Sheila Varadan is an Assistant Professor of Children’s Rights and Global Health as part of a joint appointment with the Department of Child Law and the African Studies Centre. Sheila successfully defended her PhD entitled 'Article 5 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: parental guidance and the evolving capacities of the child' at Leiden University in June 2022.

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Sheila’s research interests focus on children’s rights in global health, with a specific focus on antimicrobial resistance, the right to a healthy environment and intergenerational justice. Sheila is currently leading two research projects, funded by Horizons Europe and the British Academy, examining the implications of antimicrobial resistance and malaria resistance on children’s human rights in present and future generations.

Sheila lectures in the Advanced LL.M. in International Children’s Rights and the Advanced LL.M. in European International Human Rights Law. Sheila also teaches in the African Studies master's programmes at the African Studies Centre Leiden.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Sheila worked as a human rights lawyer and legal consultant in Southeast Asia for 15 years. Sheila worked on projects related to human rights, access to justice, global health and children’s rights for international humanitarian aid organisations, international non-governmental organisations and UN agencies. In 2005, Sheila received the Harold G. Fox scholarship to undertake barrister pupillage at Middle Temple Inn in London, United Kingdom. She then practised as an assistant crown attorney (criminal prosecutions) for the Ontario Ministry of Attorney General in Toronto, Ontario. Sheila holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights (2008) from the London School of Economics, a Bachelor of Civil Law (2004) and a Juris Doctor (2004) from McGill University and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Comparative Politics and Development Studies (2000) from the University of Guelph in Canada.

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