As part of McLaughlin Lunch Talk Series, McLaughlin College proudly presents:

2020 Theme: Recover Better - Stand Up for

International Human Rights Day, 10 , commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is one of UN’s major achievements as well as the first enunciation of human rights across the world. Adopted on 10th December 1948, the Declaration stipulates universal values and a shared standard of achievement for everyone in every country. While the Declaration is not a binding document, it inspired over 60 human rights instruments that today make a common standard of human rights. This year’s Human Rights Day theme relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on the need to “build back better” by ensuring human rights are central to recovery efforts. We will reach our common global goals only if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systemic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion, racism, and discrimination. 10 December is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of human rights in re-building the world we want, the need for global solidarity as well as our interconnectedness and shared humanity.

MODERATOR : JAMES C. SIMEON, is Head of McLaughlin College and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration (SPPA), Faculty of Arts and Professional Studies, York University. His areas of research and teaching include international human rights law, international refugee law, international criminal law, and international humanitarian law and he has published widely on these areas of public international law. PANELISTS:

HILKKA BECKER, is the Chairperson of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (Ireland) since April 2017. She was previously Deputy Chairperson of the Tribunal and served as a part-time Member of the Tribunal’s predecessor, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, for a period of three years from 2013 to 2016. Her talk is titled: ‘The relevance and importance of international human rights in the context of the work of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (Ireland) with a particular focus on special procedural guarantees for vulnerable witnesses’.

DR. ALICE EDWARDS, is Head of the Secretariat of the Inter-Governmental Convention Against Torture Initiative (CTI), providing strategic and policy advice to the six Core States spearheading the Initiative, namely Chile, , Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia and Morocco. Their 10-year vision aspires to reduce and prevent the risks of torture and ill-treatment worldwide through the universal ratification and … implementation of the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), by 2024. Her talk is titled: “Bucking the trend: An unlikely group of states join forces to eradicate torture worldwide.”

IAN GREENE, is a Professor Emeritus and University Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration. Now partly retired, he continues to teach courses in Canadian public law, the Charter of Rights, court organization and management, and public sector ethics. He is a former Master of McLaughlin College, and the former Director of the Master of Public Policy, Administration and Law program. His talk is titled: Canada's contribution to human rights: John Humphrey to Beverley McLachlin

Thursday, , 2020 from 12:30 - 2:00 PM

CLICK here to register: https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vfuqtrDIjEtW8GMyiHFCXGnM-DT9l5tfZ

For more information contact Vicky Carnevale at [email protected]

For further information, please contact Vicky Carnevale at [email protected] Co-sponsored by the Office of the College Head, McLaughlin College, Centre of Public Policy and Law, Centre for Refugee Studies and the Department of Sociology LIGHT REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED