This Research Group is a forum for challenging each other’s’ view on the most pressing human rights issues at a global, regional and local level. We encourage research links for joint collaboration and research projects to create innovative interdisciplinary teaching methods for our students interested in human rights. The interdisciplinary sharing and collaboration across disciplines open up possibilities in transforming approaches, and expanding reach and impact to comprehensively tackle the human rights challenges of modern society.
Human rights
Human rights are one of the leading discourses that both shaped and conformed the democratic societies in the 20th century. However, human rights are also in constant expansion and there are never ending disputes over their very meaning and the expectations they create. Our research analyses human rights at different levels, using an interdisciplinary approach to understand, define and criticize social mobilisation, cultural challenges and institutional limitations over conflicting notions of human rights.
Our work
The group proposes to engage with different methods of research, bringing human rights theory and discourse to a variety of analysis developed in law, social sciences, arts and the humanities. Our activities include reading groups, roundtables, seminars, conferences, talk-shows and public events, as well as other opportunities for social impact and student and community engagement.
We have a dedicated team of experts whose research focus both on the conceptual level of what entitle every human being their rights, and the and social & legal issues that arise from this political and philosophical idea. Our expertise reflects these three streams:
Arts & Social justice
Leading research conducted in the group focuses on the connections between arts and: copyrights, companies, migration, representation, sovereignty, social inequality. Although art needs no justification, there are certainly artistic forms that challenge injustice and regulatory ways of reproducing inequality. These include works on the fields of anthropology, drama, film, social work and law.
Human Rights & legal systems
Our research group produces leading research on the fields of regional human rights courts, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and religion. We also focus on global human rights violations such as torture, human traffic, executions, hate speech, minorities rights, memory and truth commissions, genocide, protection of human rights defenders and disappearance of witnesses.
Native & Cultural Rights
Cultural rights are fundamental for the respect of human dignity, in the diversity of its expressions. The research produced in this stream aims at producing a better understanding of what are the links between native land ownership and cultural rights, their visibility and visuality, and the severity of their violations. It also produces impact in delivering both policy design and legal framework for the implementation of cultural rights that are critical for sustainable peace, equality and development.
Sustainable Development Goals
Our work engages with the “Global, Secure, Connected Communities” interdisciplinary research strategically challenges, and develop research and activities that would consider and possibly impact the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs):
- 1-No Poverty
- 5-Gender Equality
- 8-Decent Work and Economic Growth
- 10-Reduced inequalities
- 16-Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions