Hilal Elver is a research professor at UC Santa Barbara and Global Distinguished Fellow at the Resnick Food Law and Policy Center UCLA Law School. She has a law degree, a Ph.D. from the University of Ankara Law School, and SJD from the UCLA Law School. She started her teaching career at the University of Ankara Faculty of Law. During this period, she was also appointed by the Turkish government as the founding legal advisor of the Ministry of Environment, and the General Director of Women’s Status. In 1994, she was appointed to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Chair in Environmental Diplomacy at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, University of Malta. Since 1996 she has been teaching at several universities in the United States and abroad. Throughout her career, she has done extensive work with national and international human rights NGOs.

Her publications have focused mainly on international environmental law, women’s rights and international human rights law. Her book, Peaceful Uses of International Rivers: Case of Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, was published in 2002. Her most recent book, The Headscarf Controversy, Secularism and Freedom of Religion published in 2012 by the Oxford University Press.

She has written numerous chapters in books and articles in academic journals ranging from Global Justice, New Constitutionalism, Secularism, women’s rights, water rights, environmental security, climate change diplomacy and food security. She was appointed Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food by the Human Rights Council in May 2014 and assumed her functions on 2 June 2014.