Centre for the Study of Law in Theory and Practice (LTAP) Annual Lecture

Professor William Schabas will deliver our inaugural Centre for the Study of Law in Theory and Practice (LTAP) Annual Lecture on ‘Race, Racial Discrimination and International Law’.

Ahead of the lecture, there will be an opportunity for PhDs/ECRs (and MCRs) to meet informally with Professor Schabas over tea and coffee and chat over his career and work. The pre-lecture meeting will take place in Room 205 (SLB), at 12 noon till 12.45pm.

Concluding remarks by Professor Keith George, PVC for Research and Knowledge Exchange

The lecture will be followed by light refreshments at 3.30pm.

Please note
The event is open to everyone, but places are limited.
Please save the date in your diary and register for the lecture.

Race, racial discrimination and international law

Racial discrimination has been an important issue in international law for more than a century, since Japan’s unsuccessful attempt to include a clause on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations. The first human rights petitions to the United Nations were filed by African-Americans protesting their treatment in the country that hosted the organization, including an eloquent and provocative submission about lynching and Jim Crow entitled We Charge Genocide.

At a time when many of the founding members of the United Nations focussed their attention on standard setting and rejected the idea that the organization could actually intervene in domestic affairs, those from the Global South devoted their efforts to concrete discrimination and equality issues including a growing campaign against racist South Africa.

In the 1960s, the admission of many new African states transformed the United Nations, injecting enormous energy into the human rights system that is reflected in the adoption of treaties and in radical approaches to international criminal law. These efforts have not been adequately recognized in narratives of the history of human rights and international criminal law within the United Nations.

Professor William Schabas

William A. Schabas is professor of International Law at Middlesex University London and distinguished visiting faculty at Sciences Po in Paris. He further holds the titles of professor emeritus at Leiden University and University of Galway. He is honorary chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, and was a member of Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2002-2004), chairman of the Human Rights Council’s fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict (2014-2015), and prepared quinquennial reports on the death penalty for the United Nations Secretary-General in 2020, 2015, and 2010. He is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of Royal Irish Academy, and holds several honorary doctorates.