Michelle Leighton

Chief, Labour Migration Branch
International Labour Organization

Ms Leighton is Chief of the Labour Migration Branch for the International Labour Organization where she directs the Office’s work on labour migration and mobility, and supports policies and programs related to migrants and refugees.  She has expertise in the fields of international law, labour migration, human rights, and economic development, and received her LL.M degree from the London school of Economics and Political Science, London, England in 1987.

She serves as an expert appointed to the UNFCCC Task Force on displacement related to climate change, and formerly a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Migration. Ms. Leighton has led global and field research teams, including on linkages between human migration and development, environmental and climate change. She has taught on law faculties in Asia, Europe and the United States and authored numerous publications. Following her service as a Fulbright Scholar in Central Asia, she co-founded the American University of Central Asia’s Tian Shan Policy Center at the American University in Bishkek. She has been an adviser and consultant to international institutions, government, and non-profit organizations, leading technical cooperation projects in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Central Asia. She served as the Munich Re Foundation Chair on Social Vulnerability for the UNU-Environment and Human Security institute, Bonn, Germany, as an expert on the German Marshall Fund’s Trans-Atlantic Study Team on Climate and Migration, and Director of the Center for Law and Global Justice Human Rights Program at the University of San Francisco Law School.

Early in her career, she co-founded the NGO Natural Heritage Institute based in San Francisco, leading policy programs related to environment, migration, corporate social responsibility, and human rights.