M. (Monique) van Cauwenberghe, LLM MA
Monique has a diverse background in human rights and health with experiences across academia, non-profit and diplomacy sectors. Her interests and expertises address human rights and health at the intersections of climate change, disasters and internal displacement. She is an interdisciplinary researcher that engages with legal and social sciences methods and methodologies. She has experience in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and has conducted empirical research in Australia and Indonesia (Atlat.ti, F4analyse, SPSS, Whisper). Her areas of interest and expertise include international human rights law (focus on the right to (mental) health and other socio-economic rights), international disaster law (focusing on climate related disasters), internal displacement law (including evacuations), and international environmental law (climate change and biodiversity). She also explores women’s (public) health matters, such as gender-based violence and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), within the context of the right to (mental) health.
Since 2024, Monique is coordinator and researcher within the Groningen Centre for Health Law (GCHL), particularly involved in the research streams on mental health and health related dimensions of climate change. She also assists in the organisation of the Summer School on Global Governance of Health Vulnerabilities in Africa in Tanzania. Within the GCHL, her research focuses on rights-based climate litigation, particularly regarding physical, mental health and gender-based violence arguments related to displacement. She is involved in the development of a new indicator that tracks engagement on physical and mental health in climate litigation. This indicator has now been published in “The 2026 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: a narrowing window for decisive health action”, in the Lancet Public Health.
Monique’s primary research involves utilising both doctrinal and empirical methods to explore how the right to mental health in climate disaster displacement can be localised into national and sub-national contexts. Including how the right to mental health can be applied to evacuations as a form of displacement. She takes Australia’s legal and policy context as a case study.
Monique is currently involved in several ongoing research projects, including: right to health indicators in climate related extreme weather events, and delivering digital health applications for mental health. Monique also researches how mental health can be understood through a planetary health lens within the Aletta Jacobs School for Public Health Theme on Planetary Health. She also provides research assistance to the Centre for Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame, University of Queensland.
She is an active member of networks within the Netherlands, Europe and internationally, including the EU COST Action CliMent (Climate and Mental Health Impacts), International Disaster, Emergency and Law Network (IDEAL), European Public Health Association (EUPHA) sections on ‘Law and Public Health’ and ‘Public Mental Health’, and the Planetary Health theme of Aletta Jacobs School for Public Health. She is also the coordinator of the Working Group on Human Rights and the Climate Crisis of the Netherlands Network on Human Rights Research (NNHRR) and the Global Scientific Network on Law and Tobacco (GSNLT) (University of Groningen and University of Queensland).
Monique has previously been involved in several legal and interdisciplinary research projects including: Planetary Health: An Interdisciplinary Exploration, Legal Epidemiology: Measuring Effects of Policy Interventions for Smoke- and Aerosol-Free Zones, and Smoke- and Aerosol-Free Environments (SAFEs) Project to investigate the impact of smoke and aerosol policies on health behaviours.
Monique holds an LLM International Human Rights Law from the University of Groningen. Her LLM thesis was entitled: Climate Disaster Induced Displacement in Australia: An International Human Rights Framework for The Right to Mental Health and Freedom from Gender-Based Violence. She also holds an MA International Development Practice from Monash University, double BA in Arts and Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies from the Australian National University and Graduate Certificate in Health and Human Services from the University of Melbourne. Prior to entering academia, she has held positions that address health literacy for migrant, refugee and asylum seeker communities in Australia, as well as the position of program officer at the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.