On Human Rights: Recent Episodes
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
This episode is the 9th in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Kateryna Shapovalova and she is joined by Nicolas Bueno.
This episode is the 8th in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Kateryna Shapovalova, a mentee in the BHR4Ukraine project, and she is joined by Angelica Bonfanti, who is a mentor in the project.
In this podcast Maryam Safi, RWI 2025 Fellow for the Afghanistan Programme, talk about her research.
Today we are joined by Liliana Lizarazo Rodríguez and Martha Robles Ustariz, our partners from the Brussels School of Governance. In the Defend-Bio project, they focus on the area “Litigation in Latin American and the Caribbean countries”, trying to identify, analyze and conceptualize the role played by regional and national courts regarding the actions of biosphere defenders seeking to prevent or mitigate the degradation of these ecosystems.
This episode is the 7th in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Tamara Horbachevska-Konstankevych, co-coordinator in the BHR4Ukraine project, and Anna Tsuvina, who is a mentee in the project.
This episode is the sixth in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Olena Uvarova, Associate Professor at the university, and features Kateryna Shapovalova, a mentee in the project.
This episode is the fifth in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Olena Uvarova, Associate Professor at the university, and features Mariia Vasylechko, a mentee in the project.
This episode is the fourth in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Horbachevska-Konstankevych, co-coordinator in the BHR4Ukraine project, and Nadia Bernaz, who is a mentor in the project. In this podcast episode, Nadia discusses the state of human rights due diligence legislation, examines both the positive and negative developments in the business and human rights field, and highlights opportunities for early-career BHR scholars, among other topics.
This episode is the third podcast in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Olena Uvarova, Associate Professor at the university, and features Tamara Horbachevska-Konstankevych, co-coordinator in the project.
This episode is the second podcast in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. The epiosde is an extension of the first episode where we meet Snizhana Shevchenko again, but this time together with Oleksandra Panasiek, Program Coordinator at Reskilling Ukraine, Beredskapslyftet. This episode is in Ukrainian.
This episode is the first in the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Business and Human Rights in Ukraine podcast series, produced as part of the BHR4Ukraine project in collaboration with Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. It is hosted by Olena Uvarova, Associate Professor at the university, and features Snizhana Shevchenko, a mentee in the BHR4Ukraine project.
In this podcast, RWI research fellows Tahmina Sobat and Mohammad Mustafa Raheal reflect on their year-long fellowship at RWI and share their key takeaways.
This latest episode in our series highlighting Defend-Bio focuses on environmental justice, human rights, and their relationship to biodiversity and climate change. RWI's thematic leader on Human Rights and the Environment Claudia Ituarte-Lima sat down with Anna Maria Vargas, Valentina Lomanto and Juan Antonio Samper to talk about the journey so far in developing the Defend-Bio transnational legal clinic.
Andrea Boggio delivered the annual Fulbright Lecture yesterday on the topic: “Science Has No Homeland: The Duty of International Scientific Cooperation in Human Rights Law”
Today’s episode takes on a special format. We will be sharing with our listeners a recording of the 2025 Anna Lindh Lecture as it was delivered. The Anna Lindh Lecture is an annual public event co-organized by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, the Anna Lindh Memorial Foundation, Lund University and Lund University Association of Foreign Affairs. It commemorates the late Anna Lindh, a Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs who was assassinated in 2003. The 2025 Anna Lindh Lecture was delivered by Hadja Lahbib, European Commissioner for Equality; Preparedness and Crisis Management.
In this episode, our guest is Arpine Matevosyan, a passionate human rights advocate whose work sits at the intersection of law, technology, and social justice. She holds a Master’s in Human Rights and Social Justice from the American University of Armenia, and brings a thoughtful, cross-disciplinary approach to the field.
This episode is part of the Rights-Based Climate Adaptation in Armenia and Georgia initiative, designed to support public sector professionals to advance their contextual understanding of human rights and gender equality dimensions of the climate change-related challenges and associated adaptation initiatives taking place in their countries.
In this episode, Narine Gasparyan, a human rights lawyer, academic, and PhDresearcher, shares insights from her work on the restitution of property rights for victimsof armed conflicts in Europe. Drawing on over two decades of experience in legalreform, international litigation, and human rights advocacy, Narine explores how theEuropean Court of Human Rights has addressed land and housing rights in post-conflictsettings.
This episode features Professor Annika Rudman and RWI Senior Researcher Alejandro Fuentes in a discussion on women’s rights, gender inequality, and intersectional vulnerabilities. It is part of RWI’s Regional Africa Programme and connects to our newly published book marking 20 years since the adoption of the Maputo Protocol. The publication explores what substantive transformative equality means in practice within African continental and regional human rights systems, addressing a wide range of issues including gender-based discrimination, abuse, exploitation, and violence.
In this episode, we are joined by Nazeela Elmi, a human rights scholar specializing in conflict-affected regions, particularly focusing on gender, transitional justice and inclusive peace-building. She has served as a Professional Specialist at the Afghanistan Policy Lab at Princeton University, where she centred her work around human rights advocacy and policy research. Nazeela’s lived experience as a young Uzbek-Afghan woman deeply informs her scholarship and activism. She is dedicated to promoting inclusive peace and justice programs for Afghanistan’s most marginalized communities.
In this second episode we are joined by Carol Rask and Alvaro Amaya, our partners from the Danish Institute for Human Rights. In the Defend-Bio project, they focus on the work package 6 analyzing the citizen-generated data and legal empowerment, starting from the co-development of legal empowerment tool to capacity building and data collection, data analysis and finally, data-driven policy influencing.
Today, we are joined by Rohullah Esmati, a lawyer and expert in humanitarian and development affairs. His expertise spans the rule of law, local governance, decentralization, human rights advocacy, institutional reform or even human rights-based approach to sustainable development. Beyond consultancy roles, Esmati has managed programs focused on peacebuilding and governance.
Mohammad Mustafa Raheal is a dedicated activist and researcher specializing in human rights and social development. He holds a Master’s degree in International Development with Conflict and Humanitarian Action, achieved through the prestigious Chevening Scholarship and currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Humanities and Social Policy department at the University of Bath under a British Council Scholarship. His research focuses on urban-rural disparities and their impact on sustainable peace and human rights in Afghanistan.With over seven years of experience in international development and humanitarian work, Mustafa has held key leadership roles with organizations such as the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) at the Swedish Embassy in Kabul, the Civil Peace Service Program of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the Migration for Development Program of the International Psychosocial Organization (IPSO). His expertise includes program development, risk assessment, multi-agency collaboration, refugee resettlement, and conducting research on equitable aid distribution and sustainable peacebuilding.Mustafa served as a Research Consultant with the University of Bath’s Centre for Development Studies (CDS), focusing on fostering equitable partnerships in academic research and currently a Quantitative Researcher with University College London’s Institute of Education (IOE), Department of Education and Society, contributing to critical studies on refugee integration in England.Through the RWI Fellowship, Mustafa will examine horizontal inequalities in aid distribution in Afghanistan, aiming to highlight systemic challenges. As a passionate advocate and researcher, Mustafa combines his professional and academic expertise to support marginalized communities and contribute to sustainable development.
In this episode, we are joined by Dr Elisabeth Bürgi and Dr Judith Schäli, our two partners from the Centre for Development and Environment of the University of Bern and working on the Defend-Bio work package 3, focusing on the role of biosphere defenders advancing nature solutions for nature stewardship and the connections of these initiatives with transnational supply chains and regulation concerning the financial sector.
In this episode of On Human Rights, we speak with Yalda Bari, a human rights advocate and expert in women’s economic empowerment from Afghanistan. Yalda holds a Master’s in International Economics from the Berlin School of Economics and Law and brings over seven years of experience with organisations such as GIZ, ILO, and USAID, where she worked to support Afghan women’s access to the job market and build women-led businesses. She is also the founder of Bari Search Path, a company dedicated to empowering Afghan women through employment support and training. As a fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Yalda is conducting research on the challenges faced by women-led businesses inside Afghanistan under the current political regime. Her work aims to document women’s on-the-ground experiences and develop policy recommendations that can sustain and expand opportunities for financial independence in a deeply restrictive environment. “Businesses [are] an area of hope... they can still do activities from home. We need to address the challenges they’re facing and support them to make the best out of this little opportunity.” In this conversation, Yalda shares insights from her research, the resilience of Afghan women, and the importance of listening to voices that are often left out of international discussions.
Kaweh Kerami is a political scientist whose work bridges politics, (digital) media and human rights. He earned his PhD in Development Studies from SOAS University of London, where he investigated how power dynamics and competing interests shape political competition and cooperation in post-intervention Afghanistan (2001–2021). Drawing on comparative and narrative analyses, supported by extensive primary data and elite interviews, his research offers nuanced insights into political bargaining and (in)stability in conflict-affected contexts.As a Research Fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI), Kaweh examines how journalists use digital technologies to document human rights violations, focusing on challenges such as verification, security, and legal admissibility. His work also addresses the role of misinformation, including AI-driven disinformation, in shaping political discourse and media landscapes. Through these investigations, he aims to support international accountability efforts by developing secure, credible documentation methods and strengthening pathways for peace and justice.Kaweh taught at the American University in Kabul (2019–2021) and currently serves as a Master’s thesis supervisor at SOAS University of London. He has worked as a journalist for the BBC World Service, covering politics, war, and women’s rights, and most recently served as a specialist researcher for BBC Media Action on a U.S.-funded project examining media under Taliban rule. In his free time, he enjoys iPhone photography, capturing moments of beauty and reflection.
Hafizullah Saeedi is an independent researcher and a human rights defender. He holds a Master of Arts in Global Studies from Leipzig University, Germany. He obtained a double degree in International and Comparative Politics from American University of Central Asia and Bard College-NYC, for his undergraduate studies.Hafizullah has a background in human rights advocacy at the United Nations and European Union level. His area of research includes human rights, security and development studies, with a focus on minority issues, countering violent extremism, and humanitarian action. In the context of Afghanistan, he has written extensively on social movements, minorities and hate speech, as well as political participation of women and youth in national processes. He has previously worked with Minority Rights Group International, European Center for Minority Issues, and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development. In addition to his mother tongue Persian/Dari, he speaks English, Pashto, Russian and German languages.
In this episode, we’re joined by Fatema D. Ahmadi, a proficient human rights advocate with over a decade of experience working on the frontlines of gender-based violence, human trafficking, and peace building in Afghanistan. Fatema's personal journey as a displaced person shaped her lifelong commitment to human rights and justice. Her work has been so incredibly impactful. She's done everything from developing national anti-trafficking frameworks to working with victims and survivors. She's been involved in grassroots action and high-level policy, and she's made such a positive difference. A former Fulbright Humphrey Fellow, Fatema reflects on how the fellowship equipped her with tools and global perspectives that she later applied directly in Afghanistan, especially during its peace process. Now though out of Afghanistan, she continues her work through a leading Afghan human rights organization, driving efforts for accountability and justice for victims of human rights abuses. During her time as a research fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Fatema is focusing on children’s rights in Afghanistan, a topic often overlooked in policy debates. In this conversation, she discusses how generations of war, displacement, and oppression are affecting Afghan children today, and how evidence-based research can support change on both local and international levels. "We're thinking about them, we are researching about them, and we hope we can change their life, and advocating for their rights." Join us to hear Fatema’s perspective on justice, advocacy, and why amplifying the voices of vulnerable communities is essential for building a better future.
Dr. Atal Ahmadzai has been a dedicated advocate for environmental security and human rights. He earned his degree from Kabul University before pursuing further studies at Mahidol University in Thailand. His professional career includes working with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), where he worked on human development initiatives in Afghanistan and co-authored the National Human Development Report for the country. Following this, Dr. Ahmadzai continued his education at Rutgers University, where he obtained a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Global Affairs, focusing on Environmental and Human Security. Since 2015, he has held various academic roles, including adjunct instructor, post-doctoral scholar, and visiting professor. During his time as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Arizona, Dr. Ahmadzai examined the governance systems of armed non-state actors in South Asia. As a subject matter expert, he has also contributed to the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Dr. Ahmadzai’s research and teaching interests center on the intersection of environment, development, and conflict. Currently, as a Visiting Assistant Professor, he teaches environmental courses at Colby College. His scholarly and non-scholarly works have been published in numerous academic journals and respected publications. At the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI), he examines the nexus between climate shocks and human rights in Afghanistan.
This podcast episode features a conversation sparked by a newly premiered 2025 film Rule Breakers, which follows Afghanistan’s first all-girls robotics team and their journey to challenge societal norms and push boundaries. Rule Breakers is a story of determination, defying limitations, and carving out space in science and technology despite the odds. The Raoul Wallenberg Institute had the pleasure of organizing a conversation with Roya Mahboob, the robotics team’s co-founder, to talk about the role of alternative learning spaces, the fight for accessible STEM education, and why amplifying the voices of Afghan women and girls matters now more than ever.
Mark Gibney is the Carol Belk Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and the Affiliate Professor at RWI. In this episode, Professor Gibney challenges us to rethink how countries are held accountable — not just within their borders, but on a global scale.We’ll discuss his groundbreaking Political Terror Scale, which tracks government oppression in over 185 countries, and explore how a reimagined sense of responsibility could transform the way governments uphold justice and protect human rights.The episode is moderated by Daniella Fetko, a Communication Intern at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
Ambassador Olof Skoog, since March 2024, has been the EU Special Representative for Human Rights. He is a Swedish diplomat with extensive experience representing both Sweden and the European Union. Most recently he was EU Ambassador to the UN in New York. Last month, he was with us in Lund to deliver the 2024 annual Anna Lindh Lecture under the title “The Strategy of Human Rights”. The episode is moderated by Edwina Magnus, a Library Assistant at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute's Human Rights Library. Edwina is currently pursuing an LL.M in International Human Rights Law at Lund University and serves as President of The Association of Foreign Affairs (UPF) Lund.
Ambassador Olof Skoog, EU Special Representative for Human Rights, delivered the 2024 annual Anna Lindh Lecture on 19 November on the theme of “The Strategy of Human Rights.” This podcast episode is a live recording of the lecture as it was delivered at Lund University Hall.
Maliha Shirzay-Research Fellow, RWI Afghanistan Programme in 2024 is collaborating with other research fellows to support the mandate of the Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett on Human Rights in Afghanistan. More specifically, in this episode dedicated tshe shares insights from her research on investigating the rights of Afghan women, particularly focusing on education and empowerment. Maliha delves into the marginalized position of ethnic groups, specifically the Uzbek women in Afghanistan, and the obstacles encountered by Muslim women. Her research delves into the intricate nature of intersecting identities and the vulnerabilities experienced by these women.
Hamid A. Formuli is a human rights practitioner, former career diplomat and a Research Fellow with RWI's Afghanistan program in 2024. His tenure at the Afghan foreign service spans over 8 years, boasting an impactful career across various roles, starting from a consular associate, law and treaties officer to special aide to the deputy foreign minister for economic cooperation.Hamid previously served as the Head of the Human Rights Section of the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN in Geneva, and alternative permanent representative to the Human Rights Council during Afghanistan’s first ever membership of the body and as an expert at its Bureau during Afghanistan’s vice–presidency in 2020.Since 2022 Hamid Formuli has been a founding member and Senior Fellow at the Center for Dialogue and Progress – Geneva, where he leads activities on human rights monitoring and advocacy through research, legal analysis, and events organization.Academically, he holds a Bachelors in Law and Political Science from Kabul University and earned a Master (Summa Cum Laude) of International Studies from Seoul National University, South Korea, focusing on International Development Cooperation Policy and Global Governance.His research interests include nexus between conflict and development, International and UN-mandated accountability mechanisms, politics of international human rights action, and management of diversity in pluricultural societies.
Palwasha Mirbacha is a Research Fellow with RWI Afghanistan Programme in 2024. With over a decade of extensive experience, Palwasha Mirbacha has played a pivotal role in planning, designing, implementing, and monitoring education projects, collaborating with renowned international education institutions. As an expert in the field of education, she has successfully managed the execution of multi-sectoral, multi-million, and generational projects. Palwasha’s background encompasses the management of both developmental and humanitarian education programs, with a profound understanding of the economics of education facilitated by education background coupled with her intensive engagement in robust research, writing, and analysis of the sector. She employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, underscored by the publication of multiple analytical works in the field. Furthermore, Palwasha’s professional journey reflects a commitment to social entrepreneurship and community work in Afghanistan, evident in her instrumental role in establishing and sustaining a grassroots education initiative, the Boume Dana Foundation, focused on the publication and dissemination of indigenous and contextually relevant children’s literature for Afghan children.
Humaira Rasuli is an Afghan human rights lawyer, women empowerment activist and the Co-Founder and Director of Women for Justice Organization in Afghanistan (WJO). She has been with RWI in 2024 as a Research Fellow with the Afghanistan Program.In 2018, Humaira Rasuli co-founded Woman for Justice Organization (WJO) to better safeguard women’s rights by strengthening the state’s institutional response and accountability to violence against women using legal strategies, pushing for law reform, training the emerging advocates and conducting peace advocacy. Humaira performed as a leading lawyer in investigating and trying some of the most high-profile sex-crime cases in Afghanistan.
Mitra Tanomand, Research Fellow with RWI Afghanistan Programme is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Global Development with a focus on Education in the UK. Her project is focusing on researching human rights issues in Afghanistan, focusing on girls’ education and “Unveiling the post-2021 Realities within Women’s Protection Shelters in Afghanistan: Navigating Challenges Amidst Socio-Political Shifts”.
Kobra Moradi is Research Fellow with RWI's Afghanistan Programme and in this episode is sharing insights from her research on Afghan communities access to information regarding the International Criminal Court investigation on the human rights violations in Afghanistan. Kobra Moradi is a lawyer with a focus on human rights and international law. She has previously worked on international criminal accountability at the Australian Centre for International Justice, Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials, and Clooney Foundation for Justice.Kobra is a law and international relations graduate. She also holds a Master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the Australian National University, where she wrote her research dissertation on victim-centered transitional justice and Islamic law.
Haroun Rahimi is an affiliate associate professor at UW School of Law. Concurrently, Rahimi is an Associate Professor of Law and the chair of the Law Department at the American University of Afghanistan. Rahimi is also a Global Academy Scholar at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and a Research Fellow at The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI). Rahimi's research focuses on economic laws, institutional reform, Islamic finance, Islamic law, and ethics.
Anna Bruce, Senior Researcher at RWI, shares insights from her participation in the review of Sweden by the CRPD Committee and her work on Sweden's current implementation of the CRPD. -Work in progress version of book chapter in Swedish: Bruce, A, Funktionsrättskonventionen: Fördragskonform tolkning i norm(dis)harmoni, Lind, A-S, Thorburn Stern, R. & Österdahl, I. (red.) (2024). Folkrätten i svensk rätt. Ett nytt decennium. Lund: Studentlitteratur : https://rwi.lu.se/pyramid-publications/funktionsrattskonventionen/ -Reports by the students in the Lund Disability Human Rights Clinic on Access to Justice: https://rwi.lu.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/From-comittment-to-reality_Acess-to-justice-in-Sweden-for-persons-with-disabilities.pdf-The recorded dialogue between the CRPD Committee and the Swedish delegation: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1d/k1df2kmul9 https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1v/k1vc0oy5na -Closing statement from the CRPD Committee after the dialogue between the CRPD Committee and the Swedish delegation:https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCRPD%2FOCR%2FSWE%2F30th%2F36586&Lang=en -Concluding observation by the CRPD Committee after the dialogue between the CRPD Committee and the Swedish delegation:https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRPD%2FC%2FSWE%2FCO%2F2-3&Lang=en
Ehsan Qaane was a Research Fellow for the Afghanistan Programme in 2023. Prior to this, he worked with Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy researcher organisation, as a political and legal affairs researcher (2012-2022) and as the country director (2017-2020). He is a member of and adviser to several human rights networks in Afghanistan, including the Afghanistan Forensics Science Organisation (AFSO) and Transitional Justice Coordination Group (TJCG). He has published a vast amount of research on the conflict in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court’s engagement in Afghanistan, human rights and international humanitarian law. He worked as a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court.
David Cingranelli is a Professor of Political Science at Binghamton University of the State University of New York. He also is the Co-director of the Binghamton University Human Rights Institute. He has written widely on human rights, democracy, governance, and labor rights. He is a champion of the quantitative, scientific study of human rights. He is a former President of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association. He, Skip Mark of the University of Rhode Island, and Mikhail Filippov of Binghamton University co-direct the “CIRIGHTS” data project, which is the most comprehensive and widely used human rights data set in the world. The 2023 Global Rights Report uses those data to show that worker rights are among the least protected of all internationally recognized human rights. You can see David discussing on producing indicators of national human rights practices: https://youtu.be/20QAIi1BVI4And argue that we need national human rights report cards: https://academicminute.org/2023/05/david-cingranelli-binghamton-university-the-need-for-national-human-rights-report-cards/More on CIRIGHTS: https://web.uri.edu/artsci/wp-content/uploads/sites/1132/2023-Human-Rights-report-PDF-Final.pdf
Mr. Vishal Prasad is the Campaign Director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, a youth-led organization campaigning for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate change and human rights. He is from Suva, Fiji, and has studied international politics and law at the University of the South Pacific. He has been part of the ICJ advisory opinion movement since 2019 and is also part of the global ICJ advisory opinion movement under the World’s Youth for Climate Justice. As part of the ICJ advisory opinion campaign, he has a strong focus on securing the Pacific youth demands on the protection of the rights of current and future generations from the adverse effects of climate change.
She is a Pakistani activist, entrepreneur, writer, and disability rights advocate, known for her efforts to promote inclusivity and equality for people with disabilities in Pakistan. Tanzila Khan has been actively involved in raising awareness about the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and working towards creating a more accessible and inclusive society. She has also gained recognition for her writing, using her platform to address social issues and advocate for positive change. She founded Girlythings.pk for menstrual kits in Pakistan. At 16, she wrote 'A Story of Mexico,' funding community projects. Through Creative Alley and "Iwish," she supports SDGs. Recognized with awards, she made the film "FruitChaat" and launched "Brain Masala," Pakistan's first accessible podcast. In May 2022, she won the Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award in London.
Hanifa Girowal was a young female politician, and human rights advocate who served as Kabul’s deputy governor on socio-economic and development affairs, managing development and funding projects, mitigating conflicts, and providing essential services to Kabul residents.Previously, she worked with the Afghanistan Independent human rights commission (AIHRC), where she contributed to creating the independent human rights and gender units in Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). She published the first report on the situation of Afghan women in ANDSF, bringing a dramatic change in the situation of women serving in the police, intelligence, and armed forces, from a rise in their pay to help them get access to professional development programs that qualified them to obtain leadership positions.Hanifa is also a managing partner and senior advisor to Alpha Afghanistan, a non-profit organization that is working to help young Afghan innovators and social thinkers to turn their ideas into actions to foster social change in the country through technology. Girowal holds a master’s degree in public international law from Brunel University London, which she acquired through Chevening Scholarship. Hanifa has also served as a trainer on Women’s leadership, Good Governance, and Sustainable development goals with the United Nations Institute for training and research (UNITAR).”
Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is Leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area and senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Her work unites legal analysis and sustainability science for examining environmental and human rights governance challenges and innovative levers to address them. She has bridged the human rights and biodiversity “communities of practice” through leading research such in the Biodiversa project on safeguarding ecosystems and human rights through law and regulation. Read more here: https://rwi.lu.se/human-rights-and-the-environment-2/
Matthew Scott is senior researcher and leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He is also adjunct senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Lund University. His work focuses on integrating social science perspectives with international legal standards to promote context-sensitive, human rights-based law, policy and practice relating to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. His primary area of expertise concerns migration and displacement in the context of disasters and climate change, on which he has published a monograph entitled Climate Change, Disasters and the Refugee Convention (CUP 2020), an edited volume entitled Climate Change, Disasters and Internal Displacement in Asia and the Pacific: A Human Rights-Based Approach (Routledge 2021) and a range of book chapters and academic articles. Current research interests concern the role of local authorities in addressing climate- and disaster-related migration and displacement. Read more on RWI s work on climate change adaptation here: https://rwi.lu.se/human-rights-and-the-environment-2/
Mahmouda Sonia Eqbal is a Research Fellow at RWI Afghanistan Programme shares insights on her latest research report titled "Afghan constitutions and the placement of education." shedding light to women and girl´s education in Afghanistan.
In this podcast we talk with a human rights activist within the Women! Life! Freedom! movement about Narges Mohammadi and her lifelong work. She is the Iranian human rights activist that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 on Sunday 12 of September, for her lifelong work and activism on human rights and Women’s rights in Iran. Most of her adult life Narges has been politically active- from publishing a book of political essays and joining the Defenders of Human Rights Center to being arrested multiple times for her criticisms of the Iranian government, her open support of feminist civil disobedience and the abolition of the death penalty in her country. Currently she is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi. A month ago, in October 2023, while still in prison and despite the condemnation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Narges was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”. Yet, her work doesn’t not stop even if she is in prison. Since November 2021 and during the Mahsa Amini protests in 2022, Narges has published multiple reports on the life conditions in Evin Prison and the human rights breaches that solitary confinement imposes. Her latest book “White Torture” centred around solitary confinement, has been translated to German, titled “Women! Life! Freedom!” and published this year.
Ms. Evelyn Adzovi Addor is a Climate Youth Negotiators Programme-trained Loss and Damage Negotiator for Ghana and the African Group of Negotiators. She is a development communications professional and the communications lead at EcoCare Ghana, a right-based natural resources and environmental advocacy non-governmental organisation in Ghana. Evelyn is passionate about designing campaigns to increase climate change awareness and influencing climate policy at the local, national and international levels. She is also a trained Climate Reality leader, and a member of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Forest Watch Ghana and the Youth in Natural Resources and Environmental Governance Platform.Through her work, Evelyn develops and implements stakeholder engagement strategies to safeguard the rights of people living in forest-fringed and vulnerable local communities in Ghana. As part of EcoCare Ghana’s Cocoa Governance and Advocacy Project, she works on protecting the lands rights of Migrant Cocoa Farmers in the Wassa Amenfi East District of Ghana, securing Tree Tenure Rights for farmers and Living Income for Cocoa Farmers in Ghana. As a member of FEMNET, Evelyn works in solidarity with other women across the continent to promote the voices of African Women in Climate Change at the local, national and international levels. She has been active in the youth climate space in Ghana, enhancing youth voices and has been instrumental in youth-led campaigns in Ghana such as the Anti-Coal Campaign, Renewable Energy for Communities, Climate Strikes, and Save Atewa Forest Campaign among others
Neshan’s professional experience includes engagements with Government, non-government, bilateral and multilateral sectors and was a former member of the international civil service. Neshan Gunasekera has a background in international law, human rights, international relations, programme and project management and has worked to promote environmental considerations within the humanitarian-peace-development nexus. He has served as visiting faculty and examiner at several tertiary educational institutions, teaching public international law, human rights law, and humanitarian law. He holds a master’s in international Relations with a focus on Sustainable Development and has completed specialized trainings in various areas including on peacebuilding, conflict transformation and environmental governance. He has supported several clinical legal education initiatives, including moot courts.In 2020, he was recognized for his continuous work over decades for Justice, Peace, and Sustainable Development, especially in South Asia and Sri Lanka, through his engagements with various global, regional and national institutions by being awarded the H.E. Judge C.G. Weeramantry International Justice Award.His interests are in furthering principles of international law and environmental law, including specifically the principles of intergenerational equity and Earth trusteeship through educational initiatives to safeguard the integrity of our Earth system. Neshan is married to Bridgette and they have a son, Aryesh Kael.
Mohammad Abul Ahrar Ramizpoor is an Afghan academic, Peace and Human Rights activist who has served as a lecturer at Kabul University, Sharia and Law faculties, where he completed his BA studies in Islamic Jurisprudence and Law in 1990. He is currently an Afghan Research Fellow at RWI. Mr. Ramizpoor is a council member of the Pugwash Conferences organization, the Afghanistan Human Rights Defenders’ Committee, and the Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism. He has been closely engaged in his collaborations with several national, regional, and global organizations on promoting peace, human rights, and analytical thoughts on Islamic Law, Human Rights, free society values, peace, and the market economy. Since July 2007 to 31 March 2022, Ramizpoor has served as a Human Rights officer at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), actively engaging with Afghan civil society groups, human rights defenders, media, and peace activists.
With firsthand professional experience both as a delegate at international forums representing her homeland and in the classroom, Prof. Romero brings a unique perspective to the Maritime Law and Policy Specialisation. She lectures on International Organisations and Maritime Conventions, the Law of the Sea, and the Protection of the Marine Environment and oversees these courses. In addition, she organises the annual Moot Court Competition, which focuses on current issues of the Law of the Sea, along with a field study trip to The Hague and Hamburg. She has also received an invitation to lecture at the IFLOS Summer Academy, hosted at ITLOS in Hamburg, Germany.
Alyn Ware is a peace educator and nuclear disarmament consultant from New Zealand. In 2009, he received the Right Livelihood Award for his vast efforts to promote peace education and disarmament. The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” is an international award given annually to honor individuals, organizations, and movements that have made significant contributions to the promotion of social justice, sustainable development, and environmental protection.
Jules Han Amm is a PhD candidate at Uppsala University with most of their work focusing on the trans community and its internal disputes as well as legal frameworks of informed consent, self-determination, and trans healthcare access. Jules acquired a Bachelor’s in development studies and Master’s in Gender Studies from Lund University. In this episode, they talk with Zoi Savvidou about recent developments on trans rights, the pathologisation of the trans identity and the interconnectedness of LGBTQIA+ rights with human rights.
Marthe is a Cameroonian human rights, gender and peace activist. Since the 1990s, she has worked to prevent and fight sexual violence against children. She founded her organization ALDEPA in 1998, where she supports the well-being of girls through education, bro-bono legal assistance and psychosocial care. In 2019 she was awarded the Right livelihood award for her work in defending the rights of local communities affected by the exploitation of natural resources in Cameroon.
Richard Bennett - Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan. by The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the 16 Days Campaign against SGBV, we met with Tyson Nicholas and Julia Dalman to discuss the issue of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV).Tyson Nicholas is currently the Staff Officer Gender, Peace and Security in the Royal Australian Navy. He has previously served as the Military Expert on Investigations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the UN Department of Peace Operations and will soon commence another period of seconded service as the Strategic Military Advisor within UN Women. He graduated from the LLM in International Human Rights Law at Lund University in 2019. (www.linkedin.com/in/tyson-nicholas-898b00153)Julia Dalman is a legal analyst at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM). She graduated from the International Human Rights LLM at Lund University in 2021.( www.linkedin.com/in/julia-dalman-846b16146)Our conversation is to be released in a two-parts podcast series. This is the second episode.
On the occasion of this auspicious day, we met with Tyson Nicholas and Julia Dalman to discuss the issue of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV).Tyson Nicholas is currently the Staff Officer Gender, Peace and Security in the Royal Australian Navy. He has previously served as the Military Expert on Investigations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the UN Department of Peace Operations and will soon commence another period of seconded service as the Strategic Military Advisor within UN Women. He graduated from the LLM in International Human Rights Law at Lund University in 2019. (www.linkedin.com/in/tyson-nicholas-898b00153)Julia Dalman is a legal analyst at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM). She graduated from the International Human Rights LLM at Lund University in 2021.( www.linkedin.com/in/julia-dalman-846b16146)Our conversation is to be released in a two-parts podcast series.In the first episode (released on the 25th of November 2022), Julia and Tyson offered an introduction to CRSV. After defining CRSV and explaining how it differs from Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), the discussion moved on to the significance of the association of CRSV with the terms ‘tactic of warfare’. Following, Julia and Tyson talked through the different paths for prosecution at both national and international level
Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days. Most of us do not reflect much about what it does. Nevertheless, it is a part of our lives. We do get a lot of help from AI systems and the benefits are many. AI is fast, accurate, has a low cost and works around the clock.
Artificial intelligence is a part of our infrastructure and helps with a vast number of things such as administration of justice (it assists in court with bail or pre-trial detention, sentencing), law enforcement (‘predictive policing’), healthcare (health risk, prevention, cures, cutting-edge research), and education (admissions to schools and universities, personalised education, feedback and engagement).
It assists social security and social welfare (detecting fraud, checking entitlements and criteria for qualification), environment (systems for agriculture, irrigation, climate change challenges) and smart cities (waste management, mobility, traffic, air and water quality, safety and security of public places). (Sue Anne TEO, PhD Fellow, Center for Comparative European and Comparative Legal, Studies (CECS), Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen.)
“As a sociotechnical system, AI is embedded within society. Values and worldviews are baked into the design and development of emerging technologies. In turn, these values are reflected in technological tools that we use. There are consequences for society, such as discrimination”, says Sue Anne Teo, who looks into the challenges posed by AI systems to the foundations of human rights.
She undertakes her research using a meta-theoretical framework, looking at threats to human rights foundations from conceptual, contextual (social and material existence conditions) and normative aspects.
AI can have negative implications on human rights and concerns should be acknowledged. In this podcast, we talk to Sue Anne Teo about what AI is, how we usually define AI and what the benefits of AI are. We also talk about ethical challenges vis-à-vis AI and human rights.
Sue Anne Teo highlights the importance of ethics, the prevention of AI-caused negative impacts on human rights, and explores actions policymakers and legislators are taking.
The right to housing is a human right that is critical to a person’s health, dignity, safety, inclusion and contribution to their community. According to the UN Special Rapporteur, courts must protect both negative and positive housing rights guaranteed by these international instruments.
In this podcast you will access insight from the global director of the Shift, Leilani Farha, a UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights” we spoke with Virginia Dignum, a professor in social and ethical AI at Umeå University in Sweden. We discussed the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence and its connection with human rights.
In this interview, we cover a range of topics relevant to AI and human rights, from AI itself, misconceptions, and current developments. We discussed areas of interest where AI is affecting human rights, as well as potential problems and friction that may emerge as AI becomes ever-more relevant to the ways our society functions.
Professor Dignum is the Wallenberg Chair on Responsible Artificial Intelligence a Scientific Director of WASP-HS (Humanities and Society). Her research is focused on the overlap between people, organizations, and technology. She is also associated with the faculty of Technology Policy and Management at Delft University of Technology.
When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996, Farima Nawabi was a high school student. Suddenly, she was asked to stay home for five years. Her house turned into a prison for her sisters and her. “The prison of our dreams, goals and hopes for a free and independent life. Our only crime was being women in Afghanistan.” Under the Taliban rule, Farima was not allowed to school. Her life felt like a living hell. “I was mentally exhausted and hopeless for five years in a row. The shock of losing my education was brutal. I could no longer see the future I had imagined for myself. Even many years later I felt the effects of the Taliban school ban on my life.” On 23 March Taliban’s again put a ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan. Listen to this podcast with Farima Nawabi, a former diplomat who worked at the Afghan Embassy in Stockholm until the Taliban takeover. She is currently holding an Afghan Fellowship from Sida as is based at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund during 2022. Her research focus is women’s rights in Afghanistan. Stay tuned for more podcasts with Farima!
Anchinesh Shiferaw spent some time at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute's head office in Lund as a visiting scholar. In this wide-ranging interview, we cover everything from her academic journey to her exciting research in the area of women's land rights in Ethiopia.
A recording of April 26 webinar, the first session of RWI webinar series on The Forthcoming EU’s Directive On Human Rights Due Diligence.
This event focused on Where does it come from? What may it lead to? What are the limits of due diligence as a tool to protect human rights in global supply chain?
Enjoy listening! More info on our website.
Webcast; listen to the webinar on Poverty, Human Rights and the SDGs - How to Address Post-Pandemic Poverty
Campaining Against Racism in Sweden: Interview with Isatou Aysha Jones by The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Sweden is usually not the first country that comes to mind when one thinks of racism or racial discrimination. Yet, as in the United States and many European countries, it has been part of its history and it is still an issue today. We sat down with Paul Lappalainen, American lawyer and member of the European Network of experts in gender equality and non-discrimination to discuss the Swedish legal framework and how it could be used by anti-discrimination organisations and civil society to become an effective drive for change.
We sat down with Petra Tötterman Andorff, the Secretary General of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, to discuss the United Nations 1325 Resolution on Women, Peace & Security.
This landmark resolution was adopted in 2000 and drew three main objectives: - To ensure women participation in peace agreement processes - The protection of women and girls against conflict related sexual violence - The integration of gender perspectives into peace agreements.
Twenty-one years later, we discussed its achievements but also the challenges faced today. As the Secretary General of the organisation, Petra also offered us an overview of the role of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation in its implementation.
Why peace agreements tend to be more sustainable when women are involved in their adoption? Why women still tend to be excluded from the signatories? How to ensure a better implementation of the 1325 Resolution?
These are questions we are discussing in this podcast. Enjoy!
Credits for the music : Siddhartha Corsus - Winds of Change Credits for the photo : Viktor Gårdsäter
In our latest podcast episode of “On Human Rights” we spoke with Sabira Coelho about the topic of the right of people that are, and can potentially be, displaced in the context of the Pacific region.
Sabira Coelho currently serves as the Programme Manager at International Organization for Migration Fiji (IOM)for the three-year joint-programme, “Enhancing protection and empowerment of migrants and communities affected by climate change and disasters in the Pacific Region”.
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s Head of the thematic area People on the Move, Matthew Scott, visited Suva in Fiji for a roundtable discussion on his research on Disaster Displacement in the Pacific region with a focus on Vanuatu and Solomon islands: https://rwi.lu.se/disaster-displacement/
In this episode Matthew Scott, head of our thematic area People on the Move, sits down with UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary. They discuss her work (Jiminez-Damary is the first woman to hold this position, internal displacement, policy and political will and the human rights based approach.
On Human Rights is happy to present the second episode in our two part special on Human Rights Cities. This episode features senior researcher Alejandro Fuentes whom we sat down with to discuss what human rights cities are in practice, and what this means for their inhabitants. How can citizens tell that their city strives to be a human rights city?
Alejandro Fuentes is a senior researcher at the RWI institute. His research focuses on international human rights law, in particular on international and regional systems of human rights protection, cultural diversity and identity, groups, minority and indigenous people rights, and human rights education. Fuentes works, amongst other things, with the interlinkages between human rights and the SDGs, and how those interlinkages connect to human rights cities.
What is a Human Rights City? Our podcast "On Human Rights" is happy to present a two part special on the topic of human rights cities. Human Rights Cities is growing concept and movement that anchors human rights in cities and local context – in the daily lives of people. But what does this actually mean?
In the first episode, we sit down with our Director Morten Kjaerum to discuss the past, present and future of human rights cities. Kjaerum is a board member of the Human Rights Cities Network and has written and co-written several publications on human rights cities.
In this episode of “On Human Rights” we speak with Dennis Mungo, the executive Director of Youth Alive Kenya, a youth led non-governmental organisation that advocates for and supports youth participation in development processes. We discuss Dennis' work and talk about youth inclusion and human rights in Kenya.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights” we spoke with Annika Ben David about the importance of democracy during the global pandemic.
Annika Ben David is Sweden’s Ambassador at large for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She is a career diplomat since 25 years and have worked with peace and international security at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and with human rights in Africa, in the Middle East and in Europe.
In our latest episode of On Human Rights we spoke with Sam Fraser, the 2020 Martin Alexanderson scholarship recipient. We discussed his research regarding informal Roma settlements in Romania, the circumstances of how they came to be, and the experiences of the people who live within them.
Sam is a recently graduated master student with a degree in international development and management, and the recipient of the 2020 Martin Alexanderson Research Scholarship for Human Rights Studies. With the help of the scholarship, he conducted his research titled: We Have Nowhere Else to Go – A Study in Urban Informality Within Roma Settlement in Arad, Romania.
Link to survey: un75.online/partner/Wallenberg-Institute
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights” we spoke with Lisa Laskaridis about UN75, human rights and how one voice can make a difference.
Lisa Laskaridis is the Public Information Officer at United Nations and Head of Communications for #UN75. To mark its 75th anniversary in 2020, the United Nations is igniting a people’s debate: UN75. Launched by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, it promises to be the largest and furthest-reaching global conversation ever on building the future we want.
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute is proud to announce a collaboration with the initiative UN75. The institute encourages everyone to participate in the survey to have their say: https://un75.online/partner/Wallenberg-Institute
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights” we spoke with Michael McEachrane and Morten Kjaerum about racism in Europe and Black Lives Matter.
Michael McEachrane is a Visiting Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. His current research focus is on postcolonial/decolonial perspectives on human rights, structural racial discrimination and reparatory justice. Michael McEachrane is a regular commentator on issues of race for international as well as Swedish media.
Morten Kjaerum is the Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. Prior to that, he was the first Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna from 2008 to 2015. He is currently also Chair of The Board of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). He was a member (2002-2008) of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and its follow-up rapporteur from 2006-08.
the first Independent Expert and Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment appointed by the Human Rights Council.
We discussed the relevance of human rights to the environment and the steps necessary to protect human rights in the era of worldwide climate change.
On this episode of On Human Rights, RWI's Christina Geijer sits down with Ms. Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. Dunja Mijatović speaks about the current state of human rights in Europe, the threats and opportunities if member states come together.
In this episode of ‘On Human Rights,’ RWI’s Russell Garner sat down with Marissa Jackson Sow, who is a research fellow at the Open Societies Foundation, to talk about the personhood project and dive deeper into contract law and human rights discourse in the United States. Marissa Jackson Sow is an attorney and scholar specializing in human rights, the law of diplomacy, and racial, gender, and environmental justice. She is the former Deputy Commissioner for New York City Commission on Human rights. She will join the Open Society Foundation as a Fellow in 2020, where she will document and amplify the human rights activism of Black women in the United States in the post-Obama era. Enjoy the podcast!
On this episode of On Human Rights, Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Morten Kjaerum, speaks about the changes he has seen in human rights over the past decade. The end of the year is a time to reflect on the past and look towards future opportunities and challenges.
We discuss the influence that digital technology, increased youth participation, the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change have all had on the direction of human rights discourse.
In this episode of 'On Human Rights,' Senior Researcher Alejandro Fuentes speaks to OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Ambassador Lamberto Zannier.
They discuss the importance of public participation of national minorities, the impacts of the current political environment in Europe and the need for balance and integration of diverse societies.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights” we spoke with John Knox, the first Independent Expert and Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment appointed by the Human Rights Council.
We discussed the relevance of human rights to the environment and the steps necessary to protect human rights in the era of worldwide climate change.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights," we sat down with Janet Lord to discuss the protection of persons with disabilities, the nexus between humanitarian law and human rights in the context of disability as well as the impact of Article 11.
Janet Lord is currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School Project on Disability. She specializes in areas such as human rights treaty negotiation and implementation, disability law and policy, health rights for marginalized populations, inclusive development and human rights education and advocacy.
She has worked with a variety of inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and donors, such as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Disability Program, UNDP, the European Union and the World Bank.
Enjoy the podcast!
In this next episode of On Human Rights, we speak to Anders Langworth. He is the founder of Bankers For Climate, an initiative that encourages increased focus and action from leaders of the financial industry.
In today’s podcast, we speak to Nike Sandberg, spokesperson for the Afro-Swede Network in Skåne. RWI’s visiting researcher Michael McEachrane sat down with her to talk about her work and the situation for Afro-Swedes in the country.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights," we sat down with Dr. Charles C. Jalloh. He is the Fulbright Lund Distinguished Chair in Public International Law (2018-2019) at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and in the Lund University Faculty of Law, Sweden.
Dr. Charles C. Jalloh is a professor of law at Florida International University, Miami, USA, and a member of the International Law Commission where he was the Chair of the Drafting Committee for the Seventieth (2018) Session. He is founding editor of the African Journal of Legal Studies and the African Journal of International Criminal Justice.
The European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, said on Monday that digital businesses should pay their fair share of tax in the EU.
The Commissioner touched on a wide range of issues, from democratic control and the threat of power in the digital world to taxation and privacy.
Vestager was delivering the 14th annual Anna Lindh lecture in Lund, Sweden. Her speech was titled “Democracy and Power in a Brave New World: Economy, Technology and Human Rights."
"The digital transformation that we’re going through today is affecting almost every part of our world. We’re finding that we need to look again at the rules and regulations that govern our lives, to make sure they strike the right balance between the needs of the different parts of our society.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights," we sat down with James A. Goldston. He is the executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative and a leading practitioner of international human rights and criminal law. He has litigated cases before the European court of Human Rights and United Nations treaty bodies. For example, he has worked on issues of counterterrorism, racial discrimination, and torture.
Goldston says the challenges that illiberal movements and leaders pose to human rights is a moment of reckoning for many.
He says: “I think it’s a moment for self-reflection perhaps on strategies for things we might have pursued or things we’ve overlooked. And a moment of genuine possibility for us to reimagine what the human rights movement can be, how it can relate not just to the grand architecture and formal laws and institutions which are created, which are important, but also to how people experience rights in practice, or the absence of rights in practice.”
In addition, Goldston believes increasing attention to the connection between the formal laws and institutions and the conditions of people on the ground is where parts of the human rights movement are headed. “And I think that’s a positive thing,” he says.
François Crépeau, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants speaks with Matthew Scott, RWI's Team Leader for People on the Move, about migration, its causes, effects and the attitudes surrounding it.
“My generation is very afraid because we lived our childhoods in the fifties and early sixties, it was not a mobile world yet and it was not a diverse world. We are afraid of this diversity that has appeared around us without us suspecting that it would come. I think that the generation of our children, who are living in a world that is diverse and mobile, will not fear that. They will come to power in 20,30, 40 years with a completely different attitude towards cultural, religious, linguistic diversity and towards mobility. It will be a generational change.”
In 2016, a United Nations study found that more than 40 million people around the world were victims of modern slavery – forced labour and forced marriage. What's more, it was recently discovered that unaccompanied minors immigrating to Sweden have been working under slave-like conditions. So, RWI is sitting down with Urmila Bhoola, the UN Special Rapporteur to Contemporary Forms of Slavery, its Causes and Consequences, to find out more.
This episode of ’On Human Rights’ features the full length seminar on the role of business in the violation and protection of human rights. The discussion took place at this year’s Mr-Dagarna (human rights days) in Stockholm, Sweden and was a collaboration between the Raoul Wallenberg Intstitute, Forum Syd, Swedwatch, Diakonia, Amnesty International, Naturskyddsföreningen (Swedish Society for Nature Conservation), Afrikagrupperna and FIAN Sverige.
Frances Quimpo Dungueto, Baskut Tuncak, Jakob Kiefer, and Luisa Book discuss the dangers of being a human rights defender and how business have the potential to directly and indirectly influence human rights practices. RWI’s Stockholm Office director, Malin Oud moderates the event.
On this episode of ‘On Human Rights’ RWI, Stockholm Office Director, Malin Oud, sat down with the Ambassador for Sustainable Business at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jakob Kiefer at the recent MR-Dagarna (human rights conference) in Stockholm, Sweden.
The conversation focuses on the roles and responsibilities of businesses in regards to the protection of human rights. It took place just before a seminar on human rights defenders and business. You can also listen to that full seminar on this channel, ‘On Human Rights.’
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But is it really universal? A growing number of states are claiming that human rights are incompatible with their culture.
In this episode of On Human Rights, Jamie Bowd sits down with Professor Emeritus in International Law at Stockholm University and the Swedish National Defence College and former board member at RWI, Ove Bring to discuss how historical examples of human rights practices around the world have contributed to the modern understanding of human rights.
Despite increased food production and reduction of hunger and malnutrition on a global level, there are four countries in Sub Saharan Africa and the Middle East still suffering from famine. Recently, the trend of reduction of hunger and malnutrition has reversed. Jemimah Watkins sat down with Hilal Elver, EU Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to discover why.
In this podcast, they talk about natural disasters, gender, pesticides and conflict in relation to the right to food, as well as how to avoid food crises.
In this episode of “On Human Rights,” we meet Dr Helen Durham AO, the Director of the International Law and Policy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Dr Durham is an Australian international humanitarian lawyer and took her time to talk to RWI about women in conflicts and explain why there is a need for a gender perspective on the laws of war.
As neo-Nazis ratchet up their rhetoric and activity before the Swedish election in September, our Stockholm office director Malin Oud sat down with John Stauffer, legal director at the NGO Civil Rights Defenders.
In this podcast, they talk about hate speech, freedom of expression, the presence of neo-Nazis at the political week of Almedalen in Sweden and many other places around the country.
Why do so many of us find the idea that nature might have rights so compelling or so preposterous? And why do so many serious scholars – of both human rights and environmental policy – avoid the issue altogether?In this episode on “On Human Rights” we will go deeper in to this fascinating and thought provoking discussion through the lens of Walter F. Baber. Baber is the 2017/18 Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Public International Law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and the Faculty of Law at Lund University.
He has spent the last 30 years on environmental policies. This lecture was part of a series of human rights related lectures which RWI is co-organizing with the Association of Foreign Affairs, under the banner of the so called “Wednesday night Rights”.
These days, it seems what was once up is down, down is up. We sat down for a wide ranging discussion on what needs to be done to improve human rights worldwide with representatives from two leading human rights organizations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
In this discussion, recorded at Almedalen in Visby on the island of Gotland in Sweden, we spoke to Maja Åberg, who is policy advisor for Amnesty International and Måns Molander, who is the Sweden and Denmark Director of Human Rights Watch.
During the celebration of democracy on the island of Gotland, Sweden this week, we’ve been interviewing different people involved in some way or another in human rights or international humanitarian law. In this episode of “On Human Rights,” our team leader for Inclusive Societies Gabriella Fredriksson interviews Georg Andrén.
He is the General Secretary of the NGO Diakonia in Sweden and Concord, a network of different civil society actors in Sweden. He talks about the problems with decreasing rule of law, shrinking space, and the rise of populism. “We’re not just seeing this in the far-right, it’s starting to move into the mainstream political parties,” he says. “We’re only two months away from an election in Sweden, and I’m worried.”
Speaking about civil society in countries around the world, he says, “We haven’t done enough to ensure that these systems work enough for the rights holders. I saw it very close in Honduras and Guatemala. We need to talk to our partners and together talk to them about how to target rule of law as a key for us,” he says.
Our team leader for Inclusive Societies Gabriella Fredriksson sat down to talk to Charlotte Petri Gornitzka in Visby during Almedalen week in Sweden for a conversation on our “On Human Rights” podcast.
Petri Gornitzka is the Chair of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
Prior to this, she served as Director-General of the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) where she emphasized Sweden’s role as leader in development co-operation and led efforts to implement innovative models to stimulate private sector engagement in development activities.
In this podcast interview, they discuss how to succeed with cooperation development, how to make more money work with development and why it’s important to give politicians narratives about why development works.
“It’s much more effective with development solutions than military solutions,” she says. “Then you will convince the hardliners. But to be fair to many politicians who want to have development, they don’t have the stories to tell, they need narratives, they need to know there’s impact in what we do, and showcase that things have improved.”
In this episode we have an interview from the recent Nature of Peace conference at Lund University. Our senior researcher Alejandro Fuentes interviews Carl Bruch. He’s a senior attorney and director of international programs at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C. He has been leading for many years the global effort to establish a new multidisciplinary field of environmental peacebuilding.
In our latest episode of "On Human Rights," we continue our series exploring human rights and blockchain. In this episode we speak to René Taus Hansen. He’s the Deputy head of quality assurance at the ministry of foreign affairs in Denmark. They recently issued a report called "Hack the Future of Development Aid: Blockchain and Development."
"We wanted to start this conversation about how can we think differently, because we need to do something drastically different in order to achieve what we want before 2030," saus Taus Hansen. "Basically, that's why we called it Hack Development Aid. We mean that in a positive sense. We don't necessarily assign a negative meaning to the word 'hack,' simply to think differently."
In western countries, people of African Descent are the most targeted group when it comes to violent hate crimes and discrimination. In this podcast we sat down to discuss and learn more about a UN platform that aims to combat this: the International Decade for People of African Descent (the Decade).
The podcast features an RWI Visiting Researcher, Michael McEachrane, who recently attended the Decades regional meeting in Geneva. He also helped the OHCHR to develop the conference program.
The Decade was proclaimed in resolution 68/237 by the General Assembly and is to be observed from 2015 to 2024. It provides a solid framework for the United Nations, Member States, civil society and all other relevant actors to join together with people of African descent. They will work together to create and take effective measures for the implementation of the programme of activities in the spirit of recognition, justice and development.
“The Decade is an opportunity for people of African descent to promote our interests and concerns and so forth. The decade is a vehicle for us”
In this podcast, we discuss why the Decade is important, the draft on the upcoming UN Declaration on people of African Descent and about identifying ongoing structures to create improvements.
We are interviewing experts from around the world for our podcast series “Human Rights and Blockchain.” It is an in-depth exploration of the potential uses of blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to improve our enjoyment of human rights.
In this episode, we speak to Hanane Boujemi. She is a senior tech policy expert with more than a decade experience in the economic and legal aspects of Internet Policy and Governance.
Richard Falk is an international law and international relations scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years. For a six year period beginning in 2008, he served as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Falk recently joined us in Lund to launch his latest book. We took the opportunity to interview him on a wide range of issues, from his thoughts on the state of world affairs today to his controversial UN report on Israel and his recent book, “Revisiting the Vietnam War and International Law: Views and Interpretations of Richard Falk.”
“Law is neutral in its normative foundations,” he says, “and it depends who controls the formation and interpretation to understand if it works for private interests, national interests or human interests. My effort has been to try to align international law to a greater extent with human interest and to reinterpret national interests so they wouldn’t collide with the human interests.”
We are launching a new podcast series, “Human Rights and Blockchain." It will be an in-depth exploration of the potential uses of blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to improve our enjoyment of human rights.
First out of the block (no pun intended) is Walid Al-Saqaf. He is a Senior Lecturer at Södertorn University in Stockholm where he does research on media technology and blockchain.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights,” we interview Nick Bryer, the head of inequality campaigns at Oxfam, about its latest report on inequality.
The report, “Reward Work, Not Wealth,” finds that in the last year, 82% of new wealth went to the richest 1%.
“There is a wealth of evidence that shows that tackling equality is good for everyone,” Bryer says. “More equal societies are more stable, safer, more economically stable and prosperous.”
In this episode, Radu Mares, RWI’s Senior researcher and co-team leader for Economic Globalization and Human Rights, asks Bryer about the report, the methods used and what it all means.
In thist episode of “On Human Rights,” we hear Thomas Spijkerboer, who has, for over a decade, done research on border deaths and their correlation to European migration policies.
Photo: Eric Hertz
A nurse, politician and bridge builder. In this podcast, we meet Özlem Cekic, who has for the last seven years reached out to people sending her hate emails. She calls it dialogue coffee. Enjoy!
Torture: An Expert's Confrontation with an Everyday Evil by The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Is the EU losing its legitimacy and role as a promoter of human rights? by The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Jason Pobjoy: The Child in International Refugee Law by The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
In our latest episode of "On Human Rights," we hear from Jacques Hartmann, a senior lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Dundee in Scotland, who argues that the debate around the European Court of Human Rights is often confused, uninformed and at times misleading.
Denmark has traditionally been a strong supporter of human rights. This is demonstrated by the fact that Denmark was a founding member of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects citizens against human rights violations.
But things have changed.
In recent years, there has been an increasingly bitter debate about the ECHR and Denmark’s continued membership.
The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, Baskut Tuncak, joins us for our latest episode of “On Human Rights.”
“Toxic pollution is quite possibly, very likely, the leading cause of premature preventive death in the world, so the World Health Organization estimates that it’s almost 13 million people per year who die prematurely from diseases that are linked to an unhealthy environment,” he says.
His work is informally known as the UN Human Rights Council’s mandate on "toxics.” Tuncak is a visiting scholar at American University's Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. He is also an affiliated researcher with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute recently commemorated the civil courage and memory of Raoul Wallenberg here in Lund. And as part of that commemoration, we invited two women from a small town in southern Sweden to speak about the work they are doing to help young asylum seekers where they live. So we recorded this live session with Marie Clereus and Pernilla Thellmark. We hope you enjoy and are touched by it. Just a warning, some of the questions from the audience might be difficult to hear. Enjoy.
Today our Stockholm office director Malin Oud speaks to Olle Wästberg. Wästberg was long-time member of the Swedish parliament. He has had a long career in politics and media. He also served as Consul General of Sweden in New York City. Wästberg has been instrumental in getting Sweden a day to commemorate Raoul Wallenberg, on August 27.
In our latest episode of "On Human Rights," we come to you from the middle of the Baltic Sea. We’re on the small island of Gotland in Sweden where there’s an annual political gathering called Almedalen. The week-long event draws thousands from the political classes, different universities, civil society actors and business world.
Today we’re speaking to Simon Ebers. He does incredible work for an organization called Fryshuset. Simon works with helping young people get out of criminal gangs and right-wing extremist groups. We sat down to talk about the methods, why they do this work, and the factors that push youth into gangs and extremist groups.
This week, our podcast, "On Human Rights," is coming to you from the middle of the Baltic Sea, on the island of Gotland. Here all week at a political festival called almedalen, politicans, academics, the civil society, and the business community comes together to meet, debate and mingle. It’s sometimes called the largest democracy party.
This year though there’s been a ton of controversy because a militant neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement was given permission to attend the festival. This kicked off a firestorm of debate, with some groups boycotting and others strongly critizing and appealing the decision.
It brings up many difficult questions about freedom of speech and assembly as well as protecting people from hate speech and even violence. To address these questions, we gathered a group to address these questions. We have RWI's director Morten Kjaerum. Then we have Hanna Gerdes, a lawyer who has worked for the Swedish foundation for human rights and who today works with legal advisory, advocacy and hr trainings. Finally we have John Stauffer, legal director at the ngo civil rights defenders. Enjoy.
In this episode, we’re speaking to Tove Dahlgren. She is the head of the educational department for a foundation called Allbright. This is a politically independent, non-profit foundation that promotes equality and diversity in senior positions in the business sector.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights, we feature an interview from Almedalen with our Stockholm office director Malin Oud who speaks with Phil Bloomer, who is the executive director of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre located in London. They talk about business and human rights, how business can be better at protecting human rights in their value chains and which businesses stand out.
In the middle of the Baltic Sea, the small island of Gotland in Sweden hosts an annual political gathering called Almedalen. The week-long event every July draws thousands from the political parties, different universities, civil society actors and the business world. We’ll be releasing a series of podcast interviews during the week¨to talk about a wide variety of themes, trends and issues facing the world.
In today’s episode of "On Human Rights," we speak to Thomas Frostberg, an editor at Sweden’s largest newspaper, Dagens Nyheter. He runs a section called DN Global Utveckling or Global Development. This section focuses its reporting on all aspects related to the Global Goal 17 of the UN Sustainability Goals, which covers revitalising the global partnership for sustainable development.
In our latest episode of “On Human Rights,” RWI’s Senior Researcher Alejandro Fuentes interviews Professor Tove H. Malloy, who teaches at the Europa-Universität-Flensburg, Germany, and heads up the European Centre for Minority Issues’ research cluster Citizenship and Ethics.
In this episode, she talks about the dynamics of minority-majority relations in Europe.
Professor Nancy Dowd’s research focuses on social justice issues connected to family law, and touches on not only family law but also juvenile law, constitutional law, race and gender analysis, and social change theories. In this episode, she talks about her recent book, which is The Man Question: Male Privilege and Subordination (2010), in which she explores masculinities theories as a means to expand gender analysis and also incorportate other hierarchies that affect gender, particularly race and class.
Morten Kjaerum, the director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, joins us for our latest episode of the On Human Rights Podcast. He talks about his concern for the increasingly authoritarian trends worldwide, mitigating fear and angst, how the human rights world can be more active dealing with inequality, and what he’s hopeful for going forward.
Johan Hassel is the CEO of Global Utmaning, or in English, Global Challenge. This is an independent think tank that promotes long-term solutions to crises and challenges. Hassel is also a member of the Swedish Delegation for the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In this episode of "On Human Rights," RWI’s Leila Fall interviews Maryam al-Khawaja. She’s a Bahraini Human rights defender living in exile.
Ted Piccone is a senior fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy and Latin America Initiative in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings Institution in Washington DC. He also served eight years as a senior foreign policy advisor in the Clinton administration.
RWI’s Leila Fall recently interviewed Yeonmi Park, a 23-year-old human rights activist from North Korea. When she fled that country in 2007 it was just the beginning of a long journey through the Gobi Desert. She faced starvation, threats, and human trafficking. Today, she wants to spread awareness about the North Korean situation as well as to protect refugees who might have faced situations like hers.
Jan Eliasson’s resume is as extensive as it is impressive. Amongst other tasks for the Swedish state, he acted as minister for foreign affairs in 2006 and was the Swedish ambassador to the U.N for several years. He has served as Special Envoy to Darfur, Sudan and as President of the UN general assembly. In March 2012, Jan Eliasson was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations by Secretary- General Ban Ki Moon. The RWI spoke to him about the future for human rights, the secrets to a successful mediation and why he considers himself a worried optimist.
Today we have a special episode from MR-dagarna (Swedish Human Rights Forum) in Malmö, with Alice Wadström from the RWI who is interviewing Cynthia Enloe, a professor known for her work on gender and militarism.
Leyla-Denisa Obreja, a visiting scholar at the RWI and a PhD candidate at Bond University in Australia, whose area of research is intimate partner violence, talks about her project
In our latest episode of "On Human Rights", Alice Wadström sat down with Jude Dibia, a novelist from Nigeria, during the Swedish Human Rights Forum in Malmö, Sweden in November.
Today we have a special interview from MR-dagarna (Swedish Human Rights Forum) in Malmö, with Alice Wadström from the RWI who is interviewing Anders Kompass from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kompass worked for the United Nations for a period of 20 years at the end of which he was suspended for exposing the sexual abuse of children by peacekeepers to relevant authorities that led him to be suspended. After being cleared by a panel of inquiry at the request of Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon, Kompass resigned from the UN.
Lund University and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute just launched a new human rights research hub. It’s one of Europe’s biggest research environments for human rights related issues.
At the launch of the hub, Anne Orford delivered the keynote speech. We’ll play it here in its entirety. Anne Orford is the visiting chair of human rights and humanitarian law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. She is also Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Michael D Kirby Chair of International Law at Melbourne Law School (MLS)
RWI's senior researcher Radu Mares recently interviewed Kari Tapiola, Special Adviser to the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Dr Nuno Ferreira is a Professor of Law at the University of Sussex, and is Deputy Director of the European Children's Rights Unit, the ECRU. Among other areas, he has worked in LGBT rights, refugee law, and children's rights with a focus on child labour. He was recently awarded a €1 million European Research Council Starting Grant in order to produce a comprehensive analysis of refugees seeking asylum in Europe based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Wanhong Zhang is a visiting professor at RWI, and is a Professor of Jurisprudence at Wuhan University School of Law, in China. He is also the Director of the Wuhan University Public Interest and Development Law Institute. Zhang focuses on human rights and disabilities, as well as business. He met with us to discuss his work with RWI, to give us some insight into human rights challenges in regard to China, and to talk about the work the Wuhan Public Interest and Development Law Institute does to help protect the poor and the marginalised.
Lee Swepston was appointed as the ILO’s Director of the Department of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and Senior Adviser on Human Rights in 2004. He has worked in many areas including children's rights, indigenous and tribal peoples, non-discrimination, abolition of forced labour, and freedom of association. Lee retired from ILO in 2007 and became a consultant. He lectures on international human rights and labour law within the International Human Rights Masters Programme at Lund University. We met with him to discuss the ICCPR and ICESCR (on their 50th anniversary), labour law, and what advice he would give to students seeking a career in human rights.
Brian Burdekin is an International Adviser to numerous National Human Rights Institutions. He was Special Adviser on National Institutions to the first three United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights. Burdekin was also Federal Human Rights Commissioner of Australia, and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1995. He was kind enough to share some of his invaluable knowledge in regard to National Human Rights Institutions with us.
Gay McDougall is a Human rights activist and lawyer. She is a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Leitner Center on International Law and Justice at Fordham University Law School, and is a member of the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. We spoke with her about CERD and racial discrimination.
Barbara Oomen is the Dean of University College, Roosevelt and Professor of Law at Utrecht University, and the co-editor of a new book, “Global Urban Justice: The Rise of Human Rights Cities.” She joined us at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law to talk about the rise of human rights cities around the globe.
Suzanne Dovi, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona, will speak at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute about the kind of voice victims are given in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Dr. Mart Susi is an Associate Professor of Human Rights Law at Tallinn University. He visited the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law on 19 May to deliver a presentation titled: “Protecting freedom of expression in new media – mission impossible?”. We met with him to discuss the matter further.
Dr. Benjamin Gregg is a professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Texas, at Austin. He's the Fulbright Visiting Professor at Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria. He spoke with us about his work and his recently published book "The Human Rights State: Justice Within and Beyond Sovereign Nations."
Michal Balcerzak is a professor of international human rights law at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland. We spoke to him about his work as a member of the UN’s working group Committee of Experts on People of African Descent.
Phillip Tahmindjis is the Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. He joins us today from London to talk about a new report he co-edited on the role of the universal periodic review in advancing human rights in the administration of justice.
Sumudu Atapattu is the director of research centers at the University of Wisconsin Law School in the United States. She talks to us about the connection between climate change and human rights and why it matters.
Professor Emeritus Göran Melander, founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, talks about the breakthroughs and steps taken in the field of human rights, the many challenging situations in today’s world, and identifies one violation of human rights where lack of knowledge is a huge problem.
Elies van Sliedregt talks about cyber warfare -- how it is secretive, mostly unregulated, and poses major challenges to international law. She is a professor of criminal law at VU University in Amsterdam and the dean of the faculty of law there. She has been published extensively in the field of international and European criminal law.
We talk to Mark Gibney, the Raoul Wallenberg Visiting Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. He talks about the biggest challenges facing human rights today, the Syrian refugee crisis, the war on terrorism, and what he calls "shutting off human rights for millions of people" after a terrorist attack.