Rafael is an interdisciplinary human rights scholar with a particular interest in socio-legal studies, gender and sexuality, and critical approaches to international law. He earned an interdisciplinary PhD at the Geneva Graduate Institute (Switzerland), affiliated with both the International Law Department and the Department of Anthropology and Sociology. He also has a Master’s in State Theory and Constitutional Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio, Brazil) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Gender and Sexuality Studies from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ, Brazil).

His forthcoming book ‘Queer International Activism’ (Stanford University Press, 2027) is based on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork and examines the mobilization of human rights by transnational LGBTI+ activists. His previous book, published in 2023, analyzed advocacy efforts by the Brazilian LGBTI+ movement in the 1980s. His work has also appeared in the journal Sexualities, the European Journal of International Law, and the Leiden Journal of International Law, among others.

His new research project ‘Contesting Gender in International Legal Discourse (CONGEN)’ is based at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). It investigates the transnational mobilization against ‘gender’ at global governance fora and its impact on human rights multilateralism. Prior to joining KCL, Rafael was a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Law at the European University Institute (EUI).

Rafael is a member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association, the European Society of International Law, the European Association of Social Anthropologists, the Swiss Network for Law and Society and the Brazilian Bar Association.

You can find out more about Rafael's work on his website. 

Research interests 

• Public International Law
• International Human Rights Law
• Anthropology of Human Rights
• Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
• Global Health Multilateralism
• Critical Legal Theory
• Queer and Feminist Theory
• Decolonial Theory
• Transnational Activism
• Research Methodology
• Business and Human Rights
• LGBTI/SOGIESC Rights
• Legal Mobilization
• Social Movements
• Socio-legal Studies

Teaching interests 

• Public International Law
• International Human Rights Law
• Anthropology of Human Rights
• Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Critical Legal Theories- Research Methodology

Selected publications 

Carrano Lelis, Rafael. ‘Queer International Activism: Crafting New Subjects of Human Rights’ (Stanford University Press, 2027). 

Carrano Lelis, Rafael. ‘Queer Transnational Activism and International Law-Making: The Yogyakarta Principles and the Appropriation of the Discursive and Cultural Patterns of International Law,’ European Journal of International Law, 2026.

Carrano Lelis, Rafael. ‘Convincing Amnesty International About Gay (Human) Rights: Campaigning for Recognition in the Human Rights Movement in the 1970s and 1980s,’ Leiden Journal of International Law (forthcoming, 2026).

Carrano Lelis, Rafael. ‘The queer international: LGBTI+ Advocacy at the United Nations beyond 'Western Imposition’’, Sexualities, Special Issue: Queer Organizing in the Global South: A South-Centric Perspective on Transnational Activism (OnlineFirst, 2025). 

Carrano Lelis, Rafael. ‘Queer Source of Law: Expectation of Compliance with the Yogyakarta Principles in International Human Rights Mechanisms’, Amicus Curiae, Series 2, Vol 7, No 1, 148-182 (November, 2025).