Research Fellow, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP); Director, Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR), Athens
Eva Tzavala is a legal expert in public international law and human rights. She is a Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), leading the GRACE project on guaranteeing rights and EU Charter enforcement. She also serves as the Director of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR), an independent state authority (the National Human Rights Institution of Greece). She joined the GNCHR in 2018 and served in many positions, among them as Chair of the Working Group on Migration and Asylum of the European Network of NHRIs’ (ENNHRI) based in Brussels (2021-2024). She also works as an independent legal consultant, contributing to external evaluations of the European Union Agency for Asylum.
She has extensive experience in training both students and professionals (including lawyers, judges, security forces, and civil society representatives) and has coordinated or participated in more than ten research projects in Greece and abroad. A founding member of the Athens Public International Law Center at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, she also collaborates regularly with the Refugee and Migration Studies Hub.
She holds a Law degree from the University of Athens and a Master’s degree in International Law and International Organizations from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is the author of several studies on the rule of law, human rights, and refugee and migration issues. Her previous professional experience includes work with leading law firms, quasi-judicial public bodies, research institutes, and international organizations, such as the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in New York and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees during the refugee crisis in Greece.