impunity Project, coordinated by Zubaan, where she co-authored (with Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena) Chapter 2 ‘Crisis of Legal Indeterminacy’ in Kumari Jayawardena and Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, The Search for Justice: The Sri Lanka Papers (Zubaan Books: 2016).
Her commentary on Sri Lanka’s rule of law challenges have appeared in sources such as The Colombo Telegraph and OpenDemocracy.
Kirsty is now working with Professor Neil Gunningham on the potential transformative power of ‘green finance’ in Asia.
Research interests
Kirsty has a research background in human rights and rule of law challenges facing post-war Sri Lanka. She has particular expertise in the field of gender-based violence and impunity in South Asia.
Kirsty is currently undertaking research with Professor Neil Gunningham examining the role of financial markets in climate change mitigation in Asia and the Pacific and how an ‘energy revolution’ and a rapid transition to a low carbon economy might best be achieved.