Januario Rangel-Soares
Januario Rangel-Soares is a practitioner-researcher with over 17 years of experience in justice-sector reform, anti-corruption programming and access to justice. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Universitas Komputer Indonesia (UNIKOM) and earned a Master (Honours) in International Relations and Human Rights from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
He currently serves as Labor Mobility Consultant with The Asia Foundation in Timor-Leste, co- leading research on the labor mobility and protection of Timorese workers in Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, and as Adjunct Lecturer at Paragon International University in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he teaches Government and Politics in Southeast Asia, Issues in Post-Conflict Societies, Refugees and International Migration, Great Powers and its Influence in Southeast Asia, and Diplomacy in Theory and Practice. He previously lectured at Universidade Oriental Timor Lorosa’e (UNITAL).
From 2021 to 2025 he served as Country Lead for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), directing the Legal Reform Fund in partnership with the Timor-Leste Ministries of Justice and Ministry of Interior. Earlier, as Project Manager for the UNDP Justice System Programme and Anti-Corruption Project, he managed the nationwide Mobile Court Initiative and established Access to Justice Clinics that delivered over USD 2.5 million in legal aid services. Prior to that, he worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), collaborating closely with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Timor-Leste and supporting the development of the country’s draft National Anti-Corruption Strategy in coordination with the Commission of Anti-Corruption (CAC).
His current research project at Yale’s Council on Southeast Asian Studies, “Preparing Timor-Leste for ASEAN: Tackling Human Trafficking and Strengthening Legal Education”, examines how Timor-Leste, now a full member of ASEAN can deepen its participation in regional mechanisms to combat human trafficking and strengthen legal education and judicial capacity, offering comparative policy recommendations and briefings for Timorese and ASEAN stakeholders.
Selected fellowships and grants
Januario is a recipient of the Fulbright U.S.-ASEAN Visiting Scholar award at Yale University, the Scholar Program on EU-ASEAN Relations (SPEAR) in 2025, the U.S. Department of State Legislative Process and Governance Fellowship in 2014, and the New Zealand Development Scholarship at the University of Auckland in 2012.