Marina Sharpe

• Humanitarian assistance
• International human rights law
• International refugee law
• Refugee protection in Africa
• The law of armed conflict

Marina Sharpe is Associate Professor of international law in the International Studies programme at RMC Saint-Jean and Professeure associée in the Faculté de droit at Université de Sherbrooke. Immediately prior to joining RMC Saint-Jean, Professor Sharpe was Senior Legal Officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representation to the African Union in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). She has also been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, Senior Research Fellow at Global Canada, legal officer at human rights NGOs in Kampala, and a lawyer with the New York firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

Professor Sharpe’s research has been recognized with Canada’s most competitive doctoral and postdoctoral funding: the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Doctoral Scholarship and SSHRC’s Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. She is called to bars of New York and England & Wales and regularly advises international organizations, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, UNHCR and UNICEF. She has taught and guest lectured widely, including at Georgetown, Oxford and Yale. Professor Sharpe is on the editorial boards of The Canadian Yearbook of International Law and the International Journal of Refugee Law and is a Director of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Books

• Sharpe, M. (2026). Humanitarian Assistance in International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198994695.003.0002
• Sharpe, M. (2018). The Regional Law of Refugee Protection in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198826224.001.0001

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Sharpe, M. & Lee, H. (2026). International Humanitarian Law Education in Canadian Law Schools, Canadian Legal Education Annual Review, 13, 29-46.
• Sharpe M. (2026). “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”: The Relationship Between the African and Global Refugee Conventions, International Journal of Refugee Law (advance access). https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeag010
• Sharpe, M. (2024). It’s All Relative: The Origins, Legal Character and Normative Content of the Humanitarian Principles. International Review of the Red Cross, 106(925), 12-55. doi:10.1017/S1816383123000292
• Ferstman, C. & Sharpe, M. (2022). Iran’s Arbitrary Detention of Foreign and Dual Nationals as Hostage-Taking and Crimes Against Humanity, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 20(2), 403-435. https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqac011
• Greenhill, R. & Sharpe, M. (2019). Lester B Pearson’s Road to Development, Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 25(1), 19-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2018.1522262
• Sharpe, M. (2019). The Supervision (or Not) of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, International Journal of Refugee Law, 31(2-3), 261-289. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eez025
• Sharpe, M. (2018). Mixed Up: International Law and the Meaning(s) of “Mixed Migration”, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37(1), 116–138, https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdx021
• Sharpe, M. (2018). The Global Compact on Refugees and Conflict Prevention in Africa: “Root Causes” and Yet Another Divide, International Journal of Refugee Law, 30(4), 707–10. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eey052
• Sharpe, M. (2014). The 1951 Refugee Convention's Contingent Rights Framework and Article 26 of The ICCPR: A Fundamental Incompatibility?, Refuge, 30(2), 5-13.
• Sharpe, M. (2013). Organization of African Unity and African Union Engagement with Refugee Protection: 1963–2011. African Journal of International and Comparative Law, 21(1), 50-94.
• Sharpe, M. & Namusobya, S. (2012). Refugee Status Determination and the Rights of Recognized Refugees under Uganda’s Refugees Act 2006. International Journal of Refugee Law, 24(3), 561-578. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/ees036
• Sharpe, M. (2012). The 1969 African Refugee Convention : Innovations, Misconceptions, and Omissions. McGill Law Journal/Revue de droit de McGill, 58(1), 95-147.
• Brown, N. R., Riordan, S. & Sharpe, M. (2004). The Insecurity of Eritreans and Ethiopians in Cairo. International Journal of Refugee Law, 16(1), 661-701. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/16.4.661

Articles (non-refereed)

• Sharpe, M. (2026, June 5), Humanitarian Assistance in International Law and the Distinction between Preventive Assistance and Emergency Relief in Armed Conflict, Articles of War.
• Sharpe, M. (2024, December 17). If You Teach It, They’ll Enroll: IHL Education in Canadian Law Schools, ICRC Humanitarian Law & Policy.
• Sharpe, M. (2023, November 20). Humanitarian Access to Gaza. EJIL:Talk! (blog of the European Journal of International Law)
• Sharpe, M. (2023, March 16). It’s All Relative: The Humanitarian Principles in Historical and Legal Perspective. ICRC Humanitarian Law & Policy.
• Sharpe, M. (2020). The Free Movement of Persons within the African Union and Refugee Protection, RefLaw.org
• Abebe, T., Abebe, A. & Sharpe, M. (2019). After 50 Years, Africa’s Refugee Policy Still Leads. ISS Today.

Book chapters

• Sharpe, M. (2025). Mixed Migration. In V. Chetail (ed.), Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Migration Law Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 343-346.
• Sharpe, M. (2022). Preventing conflict-induced forced displacement in Africa: UNHCR, the AU and the rhetoric and realities of “Root Causes”. In B. Charbonneau & M. Ricard (eds.), Routledge Handbook of African Peacebuilding. London: Routledge, 57-69.
• Sharpe, M. (2021). Regional Refugee Regimes: Africa. In C. Costello, M. Foster & J. McAdam (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 279-295.
• Sharpe, M (2020). No Coming Back? The Lawfulness of Restrictions on Canadians Flying to Canada. In B. Charbonneau & C. Lavallée (eds.), COVID-19 and the Future of Global Order, Centre for Security and Crisis Governance, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu: RMC Saint-Jean.
• Sharpe, M. (2017). The 1969 OAU Refugee Convention in the Context of Individual Refugee Status Determination. In V. Türk, Alice Edwards & Cornelis Wouters (eds.), Flight from Conflict and Violence: UNHCR’s Consultations on Refugee Status and Other Forms of International Protection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 116-140.
• Sharpe, M. (2013). The Impact of European Refugee Law on the Regional, Sub-Regional and National Planes in Africa. In H. Lambert, J. McAdam & M. Fullerton (eds.), The Global Reach of European Refugee Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 178-200.

Reports

• Abebe, T., Abebe, A. & Sharpe, M. (2019). After 50 years, Africa’s refugee policy still leads. Institute for Security Studies / ISS Africa Report.
• Abebe, T., Abebe, A. & Sharpe, M. (2019). Complementarity: The global compact on refugees and 1969 OAU refugee convention. Institute for Security Studies / ISS Africa Report.
• AAbebe, T., Abebe, A. & Sharpe, M. (2019). The 1969 OAU Refugee Convention at 50. Institute for Security Studies / ISS Africa Report.
• Sharpe, M. (2017, September). From Non-Interference to Non-Indifference: The African Union and the Responsibility to Protect [Consultancy Paper]. International Refugee Rights Initiative.
• Sharpe, Marina. (2013). The 1969 OAU Refugee Convention and the Protection of People fleeing Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence in the Context of Individual Refugee Status Determination (Research Paper No 30). UNHCR.
• Sharpe, M. (2011). Engaging with refugee protection? The Organization of African Unity and African Union since 1963 (Research Paper No 226). UNHCR.

Reviews and commentary

• Sharpe, M. (2026). Comment on the Report of the Independent International Panel on Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, 21(2), 322-333.

Op-eds

• Sharpe, M. (2022, April 17). Les crimes de guerre et le crime de guerre. La Presse.

• Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship (2011)

• Member of the Executive Committee, Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict, American Society of International Law (2026 – present)
• Member of the Editorial Board, International Journal of Refugee Law, Oxford University Press (2021 – present)
• Member of the Editorial Board, The Canadian Yearbook of International Law, Cambridge University Press (2026 – present)
• Director, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
• Volunteer, Canadian Red Cross
• Lawyer, New York, and England & Wales

• SSHRC Insight Grant, ‘Governed by Good Intentions? Enhancing the Rule of Law in International Humanitarian Action’, 2022 ($87,751)
• Canadian Defence Academy Research Programme grant
• SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
• Arnold & Blema Steinberg Postdoctoral Fellowship in International Migration Law and Policy, McGill University