Dustin Sharp

Senior Program Officer - Lecturer in Human Rights

dsharp@sandiego.edu
(619) 260-7807
KIPJ-121

B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Utah

J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School

Dustin Sharp, J.D., is a Senior Program Officer at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) and leads the West African Human Rights Training Initiative, a capacity-building program focusing on local human rights organizations in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. He also serves as a Lecturer in Human Rights at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies where he teaches graduate classes in transitional justice and human rights advocacy.

Sharp comes to the University of San Diego with a background in human rights and international law and has five years of field experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, working on issues related to human rights, transitional justice and educational development. He has a number of publications on human rights in Sub-Saharan Africa and has been a regular media commentator on Radio France International, the BBC and Voice of America regarding conflict dynamics in the region.

Before coming to the IPJ, Sharp worked at Human Rights Watch where he was responsible for designing and implementing research and advocacy strategies in Francophone West Africa, with an emphasis on countries in crisis such as Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea. He researched and authored reports on police torture, prison conditions, excessive use of force by security forces, and violent pro-government youth groups.

A lawyer by training, Sharp previously served as an attorney-adviser at the United States Department of State where he represented the United States in multilateral treaty negotiations and advised the Bureau of International Organization Affairs on matters concerning United Nations law and international institutional law. He was a Peace Corps volunteer from 1996-98, serving in Guinea, West Africa.

Regions and Countries of Interest

Sub-Saharan Africa and regional conflict dynamics in West Africa

Topics of Interest

Human Rights Law and Advocacy, Transitional Justice, Public International Law, Rule of Law, West Africa, African Youth Militias and Rebel Movements

Languages Fluent in French