APR2P Webinar Series

Bangladesh at a Crossroads: Assessing Atrocity Risks and Advancing Atrocity Prevention Strategies

Thu 23 Jul 2026 1:00pm–2:00pm

Opening remarks Ms Sara Kowal

Sara is a criminal lawyer and Director of Eleos Justice at Monash University's law faculty, a research, advocacy, and teaching hub focused on abolishing the death penalty in the Asia-Pacific region. She is also active in anti-death penalty advocacy, serving as Vice-President of the Capital Punishment Justice Project (an Australian NGO) and Deputy Convenor of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, representing advocates across 20 Asian countries.

Speakers

Dr Mubashar Hasan

Dr. Mubashar Hasan is a research fellow at the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and an adjunct research fellow at Western Sydney University's Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative (HADRI). A Bangladeshi-Australian survivor of torture and enforced disappearance in Bangladesh, he is a prominent advocate for refugee rights in Australia and human rights in Bangladesh.

A sought-after commentator on Bangladesh, he has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, Time, The Guardian, SBS News, ABC News, BBC News, Channel 9, Sky News Australia, and Al Jazeera.

He has authored and co-edited several books, including The Long Reach of the Strong Arm: Evolving Forms of Transnational Authoritarianism (Palgrave, 2026), Masks of Authoritarianism (Palgrave, 2022), Islam and Politics in Bangladesh (Palgrave, 2020), and Radicalization in South Asia (Sage, 2019), along with more than fifteen journal articles and book chapters. He has consulted for the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the US Institute of Peace, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

Dr Francis Tom Temprosa

Dr. Francis Tom Temprosa is a lawyer, legal scholar, and adjunct professor of international law and human rights at Ateneo de Manila University, specializing in public international law, human rights, international criminal law, refugee law, and statelessness. He holds an SJD from the University of Michigan Law School and was a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge's Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, with a doctoral dissertation on investigations, evidence, and legitimacy in international legal institutions, including atrocity prevention and response.

He previously served as Director at the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and worked with UNHCR, and currently serves as Regional Director of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network. He has published widely on human rights, criminal justice, accountability, and the protection of vulnerable communities.

Aaqib Md Shatil

Aaqib Md Shatil is a research and communication professional who has worked with research groups, media outlets, and development organisations, including BRAC and UNDP. He led the Energy and Infrastructure Policy Network at the Youth Policy Forum and is part of its research group for the Coalition for Upgrading Bangladesh Economy (CUBE). He holds an MSc in Sustainable Development from the University of Sussex and is passionate about climate, nature, and renewable energy.

Dr Sarah Teitt

Dr Sarah Teitt is Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland. Her expertise focuses on atrocity prevention, civilian protection, and peacebuilding in the Asia Pacific, with particular interest in China's evolving role. Her work has appeared in journals including Cooperation and Conflict, International Peacekeeping, the Australian Journal of International Affairs, Survival, the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, and Global Governance. She is co-editor of China-North Korea Relations: Between Development and Security (2020) and Responsibility to Protect and Women, Peace and Security (2013), and serves on the editorial team of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

From 2019–2025, she was an ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow. She has extensive experience designing and delivering training and policy dialogue programs for organisations including the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, UN Women, the UN System Staff College, AICHR, and ACWC, among others. She founded and led the annual Australia-China Dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect (2014–2020), co-hosted with the China Institute of International Studies.

In 2016, she co-founded the Asia Pacific Partnership for Atrocity Prevention (APPAP), serving as Co-Chair of its Gender Working Group (2017–2020) and currently as lead convenor of the APPAP Secretariat.