07/03/2016
Rana A. Al-Nibari as one of the expert speaker in the 19th Global Women Leaders Conference. Be Part of our Global Movement for Reinforcing Women's Leadership. Reserve your seat now:http://bit.ly/1NQNe2p
Dr. Anna Dolidze was born in Tbilisi, in what was then the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. As a child, she experienced the dissolution of the Soviet Union, including a civil war and secessionist conflicts with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In high school Dolidze won a Future Leaders Exchange Program scholarship to live with an American family and attend high school in Vermont.
Upon her return, Dolidze started law school at Tbilisi State University, where she graduated with honors. In her final year she took part in the Telders International Law Moot Court Competition, and was honored as the Best Respondent and Best Oralist. She became a clerk at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. Thereafter Dolidze worked for the international humanitarian organization Save the Children in Georgia. She was awarded a full fellowship by the Dutch government to study at Leiden University where she earned her Masters degree in International Law.
In 2004 Dolidze was elected Chairman of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA). As the head of the largest legal advocacy organization in Georgia, she oversaw program activities conducted by 125 lawyers, took part in drafting legislative reform proposals, practiced civil rights litigation and represented the organization in National Constitutional Commission, Commission for the Human Rights in Prisons and the Expert Commission for Georgia’s European Integration. In 2006, Dolidze spearheaded a nation-wide campaign to prosecute high-level government security officials implicated in the murder of Sandro Girgvliani. In 2007 Dolidze left Georgia for United States as a Scholar at Risk because it was increasingly difficult to practice civil rights litigation. In 2009 Dolidze was named a Young European Leader by Atlantic-Brucke.
Then she earned her Doctorate in Law (SJD) at Cornell Law School with full financial scholarship and residential fellowship at Telluride House. At Cornell Dolidze was awarded Mario Einaudi Scholarship for dissertation research in Europe as well as Judith Reppy scholarship in Peace and Conflict Studies. In 2012 Dolidze addressed the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the United States Congress on human rights violations in Georgia. In 2013 she became assistant professor of law at the University of Western Ontario.
Dolidze has lectured and taught transnationally, including at Cambridge University, Oxford University, University of Toronto, McGill University, Duke University, Helsinki España-Human Dimension in Madrid, Sorbonne University, and Elmira Maximum Security Correctional Facility in New York State . Dolidze has conducted human rights documentation and research for "Russia Justice Initiative" and Human Rights Watch. Dolidze has worked as a Research Fellow at Columbia University, New York University, Stanford University, and Transatlantic Academy and has authored a large number of academic and policy articles on international law, transitional justice and former Soviet Union.
In May 2015 Dolidze was appointed as Deputy Minister of Defence for Republic of Georgia, overseeing the areas of education, social benefits and rehabilitation of wounded warriors. Currently, she is a Visiting Professor at Tbilisi State University Faculty of Law