Ai Kihara-Hunt

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Ai Kihara-Hunt is a Japanese jurist and former international civil servant. She is currently Professor in the Graduate Program on Human Security of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. She specializes in international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international organization law, and the rule of law. At the University of Tokyo, she also serves as the Director of the Research Center for Sustainable Peace (RCSP) at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Global and Area Studies (IAGS).She is also the Secretary of the Academic Council of the United Nations System (ACUNS), and is the former Secretary General of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan.

Education

Kihara-Hunt received her B.A. in International Politics and Economics from Aoyama Gakuin University, M.A. degree in Rural Development from the University of Sussex, and LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. Kihara-Hunt wrote her PhD under the supervision of Professor Francoise Hampson. This thesis, analyzing the effectiveness of criminal accountability mechanisms for UN police personnel, was later published as a monograph.

Career

In 1998, Kihara-Hunt worked as Human Rights Officer/Security Sector Focal Point at the Nepal Office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and as Electoral Supervisor at the Bosnia and Herzegovina Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). She continued her work with the UN in East Timor, first, as District Electoral Officer at the Dili District Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), and second, as Human Rights Officer of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). She later served in other positions in post-conflict East Timor. First, she worked as Public Information and Community Outreach Officer (2001-2002) for the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), the truth commission established under the UNTAET and charged with implementing transitional justice measures in post-conflict East Timor. Second, in 2005, she served as Country Director for the Timor Leste office of the Organization of International Support for Dental Education(OISDE).

After briefly taking a position as Mine Risk Education Material Development Consultant on Afghanistan and Japan at the United Nations Mine Action Centre and the Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR Japan), Kihara-Hunt moved to Sri Lanka in 2003 to serve as Associate Protection Officer for the Kilinochchi Office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This position was crucial to the peace process between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization that fought for an independent Tamil state in northeast Sri Lanka.

Between 2006 and 2010, Kihara-Hunt held multiple positions at the OHCHR. After serving as Associate Human Rights Officer at the OHCHR’s Special Procedures Branch in 2006, she moved to Nepal as part of the UN agency’s work in support of the peace process for the protracted armed conflict between the government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Most notably, she served as Head of the OHCHR’s Dhangadhi Regional Office, and as Lead Trainer/Security Sector Focal Point, Project Manager, and Mapping Officer at the OHCHR’s country office in Nepal.

With her extensive experience in human rights protection in armed conflict settings, Kihara-Hunt was selected as a member of the Police Doctrinal Development Group of the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations in 2016. She then embarked on a career in academia as Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate Program on Human Security in 2017.

As part of academia, Kihara-Hunt mentored many graduate and undergraduate students participating in IHL moot court competitions, both in Japan and internationally. She has led teams of students in various competitions from 2021 to 2023, resulting in the following accolades:

• Runner-Up Prize, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot Court National Round 2023 in Japan (coach)

• Runner-Up Prize, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Role Play National Round 2023 in Japan (coach)

• First Prize, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot Court National Round 2022 in Japan (coach)
• Best Four, the 20th Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot 2022 Hong Kong (An Inter-University Competition for Asia-Pacific Region) (coach)

• First Prize, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot Court National Round 2021 in Japan (coach)
• First Runner-Up Prize, the 19th Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot 2021 Hong Kong (An Inter-University Competition for Asia-Pacific Region) (coach)

Field of Expertise

Overview

Kihara-Hunt is an expert in human rights and humanitarianism, applying people-centered and practice-oriented approaches to the theory and practice of peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and transitional justice.

Human Rights Protection in Armed Conflict

Having been part of UN contingents that supported peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts in East Timor, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, Kihara-Hunt believes that addressing issues of human rights and justice are critical to begin the process of peacebuilding. In a statement she delivered as Acting Chief of the OHCHR-Nepal’s Regional Office in Dhangadhi, she asserted that “impunity is a major threat to human rights protection” and that seeking accountability of parties who commit serious human rights abuses during conflict is a priority.

Speaking at a symposium on Human Rights and Global Diversity at the University of Leiden, Kihara-Hunt asserted that because it is individuals who ‘experience’ human rights, they should be at the center of paradigms and mechanisms aimed towards human rights protection. She was quoted in relation to her experience working at the UN Office in East Timor, having observed Timorese residents’ appeals to UN staff in the country:

“They didn’t have a change of clothes and were feeding on bats they caught in the woods because there was nothing else to eat. Yet, so many of the requests were related to justice and human rights, such as helping to locate the body of a family member killed during the conflict, or a request to put people who had murdered their husband on trial.”

Accountability of UN Personnel in Peacekeeping Operations

Much of Kihara-Hunt’s research has focused on accountability measures for allegations of sexual violence and exploitation by UN Police personnel in deployed peace operations. She argues that while it is the obligation of countries deploying peacekeepers to criminally prosecute them for cases of alleged sexual violence and exploitation, it is the UN’s duty to ensure that dispatching countries follow through with these obligations and to carry out background checks on personnel to be deployed in peace operations.

Kihara-Hunt argues that international law principles of jurisdiction and immunity should not pose legal barriers for dispatching States to address sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeepers through criminal proceedings. In a blog post, she clarifies that while the host State is shielded from prosecution, the State sending military or civilian personnel, as part of UN peace operations contingents, have criminal jurisdiction. Furthermore, recognizing claims of immunity from such crimes may be deemed as breaches of the UN’s human rights obligations.

Publications

Kihara-Hunt has written book chapters and journal articles on the topic of UN personnel accountability, human rights, and human security, including:

• Holding individuals serving the United Nations to account for wrongdoing. Political Science and Public Policy. 2023. pp. 232–248. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800884939.00029
• Challenge to the Rule of Law in North-East Asia. Modesto Seara Vázquez, Pandemic: The Catastropic Crisis(English and Spanish Editions). 2021. pp.317-350. Universidad del Mar.
• Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: The Case of UN Police – Recommendations. International Journal of Peacekeeping. 2017. 21(1-2), 62-82. https://doi.org/10.1163/18754112-02101002

She has published several other articles and book chapters, both in English and Japanese, on the topics of UN police accountability during peacekeeping operations, human rights, and human security

External links

• reserchmap（https://researchmap.jp/aikiharahunt?lang=en）
• The University of Tokyo（https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/people/k0001_00160.html）
• Ai Kihara-Hunt's website（https://aikiharahunt.com/）
• The Research Center for Sustainable Peace（https://rcsp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/member/detail/531）

References

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