Role: Former Faculty Member Center for Human Rights Studies Mofid University
Qom, Iran

  Contact: noori.masoud@gmail.com

  Research Interests:
Principles of Islamic Law | Islamic Jurisprudence | Child Rights | International NGOs | Human Rights Advocacy

Dr. Seyed Masoud Noori is a former faculty member of Department of Law, Mofid University (Qom, Iran), a Member of Academic Council of Center for Human Rights Studies (CHRS) and a member of Council Law Clinic at that university. He has served as Deputy Director and Director of Research and Education for the Center. In addition to his university education, he studied and taught in Islamic Seminaries (Houzeh Elmiyeh) of Qom from 1985 to 2010, when he went to Ireland as a visiting scholar at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway.  The title of his PhD dissertation in Private Law was: “Non-Discrimination and Best Interests of Child Principles in International Law and Islamic Countries’ Civil Law”.

Seyed Masoud Noori is a lawyer, university lecturer, Islamic issues researcher, and journalist focusing on the relationship between Sharia and the international human rights law system. In addition to a PhD in Private Law, he has more than 20 years of experience in studying, teaching, and researching Islam-especially the Shi’a school- at Qom seminary. Dr. Noori has a keen interest in comparative studies between Islam (with special emphasis on Shi’a school) and International Human Rights Law.  Another area of interest is in legal clinical education. In April 2007 he and his colleagues in CHRS founded the first academic legal clinic in Iran. 

His professional experiences includes working with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as International Bar Association (IBA). His publications include: “Sale of Children, Children Prostitution and Children Pornography” (2006); University Legal Clinics: Their Nature, Justification & Prospects and Religious Leaders (2007) and Confronting Violence against Children: An Islamic Approach (published by Iran UNICEF, 2008).

While at Emory, Dr. Noori worked with Martha A. Fineman and Professor Vincent Cornell, Director of the Program in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. He collaborated with Professor Abdullahi An-Na’im, co-teaching his spring seminar on Human Rights in Context and developing a course in Comparative Law for the fall. He also worked with Professor Barbara Bennett Woodhouse on issues relating to children’s rights.