Sara Kowal
Deputy Director (Practice), Eleos Justice, Monash University; Vice-President, Capital Punishment Justice Project, Australia
Qualifications
LLB (Bachelor of Laws); MPPM (Master of Pubic Policy and Management); FHEA (Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy)
Areas of Expertise
Foreign affairs and trade, International development and issues, Law and justice, Public service / government / public policy, Social justice and human rights
My Biography
Sara Kowal has practiced exclusively in criminal law since 2004 and has extensive experience in the defence of complex prosecutions including major drug matters, large frauds, homicides and sexual assaults. Sara is the Vice-President of the Capital Punishment Justice Project having joined the team in 2016. CPJP (formerly Reprieve Australia) is an NGO with the single aim to abolish the death penalty worldwide. In 2018, Sara was appointed by Monash University’s Law Faculty to establish the Eleos Anti-Death Penalty Clinic. Eleos Justice aims to be the leading research, advocacy and teaching hub focused on abolition of the death penalty in the Asia-Pacific region. The Clinic has now established partnerships with lawyers and advocates in ten jurisdictions across Asia who provide casework, research and advocacy briefs for law students to undertake under careful supervision. In November 2019, Sara joined the Executive of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN). ADPAN represents anti-death penalty advocates and organisations across 22 countries within the Asian region. In November 2021, Sara was elected to be Convenor of ADPAN for a two-year term. She also sits on three country specific working groups of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. In 2022, Sara Kowal was the lead author 'A Deadly Distraction: Why the Death Penalty is not the Answer to Rape in South Asia' (https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/report/A_Deadly_Distraction_Why_the_Death_Penalty_is_not_the_Answer_to_Rape_in_South_Asia/19786873).