Dr Irene Pietropaoli is a Research Fellow in Business and Human Rights and joined BIICL in October 2018. She conducts research on corporate human rights due diligence, other aspects of implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights, and legislation on modern slavery in supply chain. Irene is also leading BIICL’s work on Artificial Intelligence and its links with business and human rights. 

Prior to joining BIICL, Irene worked with international organisations and NGOs in different countries of Europe, Latin America, South and Southeast Asia in the area of business and human rights. For three years, she was based in Yangon, Myanmar, where she worked as a business and human rights consultant for both Amnesty International and FIDH. Previously, she was a Senior Researcher at Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. She also worked for the legal programme of ECPAT International in Thailand and for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica. At the beginning of her career Irene was a legal practitioner in Madrid, Spain. 

Irene has published regularly in international human rights law journals, books, and newspapers. Her monograph 'Business, Human Rights and Transitional Justice' was published in May 2020 by Routledge.

Irene holds a PhD from the school of Law of Middlesex University, London. Her thesis is on remedies for corporate human rights abuses in transitional justice contexts. She has a first-class honours LL.M in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and first degrees in Law from the University La Sapienza of Rome and from the University of Barcelona.