1 Queen’s University Belfast Human Rights Centre Annual Report 2016/2017 Issue July 2017 To get involved with the Centre activities, contact: Luke Moffett HRC Director [email protected]Rachel Killean HRC Deputy Director [email protected]The Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University Belfast celebrated its 25th anniversary during 2015–2016. Throughout its history the Centre has sought to enhance the quality of debate around human rights issues, whether local, national or international. It has organised innumerable conferences, seminars and guest talks. It has facilitated various research projects and training initiatives. And it has been centrally involved in the delivery of Masters programmes – first the LLM in Human Rights Law and then the LLM in Human Rights and Criminal Justice. The Centre is proud of the role it has played in attracting top- notch staff and graduate students to the university and has plans to develop that role still further in the coming years.
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Queen’s University Belfast Human Rights Centre Annual Report
2016/2017 Issue July 2017
To get involved with the Centre activities, contact:
The Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University Belfast
celebrated its 25th anniversary during 2015–2016.
Throughout its history the Centre has sought to enhance the
quality of debate around human rights issues, whether local,
national or international.
It has organised innumerable conferences, seminars and guest
talks. It has facilitated various research projects and training
initiatives. And it has been centrally involved in the delivery of
Masters programmes – first the LLM in Human Rights Law and
then the LLM in Human Rights and Criminal Justice.
The Centre is proud of the role it has played in attracting top-
notch staff and graduate students to the university and has
plans to develop that role still further in the coming years.
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September 2016
PhD student Gillian McNaull and Prof Phil Scraton pictured with David Langwallner
from the Irish Innocence Project
21st Small Places, Close to Home – Human Rights, Participation and Power. Co-hosted by the Right to Welfare Campaign
October 2016
17th A Conversation about the Future of Human Rights in the UK
24th Talk by Tom McGonigle, Prisoner Ombudsman
27th Sakharov Prize Debate by LLM students
November 2016
8th Stephen Livingstone Annual Lecture by Paul Hunt on the Right to Health
December 2016
PhD student Conor McCormick and Prof
Sally Wheeler discussing marriage equality following 8: A Play about the Fight for
Marriage Equality
5th Workshop with Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College
8th Aseem Trivedi Talk, in Conversation with Frontline Defenders.
9th 8: A Play about the Fight for Marriage Equality
February 2017 7th 'Social Justice in the 'New' Myanmar: Cause Lawyering, Legal
Empowerment and the Social Legitimacy of Lawyers' by Alex Batesmith from the University of Liverpool.
15th ‘Prosecuting a former child soldier: the legal and moral challenges of the Dominic Ongwen case at the ICC’ by Paul Bradfield
22nd Careers in Human Rights and International Law, by Judge Rowan Downing
22nd ‘Victims in International Criminal Justice’, by Judge Rowan Downing
March 2017
The Victims Rights’ Clinic discussing recent decisions from the International Criminal
Court
8th International Women’s Day Event, held in association with Reclaim the Agenda on ‘Human Rights and Womanhood: Contemporary Issues facing Women in Northern Ireland’
May 2017 19th The School of Law hosted a ‘Fairness in Law-Making’ conference,
featuring presentations from academics and practitioners on the concept of fairness in different legal contexts
June 2017 9th Hosted a lunchtime seminar for Ms Farina So from the
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) with the QUOTE hub and the Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security & Justice
Events
The Centre has hosted a number of events for staff and students over the past year.
A number of practitioners have given talks, and the Centre has collaborated with other organisations to host a
range of workshops and discussions on a variety of human rights issues. Events have included:
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Staff and students at the Centre have been conducting
research into a variety of human rights issues, and have
made several submissions to legal and political bodies,
including the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against
Women, the International Criminal Court, the
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the
Committee for Justice and the Northern Ireland Human
Rights Commission
Grants and Awards
Drs Luke Moffett and Dug Cubie won an ALT/
Routledge Technology and Law prize for their use
of computer games to teach the laws of war
Professor Colin Harvey is leading an ESRC Brexit
Priority Grant project on ‘Brexit and Northern
Ireland: The Constitutional, Conflict Transformation,
Human Rights and Equality Consequences’,
collaborating with leading researchers from Ulster
University and the Committee on the
Administration of Justice (CAJ) to examine the
consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland
Dr Julie Norman is currently working as a Co-
Investigator on an AHRC funded project named
‘Sounding Conflict: From Resistance to
Reconciliation’
Dr Norman has also been awarded a British
Academy Rising Star Engagement Award and a
British Academy/ Leverhulme Small Research Grant
Dr Robin Hickey, Dr Luke Moffett, Dr Rachel Killean
and Professor Ronan Deazley, are currently
undertaking an AHRC funded grant exploring the
issue of Restoring Cultural Property and
Communities after Conflict
Research Projects
Dr Luke Moffett receiving the ALT/Routledge
Technology and Law prize
The Centre also launched a Victims’ Rights Clinic in
conjunction with REDRESS and the Victims Rights’
Working Group and is collaborating with Cork Centre for
Justice and Human Rights on a project exploring refugee
rights, migration and international crime
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Postgraduate Events and Activities
Conor McCormick and Eithne Dowds delivered a workshop entitled ‘What are Human Rights?’ for school students as part of the School-University Partnership Initiative
The Centre held a Postgraduate Students’ Roundtable Series in semester one, allowing students to present on
their research in a supportive environment:
1st December 2016
Ms Christina Verdirame discussed
National Security in Transition:
Law, Politics and the Struggle for
Truth in Northern Ireland'
21st February 2017
Ms Maggie Burlington discussed
‘Folk Devils on Trial: Protecting
Fair Trial Rights in Times of Moral
Panic’
PhD students Roise Connolly and Clare Patton organized the 3rd annual HRC postgraduate conference exploring ‘The Role of Business in the Promotion and Protection of Health and Human Rights’
Four postgraduate students also participated in the International Criminal Court mooting competition, coached by Dr Luke Moffett and Dr Rachel Killean
Attendees at the 3rd HRC postgraudate conference on ‘The Role of Business in
the Promotion and Protection of Health and Human Rights’
Upcoming Events
The Human Rights Centre is supporting the ‘Inaugural Belfast Pride Law Lecture 2017’ organised by ‘Lawyers with Pride’ (a recently formed association founded by PhD student Conor McCormick together with Ciaran Moynagh, Solicitor Advocate, and Steven McQuitty BL). The event is scheduled to take place on 28 July at 3.30pm in the Moot Court Room. Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, Justice of the UK Supreme Court, will deliver a lecture on ‘some recent cases in the UK Supreme Court’ and engage in a question and answer session.
17th November 2016
Ms Katarina Schwarz discussed
‘Repair, Redress, or Justice? An
Exploration of the boundaries of
judicial remedies for grave
injustice in international law’
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September 2016 29th Dr Luke Moffett presented his research on
reparations to a private roundtable with the EU and African Union on transitional justice
October 2016
8th Dr Rachel Killean presented her research to international legal practitioners at a Conference on Sexual Violence in Conflict at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
November 2016
8th Dr Luke Moffett participated in a roundtable on the Implementation and Reconciliation Group discussion with the Department of Foreign Affairs
11th – 13th
Dr Ronagh McQuigg and Dr Julie Norman participated in the QUB-Haifa Legal Research workshop
16th Dr Kathryn McNeilly presented on ‘Beyond Article 8: The European Convention on Human Rights and Abortion in Cases of Fatal Foetal Abnormality and Sexual Crime'. the Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series at Stormont
19th Dr Luke Moffett spoke on state responsibility for reparations at the International Criminal Court Assembly of State Parties in The Hague
February 2017 Dr Ronagh McQuigg was invited to be a part of
an Expert Panel for a workshop entitled ‘Designing Gender Research: Methods and Challenges’ at Ulster University
March 2017 Dr Ronagh McQuigg was invited by the
Attorney General to participate in a colloquium entitled: Domestic abuse – developing effective human rights guidance’
April 2017 28th Dr Luke Moffet presented ‘Legal avenues for
serious injuries as a result of the Troubles’, at the Victims Forum
Ms Christina Veridame presenting at the
PG rountable series
School students with Dr Eithne Downds and
PhD student Conor McCormick
Dr Kathryn McNeilly presenting at the Knowledge
Exchange Seminar Series at Stormont
Engagement and Staff Activities
3rd HRC postgraduate conference
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Selected Publications and Media Outputs
Brice Dickson and Conor McCormick co-edited a Special Issue of Northern Ireland Law Quarterly on ‘The Right to Education’ (Volume 67, Number 4, Winter 2016), to commemorate the 25 year anniversary of the Human Rights Centre, which included their own co-authored article on ‘The Right to Education for Humanity’ (pp409-432)
Brice Dickson ‘The Charter of Fundamental Rights within Ireland’ and ‘The Charter of Fundamental Rights within the United Kingdom’ in L Burgorgue-Larsen (ed), La Charte des Droits Fondamentaux saisie par les juges en Europe (Paris; Editions Pedone pp 465-474 and 673-689)
Luke Moffett ‘Reparations in Transitional Justice: Justice or Political Compromise?’ in Human Rights and International Legal Discourse (2017)
Luke Moffett, Dr Rachel Killean and Dr Robin Hickey ‘Restoring Cham Cultural Property and Communities after Conflict, DC-Cam Magazine, 19th April 2017
Brice Dickson: ‘Electoral finances, human rights and fairness’, in Helen Hardman and Brice Dickson (eds); Electoral Rights in Europe: Advances and Challenges (Routledge, 2017, pp 190-207)
Yassin Brunger, ‘How decent data can help African girls overcome second class status, Published in the The Conversation’ (October 20th), plus extensive interview by PowerFm South Africa on her article
Ronagh McQuigg: The Istanbul Convention, Domestic Violence and Human Rights (Routledge, 2017)
Luke Moffett, ‘Easy lies and late truths – The daily
struggle of dealing with the past in Northern Ireland’,
