University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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Damon Barrett

Senior Lecturer

School of Global
Studies
Mail
damon.barrett@gu.se
Visiting address
Konstepidemins väg 2
41314 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 700
40530 Göteborg

About Damon Barrett

I’m a senior lecturer in human rights, focusing primarily on health and human rights. Prior to moving into academia I worked in international NGOs as an advocate and in senior management, where I worked mostly on drug use, HIV and global health governance.

My favourite part of academic work is teaching. A couple of years ago I won the Sahlgrenska Academy Student Union award for teaching in health and human rights, and it’s still my proudest academic achievement. I teach primarily in our Masters in Human Rights, and our Masters in Global Health. I am also responsible for the stand-alone undergraduate course ‘Human rights in policy and practice’.

My work has focused on one pretty big question – what does it mean to adopt a human rights-based approach to drugs? Through that question I’ve worked on issues ranging from international law and global governance, to the death penalty and responsibilities of international donors for rights abuses, to health service provision.

I’m especially interested in the rights of the child, and my current research is about harm reduction for legal minors who inject drugs from the perspective of the best interests of the child.

An ongoing project I’m really proud of is the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy, where our team worked with a large group of international partners to apply human rights standards to the whole spectrum of drug control, from production to use. The Guidelines are free for everyone to use, so please feel free to explore them and get in touch if you have any questions.