Isfahan Merali

Isfahan Merali is Tribunal Senior Counsel to the Consent and Capacity Board, a quasi-judicial tribunal, where she practices in the areas of administrative and mental health law. She was previously seconded as Counsel and Deputy Registrar to the Ontario Judicial Council/Justices of the Peace Review Council, Office of the Chief Justice, Ontario Court of Justice. And from 1995 to 2012, Isfahan practiced human rights and administrative law as Counsel to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. 

She was also the Commission’s Acting Registrar during a period of significant transition within the human rights system in Ontario. In addition, she has served as the Acting Director of the International Human Rights Programme at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, and in 2009-2010 she was chosen to direct the University of Toronto’s tri-campus Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office.

Isfahan has acted as a consultant and Board Director to diverse non-governmental organizations on international human rights law issues, and advocated on their behalf at the United Nations. She is the co-editor of Giving Meaning to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press) and author of various peer-reviewed journal articles and manuals on human rights and international law. She has presented in Canada and abroad on topics including human rights, international women’s rights and children’s rights. Isfahan is a recipient of the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto’s 2015 Award for Legal Excellence & Leadership. She is the Toronto Lawyer’s Association’s 2022 recipient of the prestigious Honsberger Award. She was the first racialized Trustee of the Law Foundation of Ontario, and is the first female Muslim-born and South Asian Bencher elected in the Law Society’s history.

Isfahan is a graduate of the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and was selected as its Human Rights Fellow from 1999-2000.

For more information, please see: www.isfahanmerali.com