ABOUT US

UCL is one of the world’s leading multi-disciplinary universities. We operate in a global context and are committed to excellence, innovation and the promotion of global understanding in all our activities: research, teaching, learning, enterprise and community engagement. Founded in 1826, UCL was the first university in England to admit students regardless of race, religion or gender. It continues to thrive on the creativity and diversity of its community which today comprises more than 13,000 staff and 18,300 undergraduates and 20,600 postgraduate students from 150 different countries across the globe. UCL is consistently ranked within the world’s top ten universities (QS World University Rankings).
The Department of Political Science at UCL is a leading international centre for political research. It offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all major fields of politics, as well as public management and public policy. Over 150 people make up the Department of Political Science including academic, teaching, and research staff, professional services, and MPhil/PhD students (for an overview of our research, see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/drupal/site_political-science/research). More details about the Department of Political Science and UCL can be found at below and at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/political-science/ and https://www.ucl.ac.uk/about/.
BreaktheBias project seeks to address one of the most challenging problems of international human rights law – the issue of unequal access to human rights justice. Everyone is said to have a right to have their claim heard in court and receive redress. But the reality at international level does not appear to reflect this. Of all successful claims made before the European Court of Human Rights, only 15% are made by women. The rest are made by men (53%) and anonymous applicants or organisations.
In a similar vein, individuals who can afford a lawyer before UN Treaty Bodies seem to be more successful in having their claim declared admissible and proceed to the merits stage than claimants who appear on their own. And we know almost nothing about how many elderly or disabled victims of human rights violations actually end up in court.
Whilst current scholarship has blamed such disparities on inconsistencies in adjudication and on the opacity of rules regulating access to international justice, the examples raise questions of systemic fairness and potential inequality in accessing justice for different groups of claimants.
In an era of increasing inequality and loud expressions of racial, ethnic, gender, and other prejudice, this project investigates how our current structures and practices – as international lawyers – create and perpetuate inequities for less powerful groups.

The Department of Political Science is seeking applications for a full-time Postdoctoral Research Associate. The position is part of the BreaktheBias Project, funded by UKRI and led by Professor Veronika Fikfak.
The Postdoctoral Research Associate will be responsible for data collection from different human rights case law databases, coding (including machine learning) and data analysis. They will also assist with mapping out different actors that facilitate access to justice and be involved in tracing barriers to justice. The Associate will work closely with other members of the team. They will be expected to present their work at academic conferences and workshops.
The position is available from October 2025, for 36 months.
The salary for the Research Associate position will be £44,480 - £46,796 (incl London Allowance), depending on experience.
We encourage applications from those who are underrepresented in the sector and at UCL including but, not exclusive, to non-graduates, disabled, D/deaf and neurodiverse people, LGBTQ+ people, people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds, especially women.
Deadline for applications is 4th July 2025.
If you have any queries related to the role, please contact Professor Veronika Fikfak (v.fikfak@ucl.ac.uk).
If you have any queries related to the application process, please contact Niamh Sutton (niamh.sutton@ucl.ac.uk).