Dr Rebecca Smyth (she/her)

Dr Rebecca Smyth is a Senior Lecturer in Law. An interdisciplinary scholar, she specialises in critical approaches (feminist, queer, disability, TWAIL/postcolonial) to human rights and refugee law. She holds a BA in European Studies and Masters in Gender and Women's Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and an LLM and PhD in International Human Rights Law from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to joining Exeter, Rebecca was a Lecturer in Law at Birmingham City University from 2021-2025.

Rebecca's primary area of research is abortion rights and reproductive autonomy/justice, with a focus on El Salvador. In 2022 she was awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research grant for the project Abortion, reproductive freedom, and sexual and reproductive health and rights: lessons from El Salvador. She spent two months at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during which time she interviewed Salvadoran activists, representatives of NGOs and advocacy groups, UN human rights experts, and academics. She has published two journal articles relating to this research and her monograph is under contract with University of California Press. As part of the UPR Project at BCU’s Centre for Human Rights, Rebecca led on the expert stakeholder submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review of El Salvador on the human rights violations arising from the country’s complete criminalisation of abortion. She also led on the creation of a comprehensive database of abortion laws on paper and in practice across Europe for Supporting Abortions for Everyone (S.A.F.E.) as part of its Abortopedia, available to activists, policymakers, and the general public on S.A.F.E.'s website. 

Rebecca is currently developing a Feminist Judgments Project in International Refugee Law. With Dr Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi, she is co-editing a special issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies featuring contributions by academics, practitioners, and people with lived experience of displacement that re-imagine key legal texts from intersectional feminist perspectives. As part of the Gaza and Gender Governance research group led by Michelle Burgis-Kasthala and Heidi Matthews, Rebecca is co-authoring a chapter with Nahed Samour on genocide and reproductive (in)justice.

Rebecca has over a decade of experience in teaching and a particular interest in critical pedagogies. While undertaking her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, she was nominated for two Edinburgh University Students' Association Teaching Awards and she won the 2018/2019 Politics and International Relations Tutor Prize. During her time at BCU, she was nominated for the 2023 Inspirational Teacher of the Year Award and the Sir Lenny Henry Inclusivity Award. She has was an invited guest lecturer at the University of Giessen International Online Winter University in International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law in 2023 and the Roccella Summer School of International Law in July 2025. She has co-led on research projects aiming to improve higher education for disabled, minoritised, and racialised students, and welcomes opportunities to collaborate with students and colleagues on making university a public good accessible to all.

Publications

In preparation

1.     Rebecca Smyth, Abortion and Human Rights in El Salvador (monograph, under contract with University of California Press)

2.     Rebecca Smyth and Nahed Samour, "Reproductive Justice and Genocide in Gaza" (chapter in edited collection by Heidi Matthews and Michelle Burgis-Kasthala)

In press

1.     Rebecca Smyth, "Lost (and Found?) in Translation: Reproductive Autonomy/Justice/Rights across Borders" in Farnush Ghadery and Jayne Huckerby (eds) Research Handbook on Gender and Human Rights (Elgar 2025)

2.     Rebecca Smyth and Rajun Dhami, "Breaking down barriers: supporting students with disabilities in the transition from further to higher education. A conversation" in Jess Guth, Jennifer McCloy (eds) Empowering Law Students (Routledge 2025)

Published

Journal articles

1.     Rebecca Smyth, "Abortion Exceptionalism in International Human Rights Law" (2024) 46 Human Rights Quarterly 671

2.     Rebecca Smyth, "Reproductive Citizenship" (2024) 50 Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 189

3.     Rebecca Smyth, "Abortion and SRHRs in international human rights law: missed opportunities in Manuela v El Salvador" (2023) 32 Feminist Legal Studies 123

4.     Rebecca Smyth, "A system at the vanguard: the evolution of women’s human rights in the inter-American Human Rights System, 1948-present" (2022) 22 Revista do Instituto Brasileiro de Direitos Humanos 269

5.     Rebecca Smyth, "'Repeal the 8th’ in a Transnational Context: Ireland, El Salvador, and the Role of the Human Rights System in Advancing Abortion Access'" (2020) 124 Feminist Review 192

6.     Rebecca Smyth and Rajun Dhami, "Breaking down barriers: supporting students with disabilities in the transition from further to higher education. Findings and Reflections" International Journal of Disability and Social Justice (spring 2025)

Book chapters

1.     Rebecca Smyth, "Gender and Justice in International Human Rights Law: The Need for an Intersectional Feminist Approach to Advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights" in Elaine Wood (ed), Gender Justice: Theoretical Practices of Intersectional Identity (Vancouver, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 2020)

2.     Rebecca Smyth, "Mary Robinson, A Woman of Meitheal" in Kasey McCall-Smith, Jan Wouters, and Felipe Gómez Isa (eds), The Faces of Human Rights (Oxford, Hart 2019)

Book reviews

1.     Rebecca Smyth, "Fiona Bloomer and Emma Campbell (eds), Decriminalizing Abortion in Northern Ireland, Volumes 1 (Legislation and Protest) and 2 (Allies and Abortion Provision)" (2023) 31 Medical Law Review

Blogs

1.     Rebecca Smyth, "Abortion in International Human Rights Law at a Crossroads: Some Thoughts on Beatriz v El Salvador" Völkerrechtsblog, 29 May 2023, available at: https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/abortion-in-international-human-rights-law-at-a-crossroads/  

2.     Rebecca Smyth, "S.F.K. v. Russia and G.M. and Others v. Moldova: the promises and pitfalls of ECtHR forced abortion jurisprudence" Strasbourg Observers, 17 February 2023, available at: https://strasbourgobservers.com/2023/02/17/s-f-k-v-russia-and-g-m-and-others-v-moldova-the-promise-and-pitfalls-of-ecthr-forced-abortion-jurisprudence/

3.     Rebecca Smyth, "Manuela v El Salvador: A missed opportunity for advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights" Oxford Human Rights Hub, 14 February 2022, available at: https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/manuela-v-el-salvador-a-missed-opportunity-for-advancing-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights/

Expert stakeholder submissions

1.     Rebecca Smyth, Alice Storey, Rebecca Lawrence, "Expert Stakeholder Submission: Women’s Rights" submitted to El Salvador’s Universal Periodic Review Fourth Cycle, 48th Session of the UPR Working Group, UN Human Rights Council, Jan-Feb 2025

2.     Alice Storey, Lissa Griffin, Rebecca Smyth, "Expert Stakeholder Submission: Women’s Rights" submitted to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Universal Periodic Review Fourth Cycle, 41st Session of the UPR Working Group, UN Human Rights Council, March 2022

Podcast episodes

1.     Rebecca Smyth, "Challenges to Reproductive Rights in El Salvador, part 1" Cuerpa Política podcast, January 2022, available at: https://open.spotify.com/show/4D0An1MDfm1RWF7XWUMKqc