Ms. Elena I. Athwal

Ms. Elena I. Athwal is the Secretary General of the International Law Association – GCC Branch. She is a lawyer and scholar of energy, environmental and natural-resource law and ESG governance, with fifteen years spanning academia, multilateral engagement and executive advisory across the Gulf, Africa and the Americas.

Within the International Law Association, Ms. Athwal serves as an Executive and Managing Council Member and as Global Media Officer. She chairs the GCC Branch’s Committee on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law and is a Member of the ILA Committee on the Contributions of International Law to the Global SDGs and the Post-2030 Agenda.

Ms. Athwal is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ICELIS Global – the International Centre on Environment, Law, Innovation and Sustainability – a Qatar Financial Centre-licensed strategic, environmental and ESG advisory serving governments, multilateral institutions and the private sector across the Gulf, Africa and the Americas. Her academic and multilateral affiliations include the UNESCO Chair on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, where she is a Research Fellow; the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at the University of Cambridge, where she is an Associate Fellow; and the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, where she serves as Research Associate.

Ms. Athwal chairs the Energy Transition Working Group of the ICC Qatar Environment and Energy Commission and the Al-Attiyah Foundation, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Produced Water Society. She is Vice President of The Diwan at Harvard University, having led the GCC at Harvard 2024 convening and the launch of the Gulf Diwan in Kuwait under the patronage of Her Excellency the Minister of Information and Culture and Minister of State for Youth Affairs. Ms. Athwal also chairs the Early Career Focus Group of the Association of Environmental Law Lecturers in Middle East and North African Universities (ASSELLMU).

Ms. Athwal has authored and edited twenty books, chapters and articles with Cambridge, Oxford, Edward Elgar, Springer and Routledge, with particular depth in energy security and resilience, ESG governance, critical minerals and the governance of emerging technologies. She has been recognised with the IBA SEERIL Law Studies Scholarship – as the first scholar in the Middle East to receive the award – the Her Highness Sheikha Moza Al-Ihsan ‘Excellence’ Award, and Honours for her Master of Laws thesis at Harvard Law School.