About Us

Our Team

Rawan Arraf – Executive Director & Principal Lawyer

Rawan is a lawyer with a background in refugee protection, administrative law and international human rights law. She is an experienced and passionate advocate most interested in providing support to affected communities, lawyers and social movements make change possible.

She has over 15 years of legal practice in the public and community legal sectors. She was a senior solicitor at the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in Sydney and worked on challenging and complex cases, including assisting stateless refugee children born in Australia obtain Australian citizenship. Rawan trained in the community legal sector at Community Legal Centres NSW and Redfern Legal Centre.

In 2019, Rawan founded the Australian Centre for International Justice, Australia’s first international justice legal centre. She is actively engaged with lawyers and organisations working on universal jurisdiction litigation globally and in 2018 Rawan trained with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights working closely with the International Crimes and Accountability team on universal jurisdiction matters.

Rawan is an arts and law graduate of the University of Sydney and is a Master of Laws candidate at the University of New South Wales. She has completed specialist human rights and international law courses at the European University Institute in Florence. Rawan is a member of the Global Network of Movement Lawyers hosted by Movement Law Lab and completed specialist training with the Lab in 2020. She is a fellow of the Centre for Australian Progress. Rawan is also a board director at Australia’s eminent legal centre, the Human Rights Law Centre.

Lara Khider – Legal Director

Lara has extensive experience in transnational criminal law, white-collar crime, and sanctions advisory, having worked at a specialist criminal defence firm in Sydney. Before transitioning to criminal defence, Lara gained valuable experience in corporate law at a top-tier commercial firm and a multi-national professional services firm in Sydney. She is passionate about human rights, international criminal law, and public interest advocacy, reflected in her internships at various NGOs and at the Office of the Prosecutor for the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, Netherlands.

Lara graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Professional Accounting) from Macquarie University in 2019. Currently, she is pursuing a Master of Laws with a specialisation in International Law at the Australian National University. In 2023, Lara completed a Summer Course on International Humanitarian Law at Leiden University. Additionally, she has completed an International Criminal Law Masterclass by the Association of Defence Counsel Practising before the International Courts and Tribunals, as well as a course on Public International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law in 2021.

Jessica Markabawi  – Senior Lawyer

Jessica is an experienced lawyer with a strong background in litigation and commercial law. Before joining the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ), she served as the Associate to the Honourable Justice Delany, the Principal Judge of the Commercial Division in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Jessica began her legal career at Norton Rose Fulbright, an international commercial law firm, where she worked in the Restructuring team. There, she advised financial institutions, insolvency practitioners, and both Australian and multinational corporations on complex matters related to financial restructuring, reporting obligations, risk governance, and bankruptcy. Her experience also spans running insolvency litigation and enforcement actions.

In addition to her commercial work, Jessica has a strong commitment to pro bono service. She led several impactful matters with the firm’s pro bono team, focusing on international human rights law, refugee law, and modern slavery. This dedication to international justice and advocacy continues to define her career.

Jessica holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne (2019) and a Bachelor of Arts (2016). Her passion for public international law, particularly international human rights and humanitarian law, has been a driving force throughout her career. She has volunteered with the International Commission of Jurists Victoria and has also held various roles with the National Native Title Council and Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation, contributing to important Indigenous rights initiatives.

Sofia Yiannikas – Legal Advisor

Sofia Yiannikas began her legal career at a major commercial law firm in Sydney, and subsequently worked in the refugee protection and forced migration space. She worked in various roles including as refugee caseworker for Amnesty International and the Australian Red Cross, and as a humanitarian volunteer in Australian offshore immigration detention centres. She has researched humanitarian crisis response to forced migration in the Mediterranean for the Overseas Development Institute and has conducted reciprocal research with refugee communities from Myanmar living in India with the Centre for Refugee Research based at the University of New South Wales. Sofia has experience working with international crimes following her time with the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Tribunal, at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Sofia attended the University of Sydney, where she graduated with a Combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degree as well as a Master of Laws, with a specialisation in International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law. Sofia has also obtained a Master of Social Development (Refugees and Forced Displacement) from the University of New South Wales. She currently teaches International Humanitarian Law at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is co-founder and co-director of Hunar, a collective of academics and artists working with art practices that respond to conflict, crisis and colonisation, as part of her research interest in investigative aesthetics in the context of international crimes. Sofia has also trained in open-source investigation techniques.