Director General for Human Rights, Freedoms and Inclusion, Global Affairs Canada
Tara Denham is the Director General for Human Rights, Freedoms and Inclusion at Global Affairs Canada. Her Office leads Canada's foreign policy engagement on inclusion, democracy and human rights, and its digital and cybersecurity dimensions. Previously, Tara was the Director General of the Ukraine Strategic Action Team at the department, which was responsible coordinating coherence across all lines of effort in the department and inter-departmentally in responding to the invasion of Ukraine.
Previously, Tara worked in both policy and programming areas within Global Affairs Canada, as well as most recently the Head of Evaluation and maximizing departmental performance by leveraging evaluations, data, and evidence-informed decisions. She was also the Director of the Centre for International Digital Policy, which was one of the leading innovative policy teams in the department, including leveraging technology and data to inform policy making and addressing digital threats to democracy. In this capacity, she spearheaded the creation of the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism during Canada's Presidency in 2018. She has also managed programming teams, including the portfolios of the Middle East, Afghanistan, democracy and human rights, and peace support operations. She has been deployed to Afghanistan as the Chief of Staff to the Representative of Canada to Kandahar (2009-2010).
Tara has worked in Global Affairs Canada for 19 years, and previously worked in the non-governmental sector. Ms Denham has a Masters degree from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, with a focus on conflict studies.
Participating in: Changes in risk management and contingency planning
