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Twenty-Five Years of Human Rights at Essex

∗ PROFESSOR KEVIN BOYLE

As the longest serving but not the only captain to have been on the bridge of the Human Rights Centre, I have been invited to celebrate the 25th Anniversary with a short contribution on the history and achievements of the Essex human rights programme.1 A captain’s view is not necessarily the best one. The crew and above all the passengers – the graduates of the programme – might well see things differently. But with the disclaimer that my contribution cannot be comprehensive, let me try.2

1. Context It is relevant, even crucial, to draw a sketch of the international political and legal environment in which the Essex programme began. Study, policy-making, and action on universal human rights are all intimately linked to the international environment in its political, economic and security dimensions; something which was as true in the 1980s, when the Centre began, as it is today. The last quarter century, the era of globalisation, has witnessed the most rapid period of economic, technological and social change in human history. These transformations have been reflected in the political order of the globe and our understanding of the interdependency of human beings and societies. They will inevitably shape how we approach the subject of universal rights for the future. To study human rights is to study a mission imbedded in the international relations of states.3 The goal of universal human rights and fundamental freedoms was adopted as one of the purposes of the Organisation in its Charter in 1945. We tend to overlook the fact that that purpose is intimately linked with the UN’s other purposes, that of economic and social development and the guaranteeing of

∗ I am grateful to colleagues, in particular Françoise Hampson and Geoff Gilbert, for drafts of sections of this article. Kevin Boyle was the Director of the Human Rights Centre at Essex from August 1989-July 1998, August 1999-July 2001 and again from August 2006-September 2007. He was academic director of the Democratic Audit 1994-2001. From September 2001-September 2002 he was Senior Adviser to Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He was also the first Director of the Human Rights Centre at the National University of Ireland, Galway and founding Director of the NGO Article 19: the Global Campaign against Censorship. He is a practising barrister and has taken numerous cases on human rights issues to UK Courts and to the European Court of Human Rights in . In 1998, with Professor Françoise Hampson, he was jointly named UK Human Rights Lawyer of the Year by Liberty and the Law Society Gazette. He became Chair of the International Council of the Minority Rights Group in 2007. 1 The directors of the Centre and their years of tenure are: Professor Malcolm Shaw, QC, Sir Robert Jennings Professor of , University of Leicester - 1982-1989; Professor Kevin Boyle - 1989-1998; 1999-2001; 2006-2007; Professor Geoff Gilbert - 1998-1999; Professor Paul Hunt - 2001-2003; Dr. Todd Landman - 2003-2005; Professor Jane Wright - 2005-2006; Professor John Packer (LLM 1987) - 2007-Present. 2 Many people have contributed to the success of the Essex human rights programme and if I have inadvertently failed to mention anyone, I pray forgiveness. 3 One of the gaps in the human rights teaching programme at Essex has been the lack of specialists in International Relations and integration of that discipline into the predominantly normative array of topics offered. To address that gap should be a priority for the future. See Thomas J Biersteker et al. (eds.), International Law and International Relations: Bridging Theory and Practice (: Routledge, 2006).

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Kevin Boyle 2 international peace and security. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which this year reaches its 60th anniversary, was proclaimed as ‘a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations’. Almost sixty years on from that proclamation, what can we say about the ambition of universal human rights as a whole? It is clearly an ambition that has not been realised. One achievement that can be pointed to is the global reach of the ideals of the Universal Declaration. If there has been a civilisational advance it is the extraordinary appeal of the concept of common humanity and the belief in universal rights and freedoms to be enjoyed by all without distinction. Another advance has been the establishment of a legal framework for a global order based on respect for human rights, built upon the UN Charter, the International Covenants, and the Universal Declaration. But human existence for perhaps the majority of people in the world is far from the ideals of the Universal Declaration. The world, wracked by conflict and now environmental crises, remains unequal in every respect. The majority of humankind does not enjoy the promise of full human rights. The Cold War The twenty-five year period under review has spanned two metaphorical wars: the Cold War and the current Global War against Terror. The launch of teaching and research into international protection of human rights at Essex began in the Cold War, an ideological and nuclear confrontation between East and West which was seen in its time, it might be recalled, as a war without end. In the 1980s no one foresaw that by the end of that decade the Cold War would suddenly come to an end with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Soon after came the end of Apartheid in South Africa. One of the brightest moments of the early 1990s came with the release of Nelson Mandela and the rapid emergence of the new democratic multiracial South Africa. The long campaign from the 1960s against Apartheid, led by the developing world and by the emerging civil society in the North and South, not only mobilised international consciousness about and condemnation of racism but also laid the foundations of the international human rights movement itself. An exciting moment for the University came in July 1997 when President Nelson Mandela visited Essex on the occasion of the awarding of an honorary degree to his wife to be, Graça Machel. He gave the Centre a precious encomium on his departure: ‘This is a very famous university which has been involved in the fight for human rights in all parts of the world.’ During the Cold War progress on implementing human rights objectives at the international level was cautious and incremental. In the universities the subject, if treated at all, was considered as a new branch of international law. It gradually came to be taught as a specialisation and to generate scholarly legal analysis. Before the 1990s human rights impinged little on international relations courses or the social sciences, although philosophy and political philosophy did address some dimensions. World Conference on Human Rights 1993 Whatever can be said about the advance of human rights protection prior to 1989, it was over the following decade that positive movement became possible. The post-Cold War environment reopened the possibility of United Nations reform and of more effective efforts to advance human rights through cooperation between states. There was a recovery of the spirit and even the idealism of the early days of the United Nations, a conviction that the world could make real progress towards genuine commitment to advancing standards and improving lives. Such thinking lay behind the

Twenty-Five Years of Human Rights at Essex 3 series of United Nations World Conferences which were characteristic of the 1990s.4 In particular, the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993 laid the foundation of a new and holistic understanding of human rights for the 21st century. The Vienna conference texts declared human rights a priority, and famously emphasised the ‘universality, indivisibility and interdependence’ of rights and freedoms as well as their equal weight. The World Conference endorsed the new thinking that related progress in securing universal rights to progress in building democracy, the rule of law, development and peace.5 It was in this more benign and optimistic context of the 1990s that the multi- disciplinary approach to the study and practice of human rights was launched at Essex. The new international context and the opportunity for a broader approach to the study of human rights was reflected in the rapid increase in the number of graduates who chose to study at Essex. New programmes on teaching and research on international human rights emerged rapidly both in the UK and elsewhere. As it attracted the interest of disciplines beyond law, human rights grew more complex as a field of study. The relationships between democracy and rights as well as the relationship of both to development became central to policy makers and to academic thinking. The launch of the European Commission-supported European Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation (the Venice Programme) in 1997, in which Essex participated along with other European Union universities, was a significant example of the official and academic recognition of this enlarged concept of human rights.6 The expansion of the activities of the UN into preventive diplomacy, election monitoring, policing, peace keeping and peacemaking as well as human rights presences in the field, created a professional demand for human rights field personnel.7 The creation of a new institution, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in 1993, also presented new opportunities for professional careers. The development of international criminal law and the creation of the International Criminal Court and the ad hoc Tribunals drove transformative developments of international criminal law and international humanitarian law.8 The strengthening and expansion of regional international human rights machinery complemented in the regions the greater priority for human rights protection within the UN system. But perhaps the most important development over the entire period has been the growth in the presence and power of civil society in international and national affairs. It has been human rights defenders who have championed most of the gains in protection ideas and institutions since 1990. It is no accident that so many Essex alumni (perhaps the majority) have developed successful careers in NGOs at international as well as national levels. Today human rights has become a cross-cutting theme comparable to that of the environment that impinges on all dimensions of public affairs. Indeed the latest focus of study is the relationship between environment and human rights. The subject area is now widely recognised as inherently multidisciplinary and a field that, in research, teaching and practice, needs what frankly it rarely achieves in depth: an interdisciplinary approach.

4 M. G Schechter (ed.), United Nations-sponsored World Conferences: Focus on Impact and Follow-up, (New York: United Nations University, United Nations, 2001). 5 Declaration and Programme of Action, World Conference on Human Rights, UN DOC A/ CONF/157/24. 6 http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/human_rights/master_degree.htm 7 Ian Martin, ‘A New Frontier: The Early Experience and Future of International Human Rights Field Operations’, Papers in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights, University of Essex Human Rights Centre No.19 (1998). 8 G. Gilbert, Responding to International Crime (Leiden, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006)

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It has also become a professional field in its own right, with increased demand for training at all levels, as well as increased opportunities for advice and consultancy. There is a continuing and largely unmet need for the ideas, guidance and policy options that can only be generated by academic and operational research. The Era of Terrorism and Counter Terrorism To conclude this brief background sketch one must mention what could not be foreseen: the 9/11 attacks in the United States in the first year of the new millennium. A new environment for human rights work thereafter became that of terrorism and counter- terrorism. The United States, which had been the champion of the idea of universal human rights to be achieved through the United Nations, proclaimed a new war, ‘the global war on terror’, in which the achievements of the 1990s, including the prohibition on torture, have been put at risk. Serious regression is occurring as international law is set aside in the pursuit of military solutions to political violence. Despite what is hopefully a finite phase of retreat from human rights by powerful states, there are grounds for optimism that the vision of global social progress and social justice in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration has taken such hold in this interdependent world that it cannot be dislodged. But such a claim could be also seen as a statement of faith. More pessimistic predictions for the future can also be advanced.9

2. Origins of the Human Rights Centre The progenitor of the Essex Centre was the founding professor of the Department of Law, David Yates, now Warden of Robinson College, Cambridge. He was directly influenced by the launch of a human rights centre in Ireland, at University College Galway (now the National University of Ireland, Galway). In 1980 I established that Centre with others who included Mary Robinson, Sean McBride, a former Chairman of Amnesty International and an academic colleague, Denis Driscoll.10 The inspiration for the Irish Centre for Human Rights came from the . In 1978 the Committee of Ministers adopted a Resolution urging university level teaching of human rights in member states. In the following year the Committee called for university-based human rights research including research that involved different disciplines in addition to Law.11 The Essex Centre’s first director was Dr. Malcolm Shaw, now Professor of Law at the University of Leicester. He created an International Advisory Board to guide the Centre, chaired by the late Sir Vincent Evans. Sir Vincent, who was a stalwart supporter of the new Essex programme, had a distinguished career as an international lawyer, first with the Foreign Office in London and later as a member of the UN Human Rights Committee and judge of the European Court of Human Rights.12 In its first phase the Centre focused on developing what became its renowned LLM in International Human Rights Law. That one-year pioneering LLM is still offered within the Department of Law. Some 650 graduates have successfully completed the degree since 1983.

9 Michael Ignatieff, ‘Is the Human Rights Era Ending?’, The New York Times, 5 Feb. 2002 10 The Irish Centre for Human Rights within the Faculty of Law at NUIG was re-launched in 2000 under the directorship of Professor William Schabas. It has an active and warm partnership with the Essex Centre, http://www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights/ 11 Resolution (78) 41 of the Committee of Ministers on the teaching of human rights, adopted by the Committee of Ministers 25 Oct. 1978; Recommendation No. R(79) On the Promotion of Human Rights Research in the Member States of the Council of Europe, adopted 13 Sept. 1979. 12 Sir Vincent died in 2007. His papers, which he gifted to the University, are held as one of the University Library’s Special Collections.

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The InterDisciplinary Initiative At the beginning of the 1990s the Human Rights Centre was reorganised from a Law Centre to a multidisciplinary partnership with the participation of a range of enthusiastic individuals from other university departments in addition to Law, namely Economics, Sociology, Government and Philosophy. A constitution was adopted for the Centre reflecting its future commitment to cross-departmental co-operation. The objectives of the new Centre were expressed to be the encouragement of teaching, research, scholarship and publication on human rights, in particular through interdisciplinary work. The leading actors in the creation of the Centre as an inter-departmental unit should be recorded here. They included Baroness Onora O’Neill, then head of the Department of Philosophy and her doctoral student Debbie Fitzmaurice; Professor Michael Freeman of the Government department, who became deputy director of the Centre; Professor Bryan Turner, Sociology, now at the University of Singapore, whose groundbreaking writing on sociology and human rights remains seminal; Alistair McCauley, Economics, and Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, Law. Important support for the new initiative came from the University’s management, in particular, as Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Ivor Crewe. The vital contribution of the university library to the growth of the new human rights programme must be noted. The Librarian, Robert Butler, the Deputy Librarian, Nigel Cochrane, and the law and human rights librarian, Caroline Checkley, have worked to ensure that over time the full range of human rights educational resources needed to support the growing degree programmes were met. The secretariat attached to the Centre over its twenty-five year existence has shown unfailing commitment to its mission and deserves equally to be recognised.13

3. The Essex Approach: Theory and Practice From the outset the Essex human rights programme was shaped by what was identified as the fundamental goal of the subject - the achievement of universal protection of the standards proclaimed in the Universal Declaration. The programme sought to combine the critical study of that goal with that of the institutions established to achieve it. But it also included identification and engagement with the goal of universalisation of human rights protection. In short the intention was and remains to combine theory and practice through teaching, research and outreach. The development of theoretical knowledge and understanding through research and reflection should be related to advancing implementation. Securing human rights is inherently about social change. The starting point is the concrete legal obligations undertaken by states and the concrete specification of the rights and freedoms that individuals and groups should enjoy, established in international law. But to move beyond that point to the question of implementation poses an inherently multidisciplinary challenge. These premises have underpinned teaching, research, publication and active engagement in international human rights work at Essex. The Vienna World Conference Declaration and Programme of Action, with its emphasis on all rights and freedoms, civil, political, economic social and cultural, with its concern with gender equality and non-discrimination and with its emphasis on implementation and the link between the rule of law, democracy, development and human rights, has provided a continuing inspiration for the Essex programme.

13 The Centre’s former administrative directors were Susan Rhodes and Alison Jolly and its former secretaries were Wendy Fryer and Heidi Wiggam. The current administrative director is Anne Slowgrove and the educational secretary is Emma Rix.

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Teaching Programme Teaching and learning is at the heart of any university and it has certainly been at the heart of twenty-five years of human rights studies at Essex. The degree programme as it evolved over time is briefly discussed in what follows. One general observation worth noting has been how the changing composition of the graduate student body has helped to improve the teaching provision on offer. Over the last decade a significant number of students have come to study having already had professional experience in human rights work, whether in IGOs or NGOs in different countries. The pedagogic and social effects have been wholly positive. The willingness to share experience with others enrolled in the degrees and with their teachers has led to significant improvements in the teaching programme, especially through the incorporation of a greater practical component. A student-run Postgraduate Forum has been established and workshops and student-led conferences, often involving alumni participants, have become a regular feature of the academic year. This greater degree of participation and exchange between the student body and staff, which has been largely driven by students, has improved the Essex experience for all of us enormously. The engagement of the student community at all levels is reflected indeed in the launch, in 2004, of this journal, the online Essex Human Rights Review.14 The LLM in International Human Rights Law In 1982 the study of international human rights law as the subject of a full master’s degree was a new idea in what was a new Law Department in England. It was the first such one-year taught master’s degree in the and one of the first in the world. In the period 1982-1990, some fifty LLM students graduated from the LLM before the multidisciplinary programme began. These first generations of LLM graduates have pursued successful careers in human rights in many arenas. Their numbers include John Packer (LLM 1987), appointed as the new full-time director of the Essex Human Rights Centre in 2007.15 The building of the LLM was a considerable achievement for its time. The degree’s combination of core and optional taught courses, a substantial research and writing component and the opportunity for practical experience through placements or internships with human rights organisations, remains substantially the model of the current LLM today. A positive inheritance from the pre-1989 period was the pioneering contribution of Professor Françoise Hampson in developing and teaching a course in international humanitarian law as an integral part of the LLM degree. That an international human rights law degree should include ‘ILAC’ was less than obvious in the 1980s. Professor Hampson’s expertise and enthusiasm for the subject proved particularly important for a new albeit short-lived degree, the International Peacekeeping MA, launched by the departments of Law and Government in 1996-7.16 The LLM degree continues to thrive within the Department of Law. For the last number of years it has been directed by Professor Sir Nigel Rodley and Clara Sandoval. They have overseen its constant improvement, including through the development of new optional subjects in response to external change and student demand. The supportive role of the Law Department over the twenty-five years of the Centre’s existence should be acknowledged. The Department willingly accepted the transformation of the original

14 http://projects.essex.ac.uk/ehrr/ 15 For a profile of Professor Packer see http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/. The names of the alumni for these and later years can be found on the same site ( Alumni). 16 Sadly this degree was to be discontinued at Essex after two years due to lack of staff resources.

Twenty-Five Years of Human Rights at Essex 7 human rights law centre into an interdisciplinary programme in 1990 and has been the largest contributor to that programme since that date. The MA in Theory and Practice of Human Rights With the reorganisation of the Centre in 1990 as a multidisciplinary project, a new one- year taught master’s degree, the MA in Theory and Practice of Human Rights, was launched. It was first offered in the academic year 1991-2 and has grown substantially in numbers and subject range since. To date there have been some 450 graduates of this multidisciplinary MA. Professor Michael Freeman of the department of Government took academic responsibility for the new MA degree for its entire first decade. Its current director is Dr. Andrew Fagan. One recent innovation has been to make the Colloquium on Theory and Practice a required course, thereby becoming the ‘spine’ of the degree alongside the choice of two core courses from the different disciplines on offer.17 The Undergraduate Programme It is a measure of the widening interest in international human rights studies that a thriving undergraduate programme has been offered at Essex since 2001. The earlier assumptions that such a subject could only be taught at postgraduate level were shown to be unfounded. Nevertheless, the decision was taken not to offer a degree solely in human rights studies. The argument that won out at Essex was that human rights is not a discipline as such but is rather a subject area which should be studied through the knowledge and methodologies of existing disciplines. The undergraduate programme enables students to combine human rights with Sociology, Law, Politics, Philosophy, Economics, and one ‘area studies’ programme, Latin American Studies. However while students study a particular discipline as a major subject the human rights component of their degrees is common and is taught by lecturers from different disciplines. Experience to date with this suite of BA and LLB degrees has been positive as measured by student responses. As with its graduate counterpart the undergraduate degrees attract international and EU as well as home students. The programme, which is co-ordinated by the Centre and directed currently by Will Cartwright of the Department of Philosophy, has a body of some one hundred students, with considerable potential to grow. As is the case with the postgraduate students, the undergraduates have proved more proactive than is the norm. They have established and supported human rights societies including Student Action for Refugees18 and MUNEX,19 a Model UN society. Research Degrees Doctoral studies in human rights are a growing feature of the educational programme at Essex as is the case in other universities. Research students enrol in their department of discipline, and the role of the Human Rights Centre is to offer additional support including providing seminars and visiting speakers. The Centre’s programme also offers a social meeting point across disciplines to young researchers in what otherwise can be an isolated experience. Some graduates of the masters’ degrees remain to study for a PhD at Essex, and some return to the university after a period away from formal studies to undertake doctoral research. Other Essex masters’ graduates have completed doctorates in other universities across the world. The number of alumni who have completed doctorates is impressive. Many have subsequently taken up careers in teaching and research in universities and research institutes in all world regions. There are ongoing discussions on whether the Centre itself should offer a doctoral programme and such a scheme is a likely development in the future.

17 More detail on the MA in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights can be found on the Centre website, http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/index.shtm 18 http://www.star-network.org.uk 19 http://www.munex.org.uk

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4. Research and Publications The different themes and the scale of scholarship, research and publication on human rights by Centre members over the years at Essex would be difficult to capture in a comprehensive fashion in a short article. The University has given the process of winning research contracts and funding a boost by appointing a Grants Application Writer for the Centre.20 Significant monographs and collections on human rights from different disciplinary perspectives have been published as individual and collaborative scholarship by Centre members.21 The larger picture is well documented elsewhere but some key activities, publications and research projects are noted briefly here22 The International Journal of Refugee Law Professor Geoff Gilbert was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Refugee Law in 2002. He succeeded the founding editor of the journal, Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill of the University of Oxford, who remains a member of the editorial board. Since that date, the editing process has been carried out within the Human Rights Centre, working with Oxford University Press. The editorial team at Essex consists of Geoff Gilbert and Jane Porter. The IJRL is the foremost journal examining issues concerning refugees and other displaced persons in international law. The journal maintains close links with UNHCR, particularly its Division of International Protection. The Democratic Audit For well over a decade the Human Rights Centre housed the Democratic Audit, a project concerning the strengths and weaknesses of British democracy. The Democratic Audit has now constituted itself as an independent NGO but retains close links with the Centre. Its director is Professor Stuart Weir. It was created in 1991 by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, which also funded it. The Audit brought together Charter 88 (a UK constitutional reform NGO) and the Human Rights Centre in a partnership and its chief contribution has been to develop a model of democracy with operational indicators that allow assessments of the quality of particular democratic processes and institutions to be made. The intellectual foundations of the Audit arose from the work of the political theorist Professor David Beetham of the University of Leeds, a founding member of the Audit. But it also gained greatly from the contributions made by colleagues from the Departments of Law and Government at Essex, including Ellie Palmer, Professor Paul Hunt, Professor Maurice Sunkin, Dr. Todd Landman, Tony Barker and Professor Albert Weale. Numerous short reports and three full audits of the state of democracy in Britain have been published.23 The Audit added an international

20 Kaiyin Low is the current grant writer, following Sabine Nierhoff and Megna Abraham. 21 Studies have included: S. Leader, Freedom of Association: A Study in Labor Law and Political Theory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992); J. Wright, Tort Law and Human Rights: The Impact of the ECHR on English Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2001); N. Rodley, Imprisonment in International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2003); M. Freeman, Human Rights: An Interdiscplinary Approach (London: Polity Press, 2002); T. Landman, Studying Human Rights (London: Routledge, 2006), Protecting Human Rights: A Global Comparative Study (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2005); K. Boyle and J. Sheen (eds.), Freedom of Religion or Belief: A World Report (London: Routledge, 1997); L. Morris (ed.) Rights: Sociological Perspectives (London: Routledge 2006); E. Palmer, Judicial Review , Socio-Economic Rights and the Human Rights Act (Oxford: Hart, 2007); A. Woodiwiss, Making Human Rights Work Globally (London: Glasshouse Press, 2003); G. Gilbert, Responding to International Crime, (Leiden, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006). 22 See especially the Centre web site: http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/index.shtm 23 The major Audit studies are: F.Klug, K.Starmer and S. Weir, The Three Pillars of Liberty: Political Rights and Freedoms in the UK (London: Routledge, 1996); S. Weir and D. Beetham, Political Power and Democratic Control in Britain (London: Routledge, 1998); D. Beetham, I. Byrne, P. Ngan and S. Weir, Democracy under Blair: A Democratic Audit of the United Kingdom (London: Politico’s, 2002).

Twenty-Five Years of Human Rights at Essex 9 component to its work and, in cooperation with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Stockholm, developed a universal framework to assess the condition of democracy in any country in the world. The Audit worked with IDEA to pilot the framework in a range of countries around the world.24 Important theoretical and educational publications resulted from this lively research project, including on democracy and human rights25 and on the protection of economic, social and cultural rights in the UK.26 The Right to Health Unit This Unit of the Centre was created following the appointment by the former United Nations Human Rights Commission of Professor Paul Hunt to the position of Special Rapporteur on the right to health or ‘the right to the highest attainable standard of health’. This new mandate promoted by Brazil was one of the few focusing on economic and social rights. The Unit was established to support the Special Rapporteur’s role and to encourage much needed research on the right to health. Over the six years of his mandate, which came to an end in June 2008, Paul Hunt and his energetic team have built up an impressive body of research and publications which are detailed on the web pages of the Unit.27 These have included papers on neglected diseases, sexual and reproductive health, as well as on reducing maternity death rates. The Unit has also launched draft Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines, intended to address the denial of access to essential medicines for almost two billion people. 28 Human Rights and the Private Sector The Right to Health Unit’s work with pharmaceutical companies is an illustration of the growing focus in the human rights community on the role and importance of the private sector. A further example at Essex has been Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded research led by Professor Sheldon Leader on transnational investment agreements, human rights and sustainable development. These Agreements involving multinationals can have wholly negative consequences on states’ capacities to pursue sustainable development through their restriction on the implementation of national environmental standards and the states’ human rights obligations. An example was the study with Amnesty International of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline Project.29 This work grew out of a continuing project between the Centre, Amnesty International, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Institute for Environment and Development.

For the latest Audit report, see A. Blick, T. Choudhury and S. Weir, ‘The Rules of the Game: Terrorism, Community and Human Rights’ (2007) http://www.democraticaudit.com/british_democracy/dauk.php. 24 D. Beetham et al., The State of Democracy: Democracy Assessments in Eight Nations Around the World (The Hague: International IDEA/Kluwer Law International, 2002) 25 See for example the UNESCO primer, Introducing Democracy: Eighty Questions and Answers, D. Beetham and K. Boyle (Oxford: Polity Press, 1995), which has been translated into over 20 languages. 26 S. Weir et al., Unequal Britain: The Human Rights Route to Social Injustice (London: Politico’s, 2006) 27 http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/index.shtm. See for example, P. Hunt, ‘Using All the Tools at Our Disposal: Poverty Reduction and the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health’ Special Report, Development Outreach, World Bank Institute (2006). The Right to Health team members are Judith Bueno de Mesquita, Louise Finer, Rajat Khosla, Maxwell V. Madzikanga, Gunilla Backman and Helen Potts. 28 ‘UN Independent Expert launches draft human rights guidelines for pharmaceutical companies’, UN press release, 19 Sept. 2007. 29 Amnesty International UK, ‘Human Rights on the Line: The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline Project’, May 2003. For a fuller account, see http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/research/projects/invest.shtm.

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Advocacy, Training and Human Rights Education (ATEP) ATEP is the acronym adopted for the Centre's human rights training and educational activities, which have been integral to its mission since 1990. These have been diverse and extensive over the years and only selected examples can be mentioned.30 The Centre was an early advocate of human rights education in schools and worked throughout the 1990s with NGOs including Amnesty and the Citizenship Foundation31 on human rights education for teachers. It has also worked with UNESCO on human rights education,32 with other partners on development education33 and with the UK Department for International Development on human rights education for development professionals. The Essex Human Rights Centre has had longstanding co-operation with the Commonwealth and the British Council. It has worked with the British Council in human rights education and training in different regions through conferences and courses for professionals including judges and lawyers.34 In Brazil a warm and continuing relationship has been established through former graduates with a number of universities and human rights bodies. In September 2006, along with the Brazilian Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs and with support from the Ford Foundation Brazil and the British Council, the Centre convened a major inter-regional human rights conference in Brasilia, bringing together judges from India, South Africa, Brazil and some eight other Latin American countries. A remarkable feature of that event was the fact that it was organized with the help and participation of Essex LLM and MA graduates from all the countries involved.35 The Centre has been a leader in developing both materials and delivering human rights training for the police.36 Ralph Crawshaw and Graham Dosset, both Fellows of the Centre with long policing careers in the UK, have worked in all world regions with police colleges and programmes offering human rights education for law enforcement officers. It has prepared training manuals on the medical investigation of torture and torture prevention.37 One manual was translated into Chinese for EU-supported training there.38 Clara Sandoval, Department of Law, in partnership with the International Bar Association, has focused particularly on judicial training in her own region, the Americas.

30 See for greater detail the Centre website under training http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/index.shtm 31 The President of the Citizenship Foundation is Lord Andrew Phillips, Chancellor of the University of Essex: http://www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk/ 32 L. Levin, Human Rights: Questions and Answers 3rd edition (Paris: UNESCO, 2000) 33 Development Education Association, www.dea.org.uk, and 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World, www.8020.ie/ 34 For example in Brazil, see Report, Inter-Regional Judicial Conference, Brasilia, Sept. 2006, http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/index.shtm 35 ‘Protecting Rights and Delivering Justice’, Inter-Regional Conference on Justice Systems and Human Rights, Palacio do Itamaraty, Brasilia, 18-20 Sept. 2006. For the Conference Final Report see http://www.britishcouncil.org.br/human _rights/home.asp. The crucial management role played in this Conference by Pooja Ahluwalia (LLM 2004), Associate Member of the Human Rights Centre, should be acknowledged. 36 R. Crawshaw and L. Holmstrom, Essential Texts on Human Rights for the Police (Leiden, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2nd edition, 2008), Essential Cases on Human Rights for the Police (Leiden, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006). 37 M. Peel and N. Lubell with J. Beynon, Medical Investigation and Documentation of Torture (Colchester: University of Essex Human Rights Centre, 2005); C. Giffard, The Torture Reporting Handbook: How to Document and Respond to Allegations of Torture within the International System for the Protection of Human Rights (Colchester: University of Essex Human Rights Centre, 2000) 38 Conor Foley, Combating Torture: A Manual for Judges and Prosecutors (Colchester: University of Essex Human Rights Centre, 2002)

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The Centre has a long-standing training contract in human rights and humanitarian law with the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London. Litigation Several of the lawyers associated at one time or another with the Human Rights Centre have had experience of submitting applications on behalf of individual applicants to the former European Commission on Human Rights and later the European Court of Human Rights. These have covered a wide range of different issues and were brought against various States. The most notable of these one-off cases has to be Banković and others v. Belgium and others, arising from the NATO attack on a television station in Belgrade during the conflict regarding Kosovo.39 The bulk of the litigation, however, was part of a single project which began in 1993. It involved the situation in South-East Turkey, where counter-insurgency operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was the context in which serious human rights violations were allegedly occurring at the hands of the Turkish gendarmerie and armed forces. The object, in addition to vindicating the claims of the individual applicants, was to use human rights machinery to attempt to establish a body of evidence which the State could not simply deny, and to address the lack of accountability for very serious human rights violations. In order to examine accountability it was necessary to explore what was going wrong with the domestic remedies system, resulting in the total inability of the domestic legal system to provide redress. This required emphasis on the importance of the right to a remedy. In all, over sixty cases were litigated by lawyers based at Essex. Notable cases include: torture – Aksoy; Aydin; ‘unknown perpetrator’ killings – Kaya; Kiliç; Akkoç; indiscriminate killings – Ergi; Gül; deaths in detention – Salman; ‘disappearances’ – Kurt; Çakici; Timurtas; Taş; Akdeniz, and intentional destruction of homes by fire, resulting in forced relocation – Akdivar; Asker & Selçuk and Ayder.40 In virtually all of the cases there is an examination of the operation in practice of the domestic remedies system in Turkey.41 Whilst the cases were submitted mainly in 1993 and 1994, the process proved a long one. Judgments in the final cases were delivered in 2005. The cases achieved their first objective. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the Court found the applicant’s complaint established beyond reasonable doubt and awarded the applicant compensation. Owing to the willingness of the former Commission to engage in fact-finding, the applicants were able to establish the usefulness of international human rights machinery in creating a record and shedding light on an extremely contested situation. The case-law not only created precedents which have been cited on innumerable occasions in more typical cases but also paved the way for a similar use of litigation with regard to the situation in the Chechen Republic. It is less clear that the cases secured individual accountability and effected permanent change in the way in which operations are conducted in Turkey, with the possible exception of torture. But one long term positive result of the litigation was to help arouse interest in the European Convention among the academic and practising legal profession in Turkey.

39 Banković and Others v. Belgium and 16 Other Contracting States, Grand Chamber European Court of Human Rights, Admissibility Decision, 19 Dec. 2001. 40 The judgments in these cases can be found easily through the European Court of Human Rights database, HUDOC www.coe.int 41 A notable summary of the flaws in that system can be found in the Commission report on Ilhan v. Turkey.

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This decade of litigation helped establish the strong reputation for professional advocacy expertise at Essex.42 It was reflected in requests for Essex lawyers to provide training on the European Convention its practice and procedures to the United Kingdom Bar and Law Society and to other professional legal bodies throughout Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Graduate students worked on the preparation of the cases and in the case of one, Aisling Reidy, pleaded before the Court. It is pleasing to record that graduates of the LLM who studied the European Convention course have subsequently undertaken from their own jurisdictions successful applications to the European Court. A number of others have been recruited to the legal secretariat of the Court in Strasbourg or are working in NGOs which include litigation in their campaigning. The Children’s Legal Centre The Children’s Legal Centre (CLC) developed from the human rights programme into an independent and unique NGO based at the University. Under its director, Professor Carolyn Hamilton, it has become the leading advice and advocacy and litigation centre on the defence of children’s rights in Britain. It has developed a major international programme of training and consultancy on child protection. The CLC coordinates the recently established International Network of Child Law Centres. The CLC has provided important opportunities for internships and employment for Essex human rights graduates. After working in the CLC many have continued careers in children’s rights with international and national agencies. In 1997 the two Centres established a joint project, the Children and Armed Conflict Unit.43 Its patron is Graça Machel, an honorary graduate of the University and the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary- General on children and armed conflict.

5. People Academic Staff Any successful programme such as human rights studies at Essex is in large part built on people, on academic staff, but also on students. Essex has been fortunate over the years in attracting leading academics and practitioners to its teaching staff and its adjunct Fellows. These have included Professor Maurice Sunkin, who created an LLM in UK Human Rights and Public Law, Professor Steve Peers, a leading specialist on human rights and the European Union, Professor Jane Wright, who has acted as a director of the Centre and who developed the comparative study of human rights law and institutions, Professor Geoff Gilbert, who pioneered minority rights and refugee law as well as international criminal law courses at Essex, and Fernne Brennan, who has focused on the study of racism and racial discrimination. In addition to teaching and research academic staff have worked outside the university with international and regional organisations, or with governments or civil society. Professor Diane Elson, Sociology, has long worked with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) as a consultant focusing on gender and development. Dr Colin Samson, Sociology, has studied the Innu people of the Labrador- Quebec peninsula since 1994 and worked with Survival International to defend their human rights. Dr. Todd Landman, Government, has worked for different international bodies on democratic systems. Professors Stuart Weir and David Beetham devised and field tested democratic assessment measures within the Democratic Audit project,

42 The work on the Kurdish human rights cases was the basis on which Professor Kevin Boyle and Professor Françoise Hampson were awarded ‘Human Rights Lawyer of the Year’ in 1998 by Liberty and the Law Society Gazette. 43 Rachel Harvey, Children and Armed Conflict -A Guide to International Human Rights and Human Rights Law (International Bureau for Children’s Rights, 2001) www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/

Twenty-Five Years of Human Rights at Essex 13 measures which can be used by citizens and groups in any country. Professor Sir Nigel Rodley has given over a decade of service to the UN human rights system, as Special Rapporteur on torture and as a member of the Human Rights Committee which oversees the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Professor Françoise Hampson in turn was a serving member of the UN Sub- Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights until its dissolution in 2006. She was the author of a farseeing report on the implications of climate change for human rights, focused on the risk of island states disappearing and effects on indigenous populations.44 Professor Tom Sorell, formerly of the Philosophy Department and a co– director of the Centre (2003-5), has long been a member of the Amnesty International (UK) Business Section. Professor Sheldon Leader has also worked with Amnesty International on international trade and human rights concerns. In 2008 Professor Paul Hunt completes two terms as Special Rapporteur on the right to health. He had previously been a member of the monitoring Committee on the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. In an extraordinary year (2001-2) which I spent as senior adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, my understanding of the political dynamics of the international protection system deepened and in turn the experience enriched both my teaching and research.45 A New Generation There is also a new generation of teaching and research staff in the Centre, some of them graduates of the Essex masters’ programme. They represent the future of human rights at Essex. The focus on economic, social and cultural rights as well as development and human rights, subjects which have been a feature at Essex, owes much to the contributions of, amongst others, Rajat Khosla and Judith Bueno De Mesquita. While at Essex Noam Lubell contributed importantly to humanitarian law teaching and research. Clara Sandoval, lecturer in law, has developed and offers a full option on the Inter- American System of Human Rights Protection, and while at Essex Elizabeth Griffin developed an exciting course on UN peacekeeping law. Anna Hardiman-McCartney and Claudia Tavani, Law, Fabian Freyenhagen, Philosophy, Michelle Lamb, Róisin Ryan Flood and Dr. Antje Vetterlein from Sociology, Edzia Carvalho and Paul Bou-Habib from Government are among other new Essex full time and associate staff teaching and researching in human rights through their respective disciplines. Human Rights Centre Fellows and Visiting Professors The range of Centre Fellows, non-resident professionals working on human rights in so many contexts in the world, is a dimension of the Essex programme of which all its members take great pride. The Centre website provides a full account,46 as it would be impossible here to describe all activities or list all their names. But mention may be made of a number. Ian Martin, former Secretary-General of Amnesty International and at present Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Nepal supporting the peace process. In 2005 he represented the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal and has had long experience of UN human rights field presences. Another Fellow is Judge Erik Møse, judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and former President of the Tribunal, seconded from the High Court in Norway. While on sabbatical at Essex earlier, he wrote the main Norwegian textbook on international human rights. The Reverend Canon John Nurser’s work reflects the Centre’s long interest in religion

44 Expanded working paper by Françoise Hampson on the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in States and other territories threatened with extinction for environmental reasons. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/28 16 June 2005. 45 K Boyle (ed.), Mary Robinson, A Voice for Human Rights (Philadelphia: Penn University Press, 2006) 46 http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/people/fellows.shtm.

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Kevin Boyle 14 and human rights. He published a seminal study of the role played by the early ecumenical movement in establishing human rights as the ‘soul’ of the new United Nations organisation.47 The Centre has currently two Visiting Professors, Sarah Spencer, Associate Director of the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford, and Professor Arjun Sengupta, Chair of the Centre for Development and Human Rights in New Delhi. Both have contributed greatly to the richness of the Essex programme. Graduates An overview of people connected with the Centre must of course and above all include those who studied here over the twenty-five years, the graduates. The Human Rights Centre has always sought to keep in touch, to be responsive and supportive of its alumni. One of the most positive outcomes of this anniversary year has been the success of our efforts to rebuild relationships with alumni. There have been some 1,200 graduates over the twenty-five years of the Essex programme, including those who came here for masters’ degrees, research degrees and in recent years undergraduate degrees. The majority are graduates from after 1990. While it is not yet possible to provide a complete picture of the graduate body some broad patterns in terms of careers are possible to identify. Over the twenty-five years there have been students from every region and almost every country in the world. These graduates now work professionally in human rights all over the world. A considerable number work in intergovernmental organisations at UN level - for example, there are sizeable numbers in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva (OHCHR). There are also graduates working in regional intergovernmental organisations. In addition, many Essex graduates work in international NGOs based in different capitals, for example Human Rights Watch in New York or Amnesty International in London. Many graduates have worked or are working in ‘the field’ on behalf of international or nongovernmental bodies in situations such as Darfur or Nepal, Bosnia or Kosovo. At national level a substantial number of alumni are lawyers in private practice or work for state agencies such as prosecutorial services, or indeed have become judges. Finally and notably many graduates have become academics or researchers working in universities and institutes across the world. Many have achieved professorships, have published influential books and have achieved international reputations in their specialisations. In short, Essex human rights graduates are everywhere in the human rights world. The range of their careers is astonishing. Their achievements have rebounded to strengthen the reputation of the Essex programme as one of the best in the world and all at Essex are grateful for the positive testaments that graduates give of their time in Colchester. A significant number of each year’s new intake of students to the masters’ degrees report that they have been recommended to study at Essex by former graduates. We could ask for no better testimony of the value of their experience in Essex.

Conclusion To conclude this brief account of twenty-five years of human rights at Essex: over that period of time the Centre has acted as a catalyst for staff in the different Essex departments working on human rights to co-operate in the development of an educational programme which has become a world leader and from which a large number of graduates from all over the world have benefited. In addition the Centre has sought to support research and lead on outreach activities appropriate for an academic

47 J. Nurser, For All Peoples and All Nations: Christian Churches and Human Rights (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2005)

Twenty-Five Years of Human Rights at Essex 15 institution in the advancement of universal human rights and in defence of victims of violation. Alumni over the years have found professional careers across the entire spectrum of national and international human rights work and have strengthened the reputation of the university through their achievements. There is truly much to celebrate in this twenty-fifth anniversary year of the launch of human rights studies at Essex University.

Essex Human Rights Review Vol. 5 No. 1 July 2008