Amanda Cats-Barill is a Senior Programme Officer in Asia and the Pacific region office.

Cats-Baril serves as a constitution advisor for the Asia-Pacific region. In this role, she supports constitution-making processes in Nepal, Myanmar, and the Philippines, among other contexts, by providing technical assistance to governments, civil society organizations, and international projects. Topics of focus in these processes include federalism, decentralization and autonomy agreements, government systems, accountability institutions, the rule of law, and human rights.

Cats-Baril also contributes to developing, adapting, and applying knowledge products and tools at the global and regional level and strengthening regional platforms for knowledge exchange and networking.

Cats-Baril is an international lawyer specializing in constitutional law, human rights, post-conflict transitions and democratization. She focuses on the promotion and protection of minorities, especially indigenous peoples, rights and interests in the context of large-scale development and government reform processes, with an emphasis on constitution development.

Upon receiving his JD from the NYU School of Law, Cats-Baril was awarded the Arthur Helton Fellowship for Global Human Rights to work with local civil society organizations in Nepal to defend strategic human rights. Since then, she has conducted legal research and program design in Asia for international organizations such as UNDP, the World Bank, the Asia Foundation, and the International Task Force on Indigenous Affairs.

Prior to joining International IDEA, Cats-Baril served as a Democracy and Governance Specialist with USAID / Nepal, managing a portfolio of peacebuilding, conflict mitigation, and local governance projects, and advised the US government. On constitutional issues, transitional justice and sensitivity to conflict.

He has also published on regional platforms, SAARC and Regional Promotion of the Rule of Law and Constitutionalism in South Asia and his work with indigenous communities in Nepal, Ensuring Inclusive Democracy for Nepal: The Case of Direct Representation of indigenous peoples in political processes.