Antonia Kirkland

Antonia Kirkland is a human rights lawyer with an intricate working knowledge of how to use international law and human rights mechanisms to advance gender equality for all women and girls. She is currently the Director, Legal Equality & UN Liaison at Equality Now. In this role, Antonia provides thought leadership and technical legal support to hold governments accountable under international law to uphold all women’s and girls’ rights. She serves on the Steering Committees of UN Women’s Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, and the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, and served on the Global Programme Advisory Committee (GPAC) of the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women for 10 years. Antonia has been part of the Equality Now family for over 20 years and has worked across all of the organization’s program areas, including ending sexual violence, online and offline, and ending harmful practices, and has contributed to Equality Now’s work in the reform of over 130 laws.

Previously, Antonia was the coordinator of the Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation and served as a consultant for Equality Now on an amicus brief for a case before the US Supreme Court on nationality rights.

She has authored and contributed to many of Equality Now’s reports and legal briefs, including:

• • Word and Deeds – Holding Governments in the Beijing + 30 Review Process

  • Amicus brief in the Equal Rights Amendment case, Commonwealth of. Virginia, et al v. Ferriero

• • The World’s Shame: The Global Rape Epidemic – How laws around the world are failing to protect women and girls from sexual violence 

• • The State We’re In: Ending Sexism in Nationality Laws 

• • Protecting the Girl Child: Using the Law to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Related Human Rights Violations

• • We Change the Rules podcast

Antonia has published widely and spoken on the issues of legal/constitutional equality, sex/gender discriminatory laws, sexual violence, and feminist leadership at the United Nations. She has been quoted in The Guardian, Reuters, and The New York Times, in addition to television and radio interviews. Her writing and commentary have been published by Inter Press Service and Ms. magazine, among others.

Antonia was inspired by a poster in her fifth-grade classroom of Norman Rockwell’s “Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You,” which depicted people from all over the world standing together and is on display at the United Nations. Antonia holds a B.A. in International Relations from Brown University, an M.Sc. in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law.

When she’s not working, Antonia enjoys walking, reading, and trying different cuisines with her family.

She is available for interviews in English.