Shuja Jamal

Shuja Jamal is a lawyer, policy researcher and former senior Afghan civil servant. He is the author, with Professor William Maley, of The Decline and Fall of Republican Afghanistan (Oxford University Press, 2023).

He is a trustee of the Australian Refugee Foundation and a member of the Advisory Committee of the University of New South Wales Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

He was previously the head of policy, advocacy and communications at Jesuit Refugee Service Australia and a special advisor to the CEO of the Refugee Council of Australia.

Shuja has served as the director-general for international relations and regional cooperation at the Afghan National Security Council, where he helped manage Afghanistan’s security partnerships. He also served as director for peace and civilian protection and coordinated Afghanistan’s policy portfolio on international sanctions, including those of the UN Security Council.

Prior to his civil service work, he was a researcher for Human Rights Watch and worked as director for development at the American University of Afghanistan, helping to reopen the university after the devastating terrorist attack on campus in August 2016.

He is a Fulbright recipient. He has a master’s in public policy from Georgetown University and a juris doctor from the University of Melbourne Law School.