RightsCast

What contribution can and does art and artists make to the human rights project? This episode brings together experts from the Essex human rights community to consider a relationship which is all-too often overlooked by the mainstream human rights community. The host, Dr Andrew Fagan is joined by Dr Gavin Grindon, Anastasiia Korabljova, and Professor Lars Waldorf.

This week, leading experts on AI and human rights discuss the relationship between AI and human rights. Is AI bad for our rights? Should human rights supporters embrace AI? Dr Andrew Fagan is joined by Essex Law School and HRC colleagues Dr Antonio Coco, D Giulia Gentile and Dr Zhenbin Zuo

Host Dr Andrew Fagan discusses the current state of human rights with Essex professor of law and globally renowned human rights advocate, Paul Hunt. Does human rights have a future? If so, what is this likely to look like and what do we have to do now to support human rights?

Standing up for your rights is becoming increasingly difficult in many countries. What rights do we have to peacefully protest and why are these rights under attack? Liberty UK's Sam Grant and Essex sociologist and HRC member, Dr Anna Di Ronco join our host Dr Andrew Fagan to consider this complex and all important topic.

In this podcast, you will listen to the book launch of Dr Aviv Gaon’s latest book: ‘The Future of Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence’, in which Dr Gaon explores the fundamentals of copyright law and AI, suggesting new models for considering the future of authorship and basic concepts in copyright as we further move into a world where we see more AI generated content. Discussants inclu...

In this podcast, you will listen to the book launch of Dr Hedi Viterbo’s latest book: ‘Problematizing Law, Rights, and Childhood in Israel/Palestine’, in which Dr Viterbo radically challenges our picture of law, human rights, and childhood, both in and beyond the Israel/Palestine context. Commentators include Alexandra Cox, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex Department of Sociology; Mary...

In the third episode of the LGBTQ+ Podcast, our guest, Cate Fantacci, discusses the public perception of LGBT+ people in Italy and how it is influenced by the Catholic Church. Although Italy is a secularised country, the Catholic Church often expresses its opinion on political matters. Few Church officials affirm LGBT+ people. In 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith stated that same-se...

Our second podcast is with Dr. Haim Abraham, a lecturer at the University of Essex. He gives us an informative discussion on surrogacy in relation to the LGBTQ+ community in Israel, educating us on the developments being made and the ones needed to ensure they have equal rights to surrogacy. As the LGBTQ+ community in Israel grows so does their advocation of equal rights. Within Israel, the Embryo...

In the first episode of the LGBTQ+ Podcast, our guest, Vinnosh Kumar, discusses the situation of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in the UK. Asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity are  systematically rejected  both in the UK and Europe. The officials often expect the claimant to convince them that they are ‘truly’ gay or trans or other. One in three claimants is refused asylu...

Tom Parker, a counter-terrorism practitioner and former UN war crimes investigator, recently published a book called Avoiding the Terrorist Trap , in which he argues that counter-terrorism strategy grounded in respect for human rights is the only truly effective approach to defeating terrorism. In this episode, Tom joins Daragh Murray in a discussion exploring everything from why people engage in...

The doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials from being held personally liable for constitutional violations, and thus poses a significant challenge for individuals seeking compensation for abuses of public power in the US. In light of continuing police brutality against Black Lives Matter protesters, many are calling for the doctrine to be reformed or abolished. In this episod...

Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits the restriction of rights for any other purpose than those for which they are prescribed. It aims to prevent the abuse of power by state authorities, or the restriction of rights for illegitimate purposes. In this episode, Prof. Başak Çalı and Dr Corina Heri join Daragh Murray to discuss the history of Article 18, the case law around...

Open Source Researchers of Color (OSROC), a collective of open-source researchers and investigators, recently published a guide to help protestors protect themselves against police surveillance both online and offline. Their guide includes tips on how to communicate safely before and during protests, how to evade facial recognition technology, and how to responsibly post or preserve photos and vid...

No Recourse to Public Funds is a key part of the UK government's Hostile Environment policy, designed and intended to make the lives of illegal immigrants difficult. In this episode, Kimberly Garande of We Belong and Andy Jolly of the University of Wolverhampton join Daragh Murray to discuss the impact that NRPF has on migrants' lives, and how hostile environment policies more widely have turned r...

In England, 1.3 million school-aged children rely on Free School Meals throughout the year. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has launched a food voucher scheme to ensure that children who were missing school do not go hungry. However, by planning to end the voucher scheme before the summer holidays, the government is leaving children to go hungry and increasing the strain on local orga...

UNHCR have released a set of documents relating to protection considerations in the context of the COVID-19 response here: https://www.refworld.org/covid19.html Roughly 75% of refugees live in overcrowded camps, settlements or shelters around the world, where they lack access to adequate sanitation, and are therefore extremely vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode of RightsCast, Dr....

Get updates from ECCHR on the trial here: https://www.ecchr.eu/en/case/trial-monitoring-first-trial-worldwide-on-torture-in-syria/ In the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, two former Syrian intelligence officials are currently on trial for crimes against humanity. Anwar R and Eyad A are both accused of torture which allegedly took place between 2011 and 2012 at the General Intelligence Di...

The human rights issues emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe are unprecedented and wide-ranging. In this episode, Daragh Murray is joined by Judith Bueno de Mesquita and Koldo Casla to discuss the right to health and economic and social rights, but also the importance of international solidarity extending beyond human rights. Plus, we hear from Human Rights Centre alum Matteo Bas...

Modern technology - and the enhanced access it provides to information about human rights abuses - has the potential to revolutionise human rights reporting and documentation, as well as the pursuit of legal accountability. However, these new methods for information gathering and dissemination have also created significant challenges for investigators and researchers. The capture and dissemination...

Graham Dossett is a former police officer who now uses his experience to advise on policing and human rights issues. He is currently a member of the advisory council for the development of a Universal Protocol for Investigative Interviewing, led by the Association for the Prevention of Torture, the Anti-Torture Initiative and the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights. In this episode, Graham joins Dar...

In this episode, Anne-Katrin Speck and Professor Clara Sandoval discuss the findings from their research into the implementation—or non-implementation—of human rights judgements/decisions in the Inter-American and European human rights systems. Their work was undertaken as part of the ESCR-funded Human Rights Law Implementation Project (HRLIP), in collaboration with colleagues from leading human r...

Globally, there appears to be a rise in hatred threatening to destroy societal harmony and the foundations of peace. Against this backdrop, this panel discussion, held last year to commemorate International Tolerance Day, features leading practitioners who are working on identifying ways to promote societal cohesion and democracy using human rights as a beacon. Panellists speak to a broad range of...

.In this episode, Dr Daragh Murray chairs a discussion with Dr Matt Lodder, Dr Emily Jones and Alexandra Grolimund about the lasting impact of the infamous judgement in R v Brown [1994], which established the legal precedent that the “consent” of a victim is not a valid defence when it comes to the criminalisation of assault through certain ‘extreme’ but consensual acts, including sadomasochism an...

In this episode of RightsCast, we bring you a panel discussion, chaired by Sheldon Leader, with Dr Miriam Saage-Maaß and Daniel Leader, both leading practitioners in the business and human rights field, as they outline recent developments in the litigation of business and human rights cases. Taking Lessenich’s and others’ sociological concept of the “imperialistic lifestyle” to describe the dynami...

Professor Lorna Woods and Will Perrin, with support from Carnegie UK Trust, have been working on a public policy proposal to introduce regulation designed to protect social media users from harm, drawing on existing duty of care models such as those in health and safety law. In this episode, Lorna joins Dr Daragh Murray to discuss this proposal, which argues that social media platforms, viewed as...