Gurdhyan Singh (St. Paul, Minnesota)

Mr. Gurdhyan Singh
360 S. Lexington Parkway, #109
St. Paul, MN 55105  USA

phone: 651-808-1906
email: gurdhyansingh@yahoo.com

The diversity of my more than 18 years experiences in the area of access to justice, capacity building, rule 
of law and governance, and international human rights in varied settings, with a focus on India, Rwanda, 
Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Former Yugoslavia, and parts of commonwealth Africa, would enable me to bring 
uniquely well rounded experience to the multiple areas of human rights and governance, a professional needs to 
handle.

I initiated my professional career in the Office of Additional Attorney General of India. For over five years, 
I practiced constitutional, human rights and public interest law. Thereafter, I undertook Masters level study 
in International Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis.

During the Master's program, at the request of the then UN Centre for Human Rights (currently known as the UN 
High Commissioner for Human Rights), I went to Rwanda for a short term immediately after 1994 Genocide as 
human rights investigator and trainer. Upon the completion of my degree, I went to former Yugoslavia as a 
human rights educator for the OHCHR.

Later on, I taught a course entitled "International Criminal Justice" for law and non-law students at the 
Hamline University School of Law, and established and International Human Rights Monitoring and Education 
Program (later on called as International Conflict Resolution and Human Rights Advocacy Program).

As an Adjunct faculty at Hamline University, I designed the training curriculum and conducted major portions 
of the program in cooperation with other faculty. In addition to the training activities at the campus, I have 
worked with a variety of community organizations in the US and abroad in designing and conducting human rights 
training. The training program has been suspended for the time being.

I undertook the J.D study at Hamline University School of Law as a comparative study. Thereafter, I worked as 
a Legal Advisor with the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva (Switzerland). I had two-fold 
responsibilities, substantive programming and program administration, for the implementation of international 
human rights standards (economic, social, cultural and civil and political rights) at national level in common 
law countries. My tasks involved identifying countries for ICJ activities, conducting fact finding, needs 
assessment, and expert missions (with other experts), and gathering project ideas.?In addition, I developed 
and implemented projects in collaboration with International experts from various disciplines. The focus of 
ICJ projects was legal reforms within the framework of human and women's rights, particularly international 
human rights standards as laid down in the treaties and interpreted by the treaty monitoring bodies. As 
responsible for the national implementation programme, I developed and implemented projects in collaboration 
with Judiciary, Legislative, Executive, Bar Associations and Councils, Legal educational institutions and 
NGOs.

In view of my professional work, I was awarded the first International Human Rights Excellence Millennium 
Award by the International Centre for Human Rights, Chennai, and first Hon'able LIoyd Axworthy Peacebuiding 
Award by the Canadian International Institute for Applied Negotiation, Ottawa, and Best Activist Award by the 
Bangladesh Human Rights Commission.

Keywords: Human Rights in India, Sikhs, Spirituality, Sikhism, International Human Rights and Humanitarian 
Law, International Criminal Justice, Teaching and training on human rights.

PUBLICATIONS:

-	The (Un)Enforceable Right to Compensation for Unlawful Detention Under Constitution of India: A Legal 
Fiction or Reality?, a research project expected to result in a book (2011);
-	Human Rights in India, Perspectives, a Book Review, Journal of Asian Studies, 61.1, University of 
Minnesota, Jan. 2002;
-	The Dayton Peace Accords: An Overview of Human Rights Aspects, in The Lawyers, 1997, India;
-	International Human Rights and Fair Trial, The Lawyers, June 1992, India; 
-       ADULTERY: Violation of Womens Dignity, Cover Article, The Lawyers, 1990, India; and -International 
Covenants and Human Rights, The Lawyers, 1989, India