Parnesh Sharma

Dr Parnesh Sharma, formerly an ajudicator at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, holds graduate degrees from Oxford and Cambridge with a keen interest in human rights, asylum rights, social movements, courts and social change - in particular, the role of rights in bringing about social change and rights as a resource in the work of NGOs which advocate on behalf of powerless constituents.

Previously published works include the book - Aboriginal Fishing Rights: Law, Courts, Politics - a case study of a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision and the fight over a billion-dollar industry which pitted the Government of Canada against its impoverished aboriginal peoples. The book examines how a group of committed activists, empowered by then newly-constitutionalised rights, challenged the Canadian state in the courts and won. But the victory was hollow. While the decision, R v Sparrow, continues to reverberate in policy decisions to this day, the fight continues. The book, published in 1998, is still in print and is a recommended textbook for university-level courses.

Dr Sharma has also published in the Guardian, Globe and Mail, and general interest magazines, including a commissioned chapter on immigration law in the 2006 edition of 'The Newcomers Guide' published by the Centre for Economics and Social Inclusion (London).