Leiden Fact-Finding Project discusses Future of Human Rights Fact-Finding  at New York University  

On 1-2 November 2013, NYU’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice hosted a conference entitled ‘Human Rights Fact-Finding in the Twenty-first Century’.  The Grotius Centre contributed two papers to the conference which form part of the fact-finding project of the Centre, carried out in cooperation with the Hague Institute for Global Justice.  Prof. dr. Larissa van den Herik and Catherine Harwood spoke about the impact of the use of international criminal law as a normative framework by international commissions of inquiry. Prof. dr. Carsten Stahn and Dov Jacobs discussed the interaction between human rights fact-finding and international criminal proceedings. The conference also explored possibilities offered by new technologies to investigate alleged human rights violations; issues of politics and imperialism; roles of victims and witnesses; fact-finding in advocacy, enforcement, and litigation; and the utility of fact-finding guidelines. One of the outputs of the conference is a volume of essays to be edited by Philip Alston and Sarah Knuckey. 

Panel Discussion ''Contemporary Challenges in IHL" on Thursday 21 November

Expert workshop: "The Conduct of Hostilities under International Humanitarian Law - Challenges of 21st Century Warfare”, Leiden Law Faculty, 22/23 November 2013 ’

On 22 and 23 November 2013, the Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum on International Humanitarian Law and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, in cooperation with the University of Amsterdam and the University of Glasgow, will host an expert workshop of about 20 international renowned academics, who are members of the International Law Association’s study group on the "Conduct of Hostilities under International Humanitarian Law - Challenges of 21st Century Warfare”. The experts will meet in order to discuss possible solutions to problems such as the use of new technologies in armed conflict, like e.g. drones and autonomous weapons, the relationship between law enforcement operations and regular warfare, and the challenges posed by the fight against terrorism. The results of this expert process will be presented to the other members of the ILA at their next meeting in Washington in April 2014. The meeting is not open to the public. 

Photo: By Gerald L Nino [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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