Anne Levesque studied history and political science before earning her law degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa (French Common Law Program) in 2007. She completed a Master’s in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford in 2016, where she studied thanks to the generous support of the Alma & Baxter Ricard Foundation. Her research and publications focus on human rights and public interest litigation. Her work has been published in the Oxford Journal of Human Rights Practice, the Journal of Women and the Law, the Journal of Law and Equality and the Canadian Bar Review and she regularly contributes to The Conversation
Anne was called to the Ontario Bar in 2008 and practiced human rights law in private firms as well as a community legal clinic. She has represented clients before various administrative tribunals and courts at all levels in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as before international and regional human rights treaty bodies.
She is one of the lawyers who has represented, on a pro bono basis, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada in its landmark human rights complaint, which led to a historic 2016 decision affirming the right to equality for over 165,000 First Nations children.
As Director of the University of Ottawa’s Law Practice Program (2014–2018), Anne helped create and implement an innovative experiential learning program that allowed law graduates to develop practical skills, engage with their communities, and promote access to justice in French.
Anne is actively involved in her community. She is currently a Fellow with the Broadbent Institute, Co-Chair of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and was co-Chair for the National Association of Women and the Law for several years.
At the Faculty, Anne holds the Gordon F. Henderson Chair in Human Rights at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) at the University of Ottawa. She founded and leads the Equality Rights Clinic, where she works with law students, equality-seeking groups, legal clinics, and nonprofit organizations to advance test cases, intervene in key litigation, and support law reform initiatives. She was the Faculty’s first Director of Experiential Learning. Alongside Professor Mona Paré from the Civil Law Section, Anne is currently leading a SSHRC-funded research project on the role of children in human rights advocacy and their access to justice.