Ivy-Ron Quinto

Ivy-ron G. Quinto is a doctoral researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University, working within the European Research Council-funded GROUNDOC project, which explores the documentation practices of grassroots actors in “aparadigmatic” contexts and how they engage with, interpret, experiment, and adapt the language and principles of transitional justice to address the legacies of human rights abuses and challenge the structures and dynamics that sustain harm.

Contributing to the GROUNDOC’s overarching objective, Ivy-ron’s research focuses on how community-based justice actors, including victims and their families, human rights and legal organizations, faith-based groups, journalists, and medical groups use documentation to respond to human rights violations in the context of “War on Drugs”, and how these practices can shape, expand, and potentially transform transitional justice mechanisms in the Philippines. Against this backdrop, her research explores the motivations, ambitions, and development of grassroots documentation initiatives, as well as the trajectories through which documentation is produced, preserved, and mobilized within, and potentially beyond, formal transitional justice processes.

Ivy-ron has an academic and professional background in law, human rights, and transitional justice. She holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Her master’s thesis examined the Philippines’ War on Drugs as an “aparadigmatic” context for transitional justice and explored reparations under a psychosocial lens to addressing the individual and collective dimensions of victim suffering and to responding to the complex social, psychological, and relational effects of violence.

She began her career as a private lawyer before transitioning into human rights work at the height of the Philippines’ War on Drugs. She worked directly with victims and their families, documenting hundreds of cases and developing case-management systems. Her contributions to these documentation efforts supported legal proceedings, human rights reporting, access to social benefits, legal education, policy advocacy, and civil society submissions to international accountability and human rights mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court and to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Her subsequent work with international organizations focused on implementing rule of law and human rights programmes, with an emphasis on grassroots participation and community ownership. She contributed to the programme development on access to justice and transitional justice across Africa and Asia. Before joining the Justice Visions team, she worked with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in the Philippines, supporting programmes on criminal justice, drug policy reform, counterterrorism, anti-corruption, and transnational crime.

Academic Background

2022–2023 Master of Advanced Studies in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Switzerland

2011–2016 Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), Arellano University School of Law, Philippines

2006–2010 Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines

Professional Background

2026 Programme Support Expert, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Philippines

2023–2024 Legal and Programme Development Intern and Volunteer, International Bridges to Justice, Switzerland

2021–2022 Programme Officer, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), Philippines

2018–2020 Legal Officer, Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS), Inc., Philippines

2017–2018 Lawyer, Ubaña Cajucom Law Office, Philippines