Speaker: Balakrishnan Rajagopal, United Nations (Geneva, Switzerland) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Cambridge, MA, USA)

Presented by the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism in collaboration with Carleton University’s School of Industrial Design and Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Balakrishnan Rajagopal has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing since 2020. He is also an associate professor of Law and Development in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

A lawyer by training, he is an expert on many areas of human rights, including economic, social, and cultural rights, the UN system, and the human rights challenges posed by development activities.

Dr. Rajagopal is the founder of the Displacement Research and Action Network at MIT, which leads research and engagement with communities, NGOs, and local and national authorities. He has conducted more than 20 years of research on social movements and human rights advocacy around the world, focusing on land and property rights, evictions, and displacement.

His education includes a law degree from the University of Madras, India, a master’s degree in law from the American University as well as an interdisciplinary doctorate in law from Harvard Law School.

Rajagopal served as a human rights advisor to the World Commission on Dams and has advised numerous governments and UN agencies on human rights issues. During the 1990s he worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia where he was responsible for human rights monitoring, investigation, education, and advocacy, and provided support to national authorities in law drafting.