Gill Surfleet

Background

About Gill Surfleet

I have worked in the Scottish Government since 2015 in various policy and legal positions. Most recently I lead a Unit supporting the identification of the most medically vulnerable in response to Covid. Prior to this I predominantly worked on human rights issues, leading a human rights bill team and heading up the Secretariat for The First Minister's Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership. https://humanrightsleadership.scot/. I also worked as a Solicitor for the Scottish Government Legal Directorate working on issues relating to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. Prior to working for the Scottish Government I was a litigator in the international department at Leigh Day, primarily assisting on the claim brought by Mau Mau veterans against the UK government and on a number of corporate accountability cases. In 2009 I qualified as a lawyer in a Glasgow law centre, working in the court team and with vulnerable women and children seeking asylum. I then went on to work in Uganda with UN WOMEN, on access to justice for conflict related sexual violence, with the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, as Legal Adviser with the Civic Coalition in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and at the Essex Transitional Justice Network. I also volunteered as a support worker at Glasgow Rape Crisis centre for four years and spent time volunteering within a Tamil community in Eastern Sri Lanka. I gained my LLB at the University of Glasgow and a Masters with distinction in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the University of Essex. I recently co-authored a book chapter entitled, ’Corporations and Redress in Transitional Justice Processes’.