EVENTS

Speaker for the 2010 Jan Grodecki Lecture, Professor Conor Gearty of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

'The UN and Human Rights: Time for a Great Reawakening' - 20/10/2010 17:30

The Jan Grodecki School of Law Lecture 2010, to be given by Professor Conor Gearty

On Wednesday 20th October, Professor Conor Gearty of the London School of Economics and Political Science will give the Jan Grodecki School of Law Lecture 2010, entitled 'The UN and Human Rights: Time for a Great Reawakening'.

It will take place at 5.30 pm in Ken Edwards, Lecture Theatre 1.

A principal reason the UN was founded was to promote the protection of human rights. For over sixty years this has been a key feature of the organisation’s activities. But with the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the renewed sense of collective national solidarity that followed, the demands of anti-terrorism have challenged those of human rights. A new discourse of security has threatened the human rights status quo, leading to revolts against the authority of the UN by judges around the world. In this lecture Professor Conor Gearty argues for a return to the ideals of the UN’s early years and for a moral crusade to re-embed human rights in international practice.

Conor Gearty was born in Ireland and graduated in law from University College Dublin before moving to Wolfson College, Cambridge in 1980 to study for a Master’s Degree and then for a PhD. He became a fellow of Emmanuel College Cambridge in 1983 and in 1990 he moved to the School of Law at King’s College London. In 2002, he took up a new appointment as Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE. He has published widely on terrorism, civil liberties and human rights. Professor Gearty is also a barrister and was a founder member of Matrix chambers from where he continues to practice. He has been a frequent adviser to judges, practitioners and public authorities on the implications of the UK Human Rights Act, and has frequently lectured at home and abroad on the topic of human rights. He has appeared in human rights cases in the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal and the High Court. His most recent monographs include Debating Social Rights (co-author Virginia Mantouvalou, Hart, 2010), Civil Liberties (OUP, 2007), Can Human Rights Survive?: The Hamlyn Lectures 2005 (CUP, 2006) and Principles of Human Rights Adjudication (OUP, 2005).

For further details, contact: Ms Sangita Lad, School of Law, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH

sangita.lad@le.ac.uk

Tel: 0116 252 5131

Click here to download a copy of the poster for this lecture.