Alyssa Yamamoto

Alyssa T. Yamamoto is Senior Legal and Policy Advisor at the Atlantic Council Strategic Litigation Project, which focuses on prevention and accountability efforts for serious human rights violations and atrocity crimes. Alyssa previously served as Legal Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, working on human rights and gender mainstreaming in counterterrorism and national security. She also worked at an international law firm, where she specialized in public international law and international arbitration. Her representations involved litigation before the International Court of Justice and U.S. courts, including under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute, Torture Victim Protection Act, and International Organizations Immunities Act, and communications before the UN human rights treaty bodies and special procedures. Prior to law school, Alyssa worked in international development and global health, including as a researcher and engagement manager for the nonprofits Partners In Health and Village Health Works respectively.

Alyssa received a J.D. from Yale Law School and A.B. from Harvard College. In addition to her affiliation with the Human Rights Center at University of Minnesota Law School, Alyssa was a visiting fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. She has published on, among other issues, state responsibility and modes of liability under international law.