Centre for the Study of Human Rights

PUBLIC LECTURE - SAVE THE DATE! 

International Human Rights Day:  On the 10th December each year International Human Rights day commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly. 

The Centre is delighted to announce that Professor Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, New York University School of Law, will deliver a lecture in celebration of International Human Rights day on 1 December 2016 in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre.

Full details available here

Dr Bronwen Manby has co-authored a blog with Alan Gelb of Center for Global Development 'Has development converged with human rights? Implications for the legal identity SDG'

The Utrecht Declaration on Academic Freedom was adopted by the Assembly of the Association of Human Rights Institutes on 3 September.  The Centre for the Study of Human Rights is a longstanding AHRI member and Dr Margot Salomon is vice Chair of its Executive Committee. 

The June 2016 World Bank report 'Identification in the Context of Forced Displacement: identification for development (ID4D)' by Dr Bronwen Manby, Visiting Senior Fellow, is now available online.

Dr Ayça Çubukçu on the Turkey coup attempt                      

Dr Ayça Çubukçu has written for The Guardian about the recent events in Turkey. In her piece, entitled 'It’s the will of the Turkish people, Erdogan says. But which people?', Dr Çubukçu writes that "After the failed coup on 15 July, followed by a state of emergency, little is how it appears to be any more". Follow the link above to read the full article online.

UN Independent Expert draws on Dr Salomon’s research for his mission to Brussels

The study by Margot Salomon and Olivier De Schutter on Economic Policy Conditionality, Socio-Economic Rights and International Legal Responsibility is cited by the United Nations Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights after his recent visit to the EU institutions. The aim of his visit was to assess the response of the institutions and member States of the European Union to the sovereign debt and financial crisis from a human rights perspective. The Independent Expert’s full findings and recommendations will be presented in his report to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2017.

SPEAK OUT! In this piece on Development under Uncertainty in the Arab World, Dr Ali Kadri discusses obstacles to development in the Arab world with emphasis on the baleful impact of conflicts. He tells us about the social efficiency criterion, the legal corruption of institutional lenders, and how private interests exhibit a necrotrophic relationship with the public sector or indigenous economy. The key question to investigate, it is said, is the relationship between wars and violent social order restructuring.

Professor Leif Wenar, Chair of Philosophy and Law at King's College London, delivered a lecture at the LSE on Monday 1 March about his new book Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence and the Rules that Run the World.  Professor Wenar's book goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that puts shoppers into business with the men of blood - and discovers an ancient law that once licensed the slave trade, apartheid and genocide. The abolition of this rule marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs - yet the rule zombies on in today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade, enriching tyrants, warlords and terrorists worldwide. The lecture, chaired by Dr Margot Salomon, took place at the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House and was followed by a book signing. This talk was jointly hosted by the LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights and the KCL Yeo Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy and Law.  Listen to the podcast here

LSE REF Impact case study: Respecting, protecting and promoting human rights beyond national borders

LSE produced a case study to map the important work by Dr Margot Salomon over the past several years on socio-economic rights, and duties, beyond borders. The case study is meant to engage a wide audience and highlights the findings in her book on international human rights law and world poverty, her contribution to the drafting of the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and, most recently, her research on austerity in Greece and the responsibility of international creditors. The case study can be found here and the video with commentaries from Zoe Konstantopoulou, former Speaker of the Greek Parliament, and Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, the UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights, can be found here.

On 16 November, the Investment and Human Rights Project (IHRP) at the Centre’s Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy and the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights hosted a joint session at the UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights. The session addressed how States should implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPS) in the context of investment policy, drawing on the recent work by the IHRP in Colombia and Indonesia. The UN Panel discussion brought together representatives from both countries to discuss the current plans for investment policy to be included in their respective National Action Plans to implement the UNGPs. Andrea Shemberg of the IHRP participated on the Panel along with a representative of Rio Tinto. Dante Pesce of the working group moderated. The UN Annual Forum is a public meeting, but registration was required here

Does Europe need a new investment policy? What should be the underlying values and objectives of that policy? On 19 June 2015, Andrea Saldarriaga addressed these questions at a seminar organised by the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union on the 'Treatment of EU investors in the Single Market'. Her remarks pointed to the need to construct a European investment policy reflective of Europe's values of transparency, democracy and respect for human rights. Read the remarks on the Investment and Human Rights Learning Hub

15 June 2015: Legal brief prepared by Dr Margot Salomon and Professor Olivier De Schutter for the Debt Truth Committee of the Hellenic Parliament points to the responsibilities of the Eurozone states, EC, ECB, Council, EU states, IMF member states and IMF for the human rights impacts of economic conditionality. Read the legal brief (PDF)

Some say origin stories give people a sense of belonging, but in his TEDx talk Professor Chetan Bhatt dares us to refuse them. Instead we should develop a deeper sense of personhood, responsible to humanity as a whole. Chetan delivered ‘Visions of a Future without Origin Stories and Identity Myths’ as part of TEDxExeter’s event ‘Taking the Long View’. Watch the video 

Washington enables authoritarianism in Ethiopia - in a recent post on Al Jazeera America, Dr Awol Allo argues that blanket US support for the Ethiopian regime risks dismantling the country’s already beleaguered opposition. In a recent Gearty Grilling  Dr Allo discussed the courtroom as a method of resistance, the current political climate in Ethiopia, and his own activism. He highlighted the central themes of his forthcoming edited volume The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance: Reflections on the Legacy of the Rivonia Trial (Ashgate, 2015). Watch the Interview 

Linking the Troika to social rights violations in Europe, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica draws on the recent work of Dr Margot Salomon ‘Of Austerity, Human Rights and International Institutions’ exposes a series of black holes when it comes to establishing responsibility for the violation of human rights’. Dr Salomon was invited by the Speaker of the Greek Parliament to join the Special Committee of the Hellenic Parliament for the Audit of the Greek Debt (Debt Truth Committee). 

Rethinking Economic Policy for Social Justice: the radical potential of human rights
Speaker(s): Radhika Balakrishnan, Professor of Women's and Gender studies and Faculty Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University,
Diane Elson, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, James Heintz, Andrew Glyn Professor of Economics and Assistant Director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts
Chair:   Dr Polly Vizard, Associate Director and Associate Professorial Research Fellow, CASE
Date: Tuesday 28 February, 2017, 6.30 pm - 8.00pm
Venue: 32L.LG.18 (32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, Lower ground, room 18)

The Populist Challenge to Human Rights
Speaker: Professor Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law
Chair: Professor Chetan Bhatt, Professor of Sociology, Centre Director
Date:  Thursday 1 December 2016
Time: 6.30-8.00 p.m.
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building

Using data to advance dignity: a new approach to measuring the Human Rights performance of countries, and how you can use it in your work Speaker (s): Dr K. Chad Clay, University of Georgia and Anne-Marie Brook, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Chair: Professor Chetan Bhatt, Director, Centre for the Study of Human Rights Date: Tuesday 29 November 2016, 13.30 p.m. - 15.30 p.m. Venue: TW2.9.05 (Tower 2, 9th Floor, room 05)
Registration is required for this event.

A social or a neoliberal Europe? The Greek experience
Speaker: George Katrougalos, Alternative Minister for European Affairs - Foreign Ministry, Greece and Professor of Public Law
Chair: Professor Kevin Featherstone, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics
Discussant: Sarah Paterson, Assistant Professor of Law
Date: Monday 14 November 2016, 6.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m.
Venue: Thai Theatre, New Academic Building (NAB) 

There will be live streaming of this event by Livemedia: http://www.livemedia.gr/katrougalos   

Contempory Forms of Statelessness: The Intersection between the Lack of a Recognised Nationality, Human Rights, Inequality and Development
Speakers: Bronwen Manby and Amal de Chickera
Chair: Stefanie Grant
Date: tbc