Challenging Power Through Law, Human Rights and Persistence

This weeks PBA Change Maker is Rayana Ajam, a Media Associate at Amnesty International Australia and a Juris Doctor student at UNSW. At 23, she brings over four years’ experience across casework, crisis response, strategic advocacy and communications with Amnesty International Australia.

As a Global Voices Policy Fellow, she attended the UN General Assembly in New York, focusing on the Sixth Committee, and developed a policy proposal to reform Australia’s arms export controls in line with its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and other multilateral regimes.

Her academic and professional experience includes interning at Legal Aid NSW in strategic law reform and serving as Associate Editor at the UNSW Human Rights Institute. In 2020, she represented UN Youth Australia on its Middle East Delegation. She was recognised as a Young Woman to Watch in International Affairs in 2024 and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, International Relations, and Sociology from the University of Sydney.

Describe your career trajectory and how you got to your current position.

It was back in 2020 (before Covid-19 hit), during my final year of high school, that I travelled to the Occupied Palestinian Territory with UN Youth Australia. I remember sitting with a small team of lawyers working to reunite Palestinian families and challenge restrictions on freedom of movement between Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. They were doing deeply human, urgent work, day in, day out. Walking out of that meeting, I had a very clear sense that this is what I want to do.

I feel I’ve come of age at a strange time in history, one characterised by mis and disinformation, widespread destruction and crises, and visible impunity for grave international crimes. Witnessing the erosion of the international rules-based order has instilled in me an urgency to act.

I started at Amnesty International Australia as a casework intern, supporting advocacy and humanitarian resettlement for people at risk, many from refugee, asylum seeker, and Indigenous communities. That work showed me how knowledge of the law can be powerful when used well. So, after my undergraduate degree, I went straight into a Juris Doctor, which I’m now completing.

Alongside my studies, I’ve been privileged enough to pursue opportunities that focus on imminent issues within the international law space. Last year, I attended the UN General Assembly, where I became particularly interested in international criminal law, disarmament, and the role of multilateralism. I developed a policy proposal aimed at strengthening Australia’s arms export controls through the implementation of a more rigorous end-use verification mechanism so we can better ensure that what is exported doesn’t end up in the hands of those implicated in atrocity crimes.

That’s the direction I hope to continue in, work that sits at the intersection of law and policy in order to promote accountability and justice.

I think what drives me is rooted in where I come from. As a child of immigrants, I’ve witnessed the sacrifices made by those before me. My father lived under apartheid in South Africa, so ideas of justice, resistance, and accountability have been a part of everyday life.

Because of that, this work doesn’t feel optional. It feels like a responsibility to carry forward an ongoing fight for justice, and to contribute, in whatever way I can, to challenging injustice wherever it persists.

I’m still very early in my career, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned so far, it’s to follow what genuinely drives you. Pay attention to what you find intellectually exciting, the work that motivates you to get up in the morning and pursue it seriously.

We’re living in a time where career paths are far less conventional, and the digital age has opened up opportunities that didn’t exist before. It’s possible to find yourself in spaces and conversations you might never have imagined being part of. So, I’d tell myself and others starting to lean into that; be curious, take opportunities as they come, and don’t feel confined by a single, linear path.

The words of Nelson Mandela: “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived, but what difference we have made to the lives of others.”

 

I’ve recently started watching the movie Nuremberg. It’s incredibly interesting and offers great insight into the foundations and early development of international criminal law.