EB

Esther Barbier-Carretier

Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs

Policy Officer

Biography

Esther Barbier-Carretier is a Policy Officer at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, where she works on civil registration as a precondition for access to justice. More than a billion people worldwide have no proof of legal identity. Without a registered birth, marriage or death, they struggle to assert their rights, bring a claim before a court or obtain protection from exploitation and discrimination. Her work supports France’s 2021-2027 roadmap on civil status, which takes a human-rights-based approach and treats legal identity as the gateway to rights, particularly for girls and women. She supports multilateral negotiations at the intersection of civil status, access to justice and security-sector reform. Her legal background shapes this approach. She holds an LL.M in Public International Law from Leiden University, where her thesis examined immunity and impunity in cases of systemic abuse of minors. At Sciences Po, she specialised in global risk and crisis management. Both address a question central to her current work: who can obtain a remedy, and who is invisible to the system. She previously led international events for the City of Paris during the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, strenghening cooperation with partner cities. Esther also holds legal degrees from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas. She is a native French speaker and is fluent (C2) in Spanish and English
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