Irungu Houghton will discuss human rights organising in Africa during a global pandemic. Chaloka Beyani will act as discussant for the event. 

Irungu Houghton currently serves as Executive Director for Amnesty International Kenya. As Amnesty’s spokesperson and chief strategist in Kenya, he leads a team of committed investigative researchers and campaigners working to end human rights abuses and realize the rights and freedoms captured in the Constitution of Kenya. Over the last 30 years, he has worked and volunteered with some of the most influential international organizations in the world including ActionAid, Equality Now, and Oxfam International. In these capacities, he has advised several African Governments, the African Union, and the G8 among others. He has voluntarily chaired the Kilimani Project Foundation for over six years.

Chaloka Beyani is an Associate Professor of International Law at LSE Law School, a member of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Chair of its Advisory Board, and a member of the Centre for Climate Change at LSE. He is also the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. He joined LSE Law School in 1996 and lectures in international law and human rights. He was formerly a Research Fellow at Wolfson college, Oxford, with Lectureships in Law at Exeter and St. Catherine's colleges, Oxford, and a Crown Prince of Jordan Fellow, Queen Elizabeth House, as part of the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford.

Dr Duncan Green is Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB, Professor in Practice in International Development at the London School of Economics, honorary Professor of International Development at Cardiff University and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies. He is author of How Change Happens (OUP, October 2016) and From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States can Change the World (Oxfam International, 2008, second edition 2012). His daily development blog can be found on www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/.

This talk is part of the Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking & Practice, 2021/22, series, a high-profile lecture series run by the Department of International Development at LSE and organised by Professor James Putzel and Professor in Practice Duncan Green.

The Department of International Development promotes interdisciplinary postgraduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change. 

Twitter Hashtag for this series: #CuttingEdge2021