The Human Rights Lawyers Association and the Association of Law Teachers are delighted to have collaborated on a virtual half-day event on 09 September 2025 (13:00 – 16:00 on Zoom) on ‘Human Rights Education In & Beyond the University Law School’, hosted on Zoom by the University of Exeter Law School. The event featured a lively and engaging mix of keynotes, academic presentations, a panel discussion, and an ‘In Conversation With’ segment with legal academic and documentary filmmaker Dr Malcolm Rogge. These sessions are designed to bring together human rights defenders from both academic and NGO settings to share, examine and reflect on innovative and creative approaches to human rights education and training. The focus spans law school teaching and public legal education, with an emphasis on collaboration, experimentation and practice-informed pedagogy.
Programme
13:00 – 13:30 Opening Session & Keynotes
Yasmin Batliwala MBE, CEO of Advocates for International Development (A4ID)
Ben Leather, UK Director of Peace Brigades International
13:30 – 15:00 Academic Presentations (chaired by Dr Louise Loder, HRLA Vice-Chair & Ffyon Reilly, HRLA Executive Committee Member)
Professor Rachel Murray, Centre Director, Human Rights Implementation Centre, University of Bristol Law School
Dr Caer Smyth, Lecturer in Law, Cardiff University School of Law and Politics
Dr Cynthia Chisom Umezulike, Human Rights Barrister & Senior Lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire, Co-Vice Chair of HRLA
Professor Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos, Head of Department, Academic Programmes, City Law School
Professor Catherine Dupre, Director of the Human Rights & Democracy Forum, University of Exeter Law School
15:00 – 15:40 Panel Discussion (chaired by Vicki Prais, HRLA Executive Committee Member)
Friso Roscam Abbing, Director’s Adviser on Communication and Head of the Brussels Liaison Office, EU Fundamental Rights Agency
Robert Fellner, Founder & CEO, Human Rights Careers.com
Samantha Knights KC, Barrister, Matrix Chambers
Sabrina Mahtani, Co-Founder, Women Beyond Walls
15:40 – 15:55 In Conversation With (chaired by Ffyon Reilly, HRLA Executive Committee Member)
Dr Malcolm Rogge, University of Exeter Law School, Business and Human Rights scholar and practitioner, and international award-winning documentary filmmaker of ‘The Tribunal’
15:55 – 16:00 Closing
For further details, please contact Dr Louise Loder, HRLA Vice-Chair, at l.m.loder@exeter.ac.uk.
Watch Part I (Opening Session & Academic Presentations)
Watch Part II (Panel Discussion & In Conversation With)
Watch ‘The Tribunal, a documentary film by Dr Malcolm Rogge, produced in partnership with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Filmed in the mega-diverse Ecuadorian cloud forest, Malcolm Rogge’s powerful documentary film brings to light the disturbing impacts on local environmental defenders of the shadowy international investment arbitration system (ISDS).
“A powerful and moving film”
David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment
“Beautifully filmed”
Lorenzo Cotula, International Institute for Environment and Development
“A tour de force”
Catherine Kessedijan, Professeur émérite de l’Université Panthéon-Assas
“Essential viewing”
Anil Yilmaz Vastardis and Tara Van Ho, Essex Business and Human Rights Project.
“Watch this film and listen to the voices of the people.”
Peter Muchlinski, author of Multinational Enterprises and the Law.
“A perspective that literally never gets heard.”
Andrea Shemberg, Former Legal Advisor to the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights
