Brandon Silver

Brandon Silver is an international human rights lawyer, and Director of Policy and Projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR). He also serves as Chief Advisor to former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Irwin Cotler, the Founder and Chair of the RWCHR.

In this capacity, Brandon serves on the legal teams of prisoners of conscience, representing some of the world's leading dissidents and statespeople. He has successfully contributed to the release and resettlement in Canada of a number of former political prisoners and hostages. He also acts on behalf of mass atrocity victims, and is a key figure in the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and a recognized subject expert in targeted sanctions. Brandon is also sought after for his strategic counsel to democratic governments, parliaments, and major international organizations on rule of law and public policy reforms.

He helped facilitate the escape of Iranian dissidents, the rescue of a Kabul school being targeted by the Taliban, was a leader in the campaign to free Russian pro-democracy leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, and is serving as counsel to families of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinians persecuted by Hamas. He has served as counsel to Venezuelan opposition leaders and human rights defenders, Russian and Chinese pro-democracy campaigners, a dissident Philippine Senator, and is part of the international legal teams of Hong Kong media freedom hero Jimmy Lai and Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.

Brandon’s work has been featured in major publications, including TIME magazine, Project Syndicate, the Globe and Mail, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Post, and is a past nominee of the Quebec Literary Awards and winner of the CBC Reader’s Choice Prize. In 2016, the World Economic Forum named him a “Global Shaper,” and in 2022 he was named one of Canada's "Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers" by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. In 2024, Brandon received the Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Lawyer.

He is trained in both major world juridical traditions of Common Law and Civil/Continental Law, holding law degrees from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, the Université de Montréal Faculty of Law, and a Masters of Law from UC Berkeley on a scholarship for excellence in Public Law.