About Intersect Observatory
Our mission
the Intersect Observatory’s purpose and goals
The Intersect Observatory is created as part of the HRJust project, for more information about the project, visit the project website.
The Intersect Observatory is the first one of its kind to include materials on human rights justifications in the field of climate, COVID and migration through gender and intersectionality perspective!
The Observatory´s function is to disseminate and communicate materials produced by specific Work Packages of the HRJust project.
In particular, the materials offered by the Observatory will help answering the following overarching questions in the project:
How do States defend and legitimise its actions through human rights?
Compare the general and the particular.
What role does geopolitics play in strategy, resources and reach.
What role has EU in comparison between internal to EU and external to EU?
Knowledge Archive
The Knowledge Archive includes the Mission document of the Observatory and Materials from WPs.
For accessing the Knowledge Archive, you must first Log in
(you must be a Consortium member)
Collect
Collect materials produced by the specific Work Packages of HRJust Project
Disseminate
Disseminate relevant materials in the form of working papers, work-in-progress seminars, web interviews and video blogs.
Target groups
of the Observatory
Civil Society
Policy and decision makers
Human rights institutions
Academic Experts
Team
of the Observatory
Team IIR
Dr Federica Cristani
Co-Funder and Co-Director of the Intersect Observatory
Federica is the Head of the Centre for International Law at the Institute of International Relations Prague (CZ). She holds a PhD in international law from the University of Verona, Italy. She specializes in international law, state responsibility, international economic law and international law of cyberspace. She is co-Leader of the Empirical Work Package (WP)7 and also team member of WP6 in HRJust. She has also co-funded and is co-directing the Intersect Observatory. She is actively contributing to the activities and publications of the Intersect Observatory, as well in the events, academic publications and policy outputs of WP7.
Prof. Veronika Bílková
Full Professor
Veronika Bílková is Professor in international law at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague, head of the University Centre for Conflict and Post-Conflict Studies at this faculty and senior researcher at the Centre for International Law at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. She is Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission) of the Council of Europe on behalf of the Czech Republic and member of the Management Board of the EU FRA. In 2022-2024, she was member of four expert missions on Ukraine established under the OSCE Moscow Mechanism. Her research focuses on the use of force, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights, and the rule of law. She is actively contributing to the activities and publications of the Intersect Observatory, as well in the events, academic publications and policy outputs of WP7.
Ms. Barbora Lukešová
Research Assistant
Barbora is currently finishing her Master’s degree at the Faculty of Law of Charles University (Prague, CZ) and working as a Research Assistant at the Centre of International Law of the Institute of International Relations Prague. Within the Intersect Observatory (WP7), she provides research and coordination support, including work on the observatory database and Intersect catalogues, research on thematic materials, the co-organization of the Human Rights Justification: Empirical Webinar Series and support to the organization of the Gender Lecture Series 2025.
Ms. Magdalena Florová
Research Assistant
Magdalena is a law student at Charles University in Prague. She became a research assistant at the Institute of International Relations in March 2025, where she contributes to the development of the climate litigation database. Her work includes collecting data for the database and assisting with the climate tool, as well as conducting research on civil society engagement and participating in the implementation of the activities of the Intersect Observatory.
Ms. Paulina Morales Avila
Research Assistant
Paulina is an International Relations and Human Rights Graduate from Anglo-American University. In the past years, she has been actively involved in feminist-led initiatives through collaboration with Civil Society Organisations, and is currently developing research on gender quotas in Indigenous contexts. Her current role as Research Assistant for the Human Rights Project includes contributing to the gender and intersectionality components of the project, as well as supporting the development of the Intersect Observatory.
Mr. Vlastimil Lisák
Research Assistant
Vlastimil is an informatics student at CULS Prague. He works as the webmaster and content manager of the HR Just Observatory website at the Institute of International Relations (IIR) in Prague. Within the Intersect project, he implements design improvements to enhance user experience and functionality and codes custom website features. As site administrator, he manages user access and resolves technical issues related to plugins and the CMS.
Team UNIBE
Prof. Elisa Fornalé
Co-Funder and Co-Director of the Intersect Observatory
Elisa Fornalé is an Associate Professor at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, focusing on international law, climate change, human mobility, and human rights. She leads climate research in the HEurope project and previously directed major projects on gender equality, climate-mobility, and climate security. She also serves as the WTI’s Gender Coordinator and has contributed to global legal discussions, including the Global Compact for Migration.
Ms. Felicia Meyer
Research Assistant
Felicia Meyer holds both a Bachelor and a Master of Law from the University of Bern. During her Master’s studies in 2022, she joined the research team of Professor Elisa Fornalé, contributing to the Gender Equality in the Mirror (GEM) Project while working on her master’s thesis on Women’s Rights and Climate Change: New Challenges. Following the completion of her degree, she continued her academic journey as a research assistant for the Human Rights Justification (HRJust) Project. Alongside her current research activities, Felicia is pursuing an additional Master’s degree in Gender Studies and Political Science at the University of Basel.
Ms. Martina Pennino
Research Assistant
Martina Pennino, a master’s law student at the University of Bologna, expanded her academic horizons through an Erasmus semester at the University of Bern, where she now serves as a research assistant under Professor Elisa Fornalé on the “Human Rights Justification” project, specializing in civil society engagement; she also collaborates with the Institute of Civil Law for her master’s thesis in comparative commercial law. Her international journey includes participating in the Blended Intensive Programme on global citizenship at Jagiellonian University (Kraków) and the European project “Io Penso Europeo” in Berlin during high school, which ignited her passion for European legal and policy issues.
Team UGOT
Team UoH
Presentation
of the Observatory