Catherine O'Rourke is Professor of Global Law at Durham Law School, where she convenes the Law and Global Justice research centre. Catherine researches, teaches and engages in policy work in the fields of gender, conflict and international law. Catherine is centrally interested in the regulation of women’s rights in conflict under international law, and has relevant expertise across international humanitarian law, international human rights law, international criminal law and the UN Security Council. She has a particular interest in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, with expertise in the regulation of sexual orientation and gender identity under CEDAW and the WPS agenda. The priority focus of her research while based at the University of Minnesota is addressed to centering care in international law.
Catherine is a Senior Fellow in Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. She is the former Director (2020-21) and Gender Research Coordinator (2010-20) of the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University School of Law. Catherine is centrally involved in Durham University’s work as academic partner to the UK government’s Helpdesk on Women, Peace and Security. She led the Gender Theme of the £4.4 million pound FCDO-funded Political Settlements Research Programme. Recent academic awards include the Kevin Boyle Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship 2020-21 from the Irish Association of Law Teachers, and a scholarship prize (2023) from the American Society in International Law-Women in International Law Interest Group, both awarded for her monograph 'Women's Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law' (Cambridge, 2020). Catherine is a former Irish Fulbright Scholar at the University of Minnesota (2016).