Annemarie Middelburg
Annemarie Middelburg is an independent consultant in the field of women’s rights, with unique expertise on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C).
She holds an LLM in Public International Law & Human Rights and also completed the Research Master in Law (both cum laude). She successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Empty Promises? Compliance with the Human Rights Framework in relation to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Senegal’ at Tilburg University in 2016. Her research is interdisciplinary as it involves law, political science and anthropology. Her book contains a legal analysis, literature research and an in depth empirical study. As part of her PhD research, she conducted a four-month field study in Senegal where she interviewed over 50 experts working in the field to end FGM/C.
After completing her PhD, she started to work as an independent consultant for her own company Right to Rise. Over the past years, she had many assignments for the United Nations, European Union, international and local NGOs, as well as consultancy firms, including a research assignment for UNFPA in 12 countries in West and Central Africa. She has traveled to more than 25 African countries to conduct research, design strategies or monitor projects aimed at improving the rights of girls and women. Annemarie also serves as an expert witness in asylum cases where the claim is based on a fear of persecution on FGM/C-related grounds.
Annemarie is also a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam where she teaches various courses, such as ‘Public International Law’, ‘History of Legal Theory’, ‘Gender, Human Security and Violent Conflict’ and supervises students with their bachelor and master thesis.
She has authored and co-authored various academic, EU and UN publications. Her most recent article was on clitoral reconstruction after FGM/C and was published in the European Journal of Plastic Surgery.
Her interest lies in international law, human rights, gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health and rights.