Siraj Sait is on sabbatical and leave in Malaysia/India during 2010/2011.

Siraj Sait is a graduate of University of Madras (India), University of London and Harvard Law School. His areas of expertise are human rights, gender and land/housing, refugee and post-conflict studies and Islamic law. A lawyer by training, he has held served several key posts such as State Prosecutor on Human Rights in India, and has been closely associated with several grassroots campaigns and NGOs, as a consultant for Minority Rights Group International and as a trustee of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Since 2006, he has been member of the International Advisory Board of the Global Land Tool Network www.gltn.net. He is also on the MTSIP Review Panel of UN-HABITAT and the World Bank’s project evaluation committee.

Sait has been a consultant to UNHCR, UNICEF and recently served as legal officer, Land Tenure and Property Administration Section, Shelter Branch at the UN-HABITAT, he was also the gender officer for the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) responsible for the Mechanism on Gendering Land Tools. He was the organiser of the Round Table on Gendering Tools at the World Urban Forum (Vancouver, June 2006) and the UN Expert Group Meeting on Islamic Land Law. He has been part of several research institutions such as the Refugee Research Centre and the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict. He has published widely in the fields of human rights, gender issues and Islamic studies. He was co-Moderator of E-Forum on Gender Criteria on Land Tools in October 2008.

• School Leader, Research & Knowledge Exchange
• Programme Leader, LLM Human Rights
• Programme Leader , LLM Islamic & Middle East Studies
• Law Coordinator, MA in Refugee Studies
• Member, Academic Board
• Member, Research & Knowledge Exchange
• Member, School Management Committee

• Human rights and development
  UK immigration and international refugee law
  India and the Commonwealth
  Islam and the Middle East

• LLM
• LLB
• MA in Refugee Studies

LLB:

• International Human Rights
• International Refugee Law and Islam and Human Rights on the LLM
• Immigration Law
• Comparative Legal Systems

MA in Refugee Studies

• Introduction to Forced Migration
• Research Methods

Current research Projects (2010-2011):

• Critical Perspectives on Islamic Land Law  (with Government of Malaysia JAWHAR and Islamic University of Malaysia)
• Developing the Gender Evaluation Criteria (with Huairou Commission, International Federation of Surveyors,  Global Land Tool Network, Feminista Espacio)
• Muslim Women’s Property Rights (with Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia, IKIM and UN-HABITAT)
• Youth, Age and Land Rights (UN-HABITAT) 

Recent publications

Books - please see Insight box and/or for further information also the publication site:

• Land, Law & Islam: Property and Human Rights in the Muslim World (London: Zed 2006) (with H. Lim)
• Gendering Land Tools: Achieving secure tenure for women and men (UN-HABITAT 2009)
• Policy Makers Guide to Women’s Land, Property and Housing Rights (English, French and Spanish) (UN-HABITAT 2007)
• Islamic Land Tools to Empower Women: A Global Land Tool Network Initiative 4 LEGAL EMPOWERMENT (2007)
• Developing land tools for all age groups:  Implementing the Land, Property and Housing Rights of Children, Youth and Older Persons (UN-HABITAT 2008)
• How group and family rights/land law work in Islamic contexts: Implications for Bangladesh (UN-HABITAT 2008)
• ‘Accidental Islamic Feminism: Dialogical Approaches to Muslim Women’s Inheritance Rights’ in H. Lim and A. Bottomley (eds) Feminist Perspectives on Land Law (2007) Glasshouse Press (with H. Lim) 133-157
• ‘Islamic Land Law in Afghanistan: Innovative Land Tools & Strategies. Innovative Land Tools & Strategies’ FIG Papers (Bangkok: 2006) 
• ‘UN's record on Caste Rights' in Sukhadeo Thorat and Umakant (eds) Caste , Race and Discrimination : Discourses in International Context (New Delhi, Rawat, 2004) 137-39
• Geneva Accord: A Point of No Return’ 10:7 Return Review 11-13 (2003)
• ‘Child Participatory Rights in the Arab World', 14:2 Interights Bulletin 57-58 (2003)
• ‘Negotiating Customary and Islamic Land Law’ [2003] 9(4) Habitat Debate (Special Issue on Land in an Urbanising World) (December)
• ‘Forced Labour in South Asia : An Anatomy of Judicial Interventions' in M. Anderson and M. Happold (eds) Constitutional Human Rights in the Commonwealth (London: British Institute of International & Comparative Law, 2003) 63-83.
• ‘International Refugee Law: Excluding the Palestinians' in J. Strawson (ed) Law After Ground Zero (Sydney, London, Portland, Oregon: Cavendish, 2002) 90-107
• ‘Re-appraisal of the Rights of Palestinian Child Refugees in the Occupied Territories‘ (London: PRC, 2003)
• ‘Inheriting a Life Without Dignity: A Call to the UN to Address Caste-Based Discrimination’  (London: Minority Rights Group: World Conference Against Racism Position Paper, 2001)
• ‘Islamic Perspectives on Rights of the Child’ in D. Fottrell (ed) Revisiting Children’s Rights: 10 Years Of UN Convention On The Rights Of The Child (London: Kluwer, 2000).
• ‘Reorienting Federalism: Process and Substance in Indian Constitutionalism’ in G.W. Kueck. S.C. Mathur and K. Schindler (eds) Federalism and Decentralisation (New Delhi: Mudrit, 1998).

UN Policy Papers

• Training Package on Land, Property and Housing Rights in the Muslim World (UN-HABITAT 2009) with H. Lim
• Post conflict land challenges in Muslim contexts (UN-HABITAT 2009)
• Gender Criteria on Land Tools (UN-HABITAT 2009)
• Women’s equal rights to housing, land and property in international law (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi 2006) (with M. Benschop)
• Mechanism for Gendering Land Tool: A Framework for Delivery of Women’s Security of Tenure  (UN-HABITAT, Nairobi 2006)
• ‘Progress Report on Inheritance Rights’ (Nairobi: UN-HABITAT 2006) (with M. Benschop)
• ‘Islamic Land Theories and Their Application’  (with H. Lim)
• ‘Islamic Land Tenures and Reform’ (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi, 2005) (with H. Lim)
•  ‘Islamic Law, Land and Methodologies’ (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi, 2005) (with H. Lim)
• ‘Islamic Human Rights and Land’ (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi, 2005) (with H. Lim)
• ‘Muslim Women and Property’ (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi, 2005) (with H. Lim)
• ‘Islamic Inheritance Laws and Systems’ (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi, 2005) (with H. Lim)
• ‘Waqf (Endowment) and Philanthropy’ (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi, 2005) (with H. Lim)
• ‘Islamic Credit and Microfinance’ (UN-HABITAT: Nairobi, 2005) (with H. Lim)

Research Papers and conferences

• Strategies on the Gender Criteria, Round Table, World Urban Forum, Rio de Janerio (March 2010)
• Gender Equality Assembly, Rio de Janeiro (March 2010)
• Developing Capacity on Islamic Land Law, International Islamic University Malaysia (December 2009)
• Working with GLTN Partners, Nairobi Kenya (November 2009)
• Concepts of culture in legal education, LILAC 2009, Warwick University, UK, ( January 2009)
• Expert Workshop on Discrimination and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Berlin, Germany (September 2008)
• Peer review workshop on the Islamic Mechanism, Nairobi, Kenya (January 2009)
• Developing the Gender Criteria, Nairobi, Kenya (April 2009)
• Global Perspectives on Human Rights and Development in Brazil, AGU Conference, Brasilia, Brazil (September 2009)
• Islamic Strategies for Ending Gender Discrimination Univ. of Mannheim, Germany (Sept 2008)
• Compensatory Islamic Scheme for Gender Equality, Commission for Sustainable Development, NY (Feb 2008)
• How to Design Islamic Tools, World Bank (April 2008)
• Toward an Islamic Mechanism, Nairobi, Kenya (April 2007)
• Methodology for Gendering Land Tools, World Urban Forum, Vancouver, Canada (June 2006)
• Children’s Property Rights in the AIDS context, Harare, Zimbabwe (April 2006)
• Gender Mechanism for Land Rights, Oslo, Norway (March 2006)
• Developing Islamic Strategies, Arab Ministerial Meeting, Cairo, Egypt (December 2005)
• Innovative Approaches to Islamic law in Afghanistan, Bangkok, Thailand (December 2005)
• Who is Afraid of Islamic Land Law (w/ H.Lim) IISL, Onati, Spain (June 2005)
• Refugee Rehabilitation Policy in Post Conflict Societies, IASFM, Sao Paulo, Brazil (January 2005)
• Islam & Human Rights in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan, Kabul , Afghanistan (June 2004)
• Human Rights during the War against Terror, Kings College, London, UK, (Mar 2004)
• Evolving Asylum Rights in the UK , University College London, UK (Feb 2004)
• UN, Human Rights and the Middle East, University of Damascus, Syria (Jan 2004)
• Human Rights Applicable to the Middle East Dispute, House of Lords, UK (Oct 2003)
• On Drafting the Iraqi Constitution CLC, at RAU, Johannesburg, South Africa (Sept 2003)
• Jihad, Crusades and the New Moralities of War, ICS, Univ. of London, UK (Nov 2002)
• Human Rights Post September 11th, Columbia Law School, New York, USA (Oct 2002)
• Refugee Rights in the Commonwealth, Cambridge University UK (Feb 2002)
• Minority Rights after the World Conference Against Racism, Hull University UK (Feb 2002)
• On Reorienting Islamic Gender Rights, University of California, Berkeley USA (Feb 2001)
• Arab Charter on Human Rights: Can it Build Legitimacy, MESA, San Francisco USA (Feb 2001)
  Civil Society in the Middle East, BRISMES, University of Edinburgh, UK (July 2001)
• Minority Protection under the ECHR, University of Essex LLB, UK (May 2001)
• Casteism, Racism and Human Rights, MRG, Bangalore India (April 2001)
• Human Rights, Poverty Eradication and Refugees, CHRI, Wilton Park, Surrey UK (March 2001)
• Study of Islamic Human Rights in the West, American University in Cairo, Egypt (Jan 2001)
• Trends in Liberal Islamic Jurisprudence, IAMES Conference, Berlin Germany (Oct 2000)

1. Law, Constitutional Politics and Memory: Steve Biko's Legacy (UEL Papers, 2002).

2. ‘Inheriting a Life Without Dignity: A Call to the UN to Address Caste-Based Discrimination ' (London: Minority Rights Group: World Conference Against Racism Position Paper, 2001) (in pdf file format)

3. 'Islamic Perspectives on Rights of the Child' in D. Fottrell (ed) Revisiting Children's Rights: 10 Years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (London: Kluwer, 2000).

4. 'Reorienting Federalism: Process and Substance in Indian Constitutionalism' in G.W. Kueck. S.C. Mathur and K. Schindler (eds) Federalism and Decentralisation (New Delhi: Mudrit, 1998).

5. Time for Dialogue on the UDHR, 27:3 Index on Censorship 177-80 (1998).

6. Bonded Labour in Tamil Nadu (Chennai: CAREBOLA, 1996).

Other Affiliations

Fellow, Higher Education Academy, UK

Member, International Association for the Study of Forced Migration; Middle East Studies Association of North America; British Association of Middle Eastern Studies; American Society of International Law.

Visiting Lecturer, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London; Guest Lecturer (with the UEL Refugee Studies team), University College, London. Contrinbutor to the media, the BBC and The Hindu (India)