Selected HRLC Events Human Rights Law Centre Forthcoming events: 2010 Spring Lecture Summer School on Protecting Human Rights 2 March 2010, Nottingham through United Nations Mechanisms Winter 2010 Newsletter 28 June – 2 July 2010, Nottingham Presentation of the Dublin Statement on the Prof. William A. Schabas, Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, will deliver HRLC’s 2010 Spring Lecture Strengthening of the United Nations Human The 2010 Summer School will have sessions devoted to on “Victor’s Justice: Politics and International Criminal the human rights treaty bodies (the reporting and individual Rights Treaty Body System Prosecution”. Prof. Schabas is a leading international communications procedures), the Human Rights Council’s Welcom e to t he w inter e dition of our Newsl etter! 26 January 2010, Geneva expert and scholar in international human rights law and Universal Period Review mechanism and Special Procedures, In this issue... international criminal law. and the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for The Dublin Statement will be presented at the Palais des The past months have kept us very busy. Student activities are in full swing, with activities such as Human Rights and its field presences. The seminars will be the Human Rights Film Series attracting great interest and support and preparations well underway Nations in Geneva in an event co-hosted by the Human Training Courses for Thai Judges taught by highly experienced experts on the UN human rights for this yea r’s Intern ation al Stud ents Human Rig hts Conference. The ne w Securit y and H uman Rights Law Centre and the Permanent Mission of Ireland and Court Officials system from a wide variety of backgrounds. The Summer to the United Nations in Geneva. Three of the signatories Rights Unit is up and running. The new cohorts of Short Course students and Chevening Fellows March and May 2010, Nottingham School will be an interactive event in which all participants to the statement will form the panel: Prof. Cees Flinterman, have arrived for their training programmes. We have been busy with human rights policy-related will be encouraged to get fully involved. Ms. Shanthi Dairiam and Prof. Michael O’Flaherty. In 2009 HRLC signed a Memorandum of Understanding work and, in November, we convened a meeting on human rights treaty body reform that was with the Office of the Judiciary of Thailand to provide training Human Rights Film Festival attended by t he UN High Com mi ssione r and other d istingu ished exp erts. in human rights law on a regular basis. This year HRLC will Sir John C. Smith Trust Fund Annual Visiting at Broadway Cinema hold two three-week training courses for Thai Judges and Scholar Program July 2010, Nottingham We hope you will enjoy reading about these and the other aspects of our activities. As always, Court Officials. The March course will focus on international Navi Pillay and Prof. O’Flaherty 26 February 2010, Nottingham we look forward to your feedback. and English labour law, while the May course will focus on The third Human Rights Film Festival at Broadway Cinema at the Dublin meeting international human rights standards. will take place in July 2010. This year’s festival theme, Prof. David Feldman, Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at ‘Human Rights in the UK’, intends to highlight four human Professor David Harris the University of Cambridge, will be a Visiting Scholar in the rights issues within the UK – security measures, youth & Pro fessor Michae l O’ Flahert y School of Law in the week between 22-26 February. As part New Technologies: Your Life? Your Health? anti-social behaviour, migrants, and misperception of rights. of his visit, he will hold a workshop on the UK Human Your Privacy? Our Human Rights. Films to be screened will be selected by the students of the Rights Act, organised by the Human Rights Law Centre. 11 th Annual Student Human Rights Conference Film Series Committee in collaboration with Broadway 20 March 2010, Nottingham Cinema. Ms Nav ane them Pillay, joined the e xpert gr ou p for UN Hig h Co mmi ssion er Add re sses Study Visit of Iranian Judges & Lawyers on a se ssion of th e m eeting o n 19 No vember 20 09 . The 2010 conference will explore the inter-relation between Groundbr ea kin g Event on Reform of the International Human Rights System human rights and the global consequences of the advance ment Ms Pillay stated that th e two ma jor challen ges Februrary 2010, Nottingham and London of new technologies. By encouraging multi-disciplinary the Human Rights Treaty Body System facing the trea ty body sy stem rel ate to r esources participation, the conference seeks to reaffirm the necessity Interview with a Very Special and coheren ce. She re iterated her c all for th e speedy A small group of senior-level judges and lawyers from Iran of incorporating human rights discourse when discussing the On 18 and 19 Nove mbe r 2009 t he Hum an Rights Law development of proposals which could enable the will visit the Human Rights Law Centre in February. They will Rapporteur on page 5 controversial nature of the science and technology domain. Centre, on th e i nitia tive of its Co-D irector Prof . Michael treaty body system to be more rational, coherent, attend seminars on different aspects of the international It provides students with an opportunity to present their O’Flaher ty, w ith the sup port of t he Irish Departme nt of coordinated and effective. She added that “[...] treaty human rights system and undertake study visits to legal research to an international audience alongside leading Foreign Affairs, convened a meeting of UN human body experts are optimally placed to initiate such institutions in Nottingham and London. practitioners, scholars and experts. rights treaty body experts in Dublin, Ireland, to finalise reflection and ac hieve th e req uisite balance be tween a statement that marks out key parameters for a spe cifici ty of tasks an d c oherence of outc ome. Experts programme of reform of the treaty body system: such as t hose gathered here to day mus t lea d the The Dub lin St atement on th e Process of St rengthening discussi on and involve civil society and national of the United N ations Human Right s Treaty Body System . human rights institutions in this important endeavour. HRLC Welcomes Contact Details The text of the statement was developed in the period [...] The role of States Parties and their views shall also In Brief... from September to November, and it has been signed be solicited once specific proposals are formulated Human Rights Law Centre by 35 current and former treaty body members, all throug h the differ en t event s of w hich the D ublin New Research Associate Prof. Sarah Joseph guest lec - School of Law acting in a personal ca pacity. tured on the Human Rights meetin g is a we lcome and timely starting point” . University of Nottingham The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Human Rights Law Centre is very pleased to Council University Park More information on page 2. welcome Agnes Flues as Research Associate. Agnes has been working at the Human Rights Law Centre Nottingham since January 2009 on a number of HRLC NG7 2RD, United Kingdom projects, before which she was an intern for the Corrigendum Telephone: +44 (0)115 846 6309 Summer School on Protecting the human rights treaty bodies, the Human Rights International Criminal Justice Unit. She holds a Fax: +44 (0)115 846 6579 Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and In the last edition of the Newslet ter, COST Human Rights through United Democratisation from The European Inter-University - the principal funder of the 10th Annual Rights (OHC HR) and its field pre senc es. Speaker s inclu de: Centre, Venice, and a Master's Degree in Human Rights Law Centre Co-Directors: Conference of the Association of Human Nation s Mech anism s Prof. Mic hael O’F lahe rty (Mem ber of the UN Hum an Rights Institutes (AHRI) - was incorrectly International Relations and Human Rights from Professor David J Harris, LLM PhD CMG identified as a pro gramme of the Rights Committee ); Prof. Sir Nige l Rodley (Vic e-Chair, the University of Padua, Italy. Since beginning at Professor Michael O’Flaherty, BCL BPh STB MA European Science Foundation. COST is The Human Righ ts Law Cent re i s pleased to announce UN H uman R ights Committe e an d former UN Spe cial the Centre, she has worked as a project M Phil FRSA Solicitor an intergovernmental framework for officer on a number of HRLC projects, including European Cooperation in Science and the 2010 Summer Schoo l on Pr otecting H uman Rights Rapp orte ur on Torture), Dr. Ibra him Sala ma (Ch ief of the Technology. The AHRI Conference Human Rights Treaties Branch, OHCHR), Rachel Brett the Seminar for Thai Court Officials on Website: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/law/hrlc launched COST Action IS0702: The Role of thro ug h UN Mechan isms, whic h will run from 28 June International Human Rights Standards , the the EU in UN Human Rights Reform. - 2 July 2010. The focus of the Summer School will be (Human Rights and Refugees Representative, Quaker Strategic Dissemination of the Guiding Principles practical and applied, providing participants with an UN Office), Kate Fox (Petitions Team, OHCHR), Bela Kapur for Human Rights Field Officers and the Dublin insider’s understanding of UN human rights (Conflict Advisor, DFID and formerly with OHCHR and Statement on the Process of Strengthening the mechanisms.