biography

Axana Soltan is an international lawyer and legal scholar specializing in international criminal law, human rights, and gender justice — with a particular focus on advancing the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. She serves at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in Geneva as a legal affairs fellow and is an Affiliate of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

She holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) and is the current U.S. President Eisenhower Scholar at the University of Oxford. While at The George Washington University Law School, she was a GW Law Merit Scholar, recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Award, and served in the judicial chambers of the Honorable Judge Michael J. Ryan at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Soltan’s legal scholarship has appeared in academic journals, including the Cambridge Journal of International Law, University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, University of Missouri Law Review, and Loyola Public Interest Law Journal, and has been cited by United Nations Special Rapporteurs in reports to the UN General Assembly. She is also the lead Co-Author of Brown University’s Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Research Agenda, a grant-funded interdisciplinary initiative bringing together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to explore women’s participation in peacebuilding across the Middle East.

In 2024, Soltan was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 and received the Palace of Justice Justitia Award. Soltan is among the emerging global voices shaping the legal architecture to confront gender apartheid in international law.