World-renowned human rights experts are coming to Galway to mark the 10th anniversary celebrations of NUI, Galway’s Irish Centre for Human Rights.
The Irish Centre for Human Rights, part of the NUIG School of Law, was established in 2000 and has since gone on to develop a global reputation for excellence in the field of human rights teaching, research, and advocacy.
A Gala Banquet, an exhibition, and a series of talks will take place on Friday November 19 and Saturday 20 to mark the centre’s 10th birthday.
Speakers at the two-day event will include Andrew Clapham, director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights; David Scheffer, the American lawyer and diplomat who served as the first United States Ambassador-at-Large for war crimes issues, and Leila Nadya Sadat, Professor at Washington University School of Law.
A special Gala Banquet will take place on Friday 19 hosted by Senator David Norris. Guests will include Labour’s Galway West TD Michael D Higgins; Don Ferencz, son of Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz; and Professor Doug Cassel, director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights at Notre Dame Law School.
A special video message by former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will also be relayed on the night.
There will also be a photography exhibition, Human Rights through the Lens; a discussion about the ‘Right to Peace’ chaired by International Criminal Court Judge Daniel Nsereko; while on Saturday 20 at 6pm, a new book by Dr Edel Hughes, Turkey’s Accession to the EU: The Politics of Exclusion, will take place in the lobby of the IT Building.
“The 10th anniversary weekend offers an opportunity to celebrate a decade of distinction,” said Prof William A Schabas, the director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights. “Our research and advocacy activities have traversed issues as diverse as the death penalty, the right to food, and environmental law, and spanned most regions of the world