In June 2024, the Ukrainian Bar Association established the Human Rights Institute (UBAHRI), marking a significant step toward strengthening Ukraine's legal culture. The Institute focuses on supporting legal professionals in protecting human rights, upholding the rule of law, and countering aggression. 

To ensure the Institute effectively achieves its mission, its activities are guided by a Supervisory Board comprising national and international legal experts. 

The UBA is launching a series of publications to introduce you to the members of the Human Rights Institute’s Supervisory Board. Each member plays a crucial role in advancing human rights in Ukraine and supports the UBA's mission to uphold the rule of law and democratic values.

Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association (IBA):

“My vision for the UBAHRI is to build a future where the inherent dignity, freedom, and equality of every individual in Ukraine are respected and safeguarded. Through education, advocacy, and collaboration, we strive to create a society that upholds justice, ensures accountability, and fosters an unwavering commitment to universal human rights and the principles of international law.”

Prior to joining the IBA, Mark Ellis spent ten years as the first Executive Director of the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI), a project of the American Bar Association (ABA).

Providing technical legal assistance to twenty-eight countries in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union and to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, CEELI remains one of the most extensive international pro bono legal assistance projects ever undertaken by the US legal community.

Now, as Executive Director of the IBA and Fellow at Kings College, Mark Ellis leads the foremost international organisation of bar associations, law firms and individual lawyers in the world.

Mark served as Legal Advisor to the Independent International Commission on Kosovo, chaired by Justice Richard J Goldstone and was appointed by OSCE to advise on the creation

of Serbia’s War Crimes Tribunal. He was actively involved with the ICTY Tadic case and the Iraqi High Tribunal; he also acted as legal consultant to the defense team of Nuon Chea at the Cambodian War Crimes Tribunal (ECCC). He is leading the IBA’s assistance to Ukraine and is an advisor to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on sanction issues.

In 2000, Dr Ellis was appointed Chair of the Advisory Panel of the ICTY. In 2013, he was admitted to the List of Assistants to Counsel of the International Criminal Court. In 2015, he also served as Chair of the UN-created Advisory Panel on Matters Relating to Defence Counsel of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (previously to the ICTY and ICTR).

Dr Ellis was a long-time consultant to The World Bank on investment policies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and was an Adjunct Professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. He is presently an Adjunct Professor at The Florida State University College of Law.

Twice a Fulbright Scholar at the Economic Institute in Zagreb, Croatia, he earned his J.D. and B.S. (Economics) degrees from Florida State University and his PhD in Law from King’s College, London. He is the recipient of two research grants to the European Union and the Institut d’Etudes Europeenes in Brussels, Belgium, focusing on the law and institutions of the European Union.

Mark is a frequent speaker and media commentator on international legal issues. He has published extensively on international humanitarian law, war crimes tribunals, and the development of the rule of law, and his op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Huffington Post, and The London Times. Mark is a contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Dr Ellis conceived and launched the Southern African Litigation Center (SALC), headquartered in Johannesburg, and eyeWitness to Atrocities.

Dr Ellis is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and serves on a number of boards, including the DLA Piper ‘New Perimeter’ pro bono project, the Leiden University ICC Moot Court Competition, South African Litigation Center (SALC), the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights UK, the Advisory Committee of the Lloyd N Cutler Center for the Rule of Law, The Magnitsky Award Selection Committee, and Chairman of The CEELI Institute. He serves on the editorial board for The Hague Journal on the Rule of Law. Dr Ellis is licensed as a foreign lawyer in Ukraine and is member of the Advisory Council of the National School of Judges of Ukraine.

He is the co-recipient of the American Bar Association’s World Order Under Law Award, the La Roche College Pacem in Terris Award, the recipient of Florida State University’s Distinguished Graduate Award and Torch Award, and the University’s College of Social Sciences & Public Policy Distinguished Alumni Award as well as the College of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He was awarded the Degree of Doctors of Laws (LL.D), honoris causa, from The College of Law of England and Wales and King’s International Impact Award from King’s College London. The Lawyer Magazine has recognised Mark as one of the UK’s top human rights lawyers. In 2022, he received the Order – Defender of the Ukrainian Bar.

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