Margaret Wachenfeld
IHRB Senior Research Fellow, Managing Director, Themis Research
Margaret is an international lawyer and policy adviser with expertise and experience in applying and linking key international developments and standards related to human rights, human development, good governance, extractives, environment, and climate change to the work of international organisations and the private sector.
As a senior research fellow, Margaret is a Senior Adviser to the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) and a member of the board of the Centro Regional de Empresas y Emprendimientos Responsables (CREER). She is also the co-chair of methodology for the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB).
Margaret started her career as legal counsel to the Danish Institute for Human Rights. After practicing law in the commercial law firm White & Case, focusing on environmental and corporate responsibility issues, she joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC) (World Bank Group) to work on environmental and social dimensions of project finance transactions and later served as the principal human rights advisor at the IFC. More recently, Margaret was senior policy advisor to UNICEF, covering a wide range of child rights issues.
Margaret serves on a number of advisory boards including the European Parliament, AdvisoryBoard of the Responsible Business Conduct Working Group, OECD Advisory Group on Responsible Business Conduct in the Financial Sector, GRI Technical Committee to review the GRI human rights-related reporting standards, OHCHR informal Advisory Group for the Accountability and Remedy Project – Parts I, II and III, UNEP FI, PRI and Generation Foundation Reference Group for the Impact Legal Framework Project, UNEP-WCMC Independent International Advisory Panel of the Development Corridors Partnership, the Alliance for Corporate Transparency, and the Advisory Council for WikiRate.
Margaret has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in biology from Wellesley College, a juris doctor (JD) and masters in international and comparative law (LLM) from Duke University School of Law and a PhD in law (licentiat) from the University of Copenhagen.
