Dr. Inbar Cohen is a researcher at the Child and Youth Rights Program at the Minerva Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law. Dr. Cohen is also a faculty member of the school of Social Work, at Sapir College. She earned her PhD in Criminology at the University of Haifa and was a member of the Grad Team for leading doctoral students. She holds a BSW in Social Work from the University of Haifa and an MA in NGO management and in Criminology (supplemental studies) from the Hebrew University.
Her main scholarship concerns are therapeutic jurisprudence, critical criminology, and critical discourse analysis. Her research focus is on the interchange between behavioral sciences and the law. Her PhD study focused on the implementation of mental health knowledge in sexual assault criminal proceedings and the radical change it causes to the legal discretion, turning it to "theralegal" discretion. In her postdoctoral studies Dr. Cohen focused on Problem-Solving courts in Israel and the US. Her research at Bar-Ilan University focused on the necessity of the adversary tension in the Israeli Community Courts. Her research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore examined therapeutic interventions practiced in Prostitution Diversion Programs in Philadelphia. Her research was published in leading academic journals in the area of behavioral sciences and the law.
At the Child and Youth Rights Program Dr. Cohen is studying Organizational Social Climate in youth rehabilitative institutions in Israel, operating under the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs (the Department of Youth – "Hasut Hanoa'r").
Previous to her academic career Dr. Cohen was the head of the Socio-Legal Clinic for Youth and Young Adults At-Risk at the Faculty of Law, the College of Management' and also had worked as a social worker with Mentally challenged youth, juvenile offenders and was the head of the Witness Assistance Program at the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Center.
Prof. Olga Khazov-Gurvich is a visiting research fellow at the Child and Youth Rights Program at the Minerva Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law. Olga is also affiliated with the Private Law Research Centre named after S.S. Alekseev (Moscow) as a leading legal scholar. She holds a PhD (in Law) from the Institute of State & Law within the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and LL.M. degree from Cornell Law School, USA. Until September 2023, Olga was employed by the Law Faculty of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, and, until 2022, also by the National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’, Faculty of Law (Moscow), where she taught a course International Family Law. Before that, until summer 2018, for more than 30 years, she had been working as a senior legal scholar at the Institute of State & Law. For two terms, Olga served as a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2013-2021). In 2022, Olga was elected as a member of Academia Europaea.
Olga’s main academic interests are in the field of international/comparative family law and child law. She is a regular speaker at international conferences and workshops, and is the author of numerous scholarly articles and chapters published in Russia and abroad. Her most recent article ‘Fifty Years of Family Law: Child’s Rights and the Family’ was published in International Survey of Family Law 2024 (Intersentia).
At the Child and Youth Rights Program, Olga is involved in a research project on the child’s right to identity. The research consists of two parts, where the first part deals with the child’s right to identity in the context of child's ‘family relations’ and access information about origin – an issue that was triggered by development in assisted reproductive technologies. The second part of her research is focused on issues related to formation of Israeli national identity of Russian-speaking repatriated children and measures that help them to gain a sense of belonging to Israel and Israeli national identity or conflict-free bi-national identity. It will rely on qualitative research, consisting mainly of in-depth interviews with school-age children, their parents and teachers.
Dr. Adv. Rita khawaly- Esawi is a doctor of law, and hold a Master’s degree in Law with a specialization in Law and Health. She is an expert in children's rights, with a focus on minors' right to participate in decision-making processes that affect them. her doctoral research examined the issue of independent legal representation for minors in adoption proceedings. Her article on the approach of Israeli law toward minors' right to participate in decision-making was published in the international journal UAM Studia Edukacyjne.
In June 2024, she joined the Children's and Youth Rights Program at the Minerva Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a postdoctoral fellow. Her current post-doctoral research focuses on the involvement of children with short stature in medical decision-making processes concerning their treatment, examining how this involvement impacts their understanding of and adherence to treatment. The study focuses on the considerations guiding medical staff in including children in medical decision-making, as well as the psychological, cognitive, and behavioral implications of their involvement or lack thereof. For several years, she served as a lawyer in the legal department of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, specializing in legal representation and support in complex and sensitive matters involving minors and vulnerable individuals.