Dr Janet Blake is Associate Professor of Law at Shahid Beheshti University (Tehran) where she teaches International, Environmental and Human Rights Law.She gained her MA in Classical Languages (Latin and Greek) from Aberdeen University (Scotland, UK) in 1983 and her PhD Degree in International Law from Dundee University (Scotland, UK) in 1996 and held a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Law School at Glasgow University (Scotland, UK) before she moved to Iran.She is a member of the Centre of Excellence for Education for Sustainable Development and the Centre of Excellence for Silk Roads Studies, both based at Shahid Beheshti University. Dr Blake is also a member of the Cultural Heritage Law Committee of the International Law Association and of the editorial board of the International Journal of Cultural Property (Cambridge University Press).She has acted as an International Consultant to UNESCO since 1999, mostly in the field of developing, drafting and implementing the 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage. From 2015-2018, Dr Blake helped to develop the new Overall Results Framework (ORF) for the 2003 Convention and she revised the periodic reporting mechanism in 2019 to align it with the ORF. Since 2015, she has also been a Global Facilitator for UNESCO’s Capacity-building programme under the 2003 Convention and has provided advice at governmental level on developing national law and policy for ICH safeguarding.Most recently, she was one of four facilitators selected to deliver the regional training in periodic reporting for national Focal Points of Latin America and Caribbean (LAC Group) countries. She has published eight academic books (three in Persian) and 48 academic articles, mostly in English in international peer-reviewed journals, and her main research interests are international cultural heritage law, human rights law, cultural diversity, and the legal dimensions of sustainable development. She published a research monograph on International Cultural Heritage Law with Oxford University Press in June 2015 and co-edited UNESCO 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention – A Commentary with Oxford University Press in 2020. Dr Blake is currently preparing a Practical Guide to the 2003 Convention for publication in 2022 by Edward Elgar publishers (UK).
