Tickets to our upcoming 'Careers in Human Rights Law, Divers Perspectives from Practice' event are out now! £5 for members or £7 for non members We will be donating a portion of the ticket proceedings to Nottingham Hospitals Charity. Swipe to see our panel speakers.

Introducing our panel speakers: Alexus McNally, Gbemi Akinyosoye, Victoria Miyandazi, Sumaiyah, Kholwadia, Lorenza Cocco.

Are you interested in a career in human rights law?

Join us for our event: 'Careers in Human Rights Law - Diverse Perspectives from Practice' in collaboration with the Lawyers Without Borders Society.

📅 Wed, 6 May
🕡 18:30
📍 Council Room, Trent Building

For more details, visit: lnkd.in/esRth2uk

Event Image for: Corporate Climate & Human Rights Responsibility: A Business & Human Rights Perspective with Ekaterina Aristova, Margherita Cornaglia, and Nicolas Bueno. Friday, 8 May 10:00-11:00am BST Online via MS Teams

Join the HRLC for our upcoming webinar 'Corporate Climate and Human Rights Responsibility: A Business and Human Rights Perspective'.

🗓️ Friday, 8 March
⏰ 10:00–11:00 BST
📍 Online via MS Teams

Register now: corporate-climate-and-human-rights-responsibility.eventbrite.co.uk

Liberal Democracy Depends on Social Rights Democratic backsliding and rising social insecurity have gone hand in hand.

This week the European Committee of Social Rights will be hosting the High-Level Conference on the European Social Charter in Chisinau.

@aoifenolan.bsky.social, Director of the HRLC and ECSR President, highlights the importance of social rights for democratic security in Europe: lnkd.in/eiHtHxDR

Following hugely successful conferences in 2024 and 2025, in 2026 the University of Nottingham School of Law in partnership with the International Criminal Justice Unit of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre is once again organising a two day conference to bring together people working across the diverse field of international criminal justice. At this interdisciplinary conference, we are aiming to foster connections between academics, practitioners and policymakers, as we hear about recent developments in research and practice, and explore, discuss and debate current issues in the field. We invite submissions from academics and practitioners at all stages of their professional career that tackle the following themes: - International criminal justice and its crises - New developments in international criminal law - Politics or pragmatism? Reflecting on the work of the ICC - Beyond the ICC: International criminal justice within domestic jurisdictions - International criminal justice’s blindspots - An international criminal justice for the present and for the future? - Teaching international criminal law Those interested in presenting should submit a 300 word abstract on their proposed presentation by 22 April 2026. Applicants whose abstracts have been accepted will be notified by 8 May 2026. Following on from the success of the previous years’ in-person conferences and to provide participants and attendees with the opportunity to make connections and develop their networks, the conference will be held in-person at the University of Nottingham’s University Park campus from 13-14July 2026. All attendees will need to fund their own travel and accommodation, and there will be a small registration fee to contribute to the cost of hosting the event.

About International Criminal Justice at the University of Nottingham The School of Law at the University of Nottingham has long been associated with excellence in international criminal law research and research-led teaching. Established in 2003, the International Criminal Justice Unit of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre has hosted high-profile conferences and organised seminars, including at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Assembly of States Parties annual sessions. The ICJ Unit currently has responsibility for the National Implementing Legislation Database (NILD) of the International Criminal Court's Legal Tools Project. The School of Law has a vast network of alumni who have gone on to forge careers in international criminal justice as academics and practitioners. The organisers hope to welcome some of these alumni back to Nottingham for this conference, while also extending this network to include a wider community of academics and practitioners working in the space of international criminal justice. Beyond international criminal law specifically, the School of Law has a rich pedigree in the fields of human rights, criminal justice, criminal evidence, humanitarian law, disaster law, international organisations law, and the jus ad bellum. In addition to the Human Rights Law Centre, the School is home to the Nottingham International Law and Security Centre (NILSC) and the Criminal Justice Research Centre. Reflective of this breadth of expertise, this conference takes an open and pluralistic approach to addressing the most pressing challenges addressed by and affecting our field.

📢 Call for papers now open!

Join the HRLC and the University of Nottingham School of Law for the third annual Nottingham International Criminal Justice Conference, from 13-14 July 2026.

🗓️ Deadline: 22 April 2026, 5pm
📌 Submit your paper here: bit.ly/4s9OHWP

For more information: lnkd.in/ez9nuUh4

Event poster for a film screening of "All Static & Noise". The poster reads "When Uyghur and Kazakhs are arbitrarily detained in Chinese "re-education" camps, survivors and their families risk everything to expose the truth".

Join us for a screening of All Static & Noise, a documentary examining testimony from Uyghur & Kazakh survivors of China’s network of “re-education camps”.

🗓️ 19 March
⏰ 17:30–19:30
📍 Hallward Library LG140

Hosted in collaboration w/ Nottingham Students for Scholars at Risk & @amnestyuk.bsky.social

Event poster for a screening of Paris Is Burning. Join the HRLC and the School of Law EDIPC Committee for a special screening and discussion in celebration of LGBTIQA+ History Month.

Join us for a special LGBTIQA+ History Month film screening 🎬🏳️‍🌈

🗓 Friday, 27 February
⏰ 14:00-16:00 (GMT)
📍 Hallward Library Screening Room (LG140)

The HRLC, in partnership with the @uonlaw.bsky.social invites you to a screening of Paris Is Burning, which will be followed by a moderated discussion.

From 19–31 Jan 2026, delegations met at the UN for the first PrepCom toward a Crimes against Humanity Convention.

HRLC member @olympiabekou.bsky.social, participated as Chair of the ILA Study Group Drafting Committee and spoke at a UN side event on capacity building.

Read more: lnkd.in/e6jjfqM6

With that, Professor Fakhri concludes his lecture. A recording will be available on the HRLC website in due course.

Our heartfelt thanks to Professor Fakhri for sharing his expertise, insights, and thought-provoking perspectives on the right to food and global food systems today.

He argues that Gaza teaches us that the meaning of genocide has evolved; starvation is not only a matter of individual culpability but a systemic issue.

Int'l law has universalized the particular: the Western, the male. But it can universalize the opposite, offering a path to liberation for all.

Social movements around Palestinian liberation raise a critical question: can international law transform these victories into political change?

Michael states that it is now a legal fact that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The challenge is turning this legal truth into accountability.

Under the current US administration, Michael notes that the US has exited key aspects of int'l law, aligning with Israel’s attempts to undermine it. Yet international law is no longer only a site of contestation, it’s also where social movements rallying around Palestine have redefined its meaning.

Michael notes that 'the UN died in Gaza' as children were starved to death. For every child who dies from hunger the world slips further into the abyss.

Gaza witnessed the fastest starvation campaign in history. A destruction that goes beyond buildings; the UN’s credibility has been eroded as well.

He notes that around the world, people in prisons are often denied access to healthy food as part of their punishment.

He also notes that he has recently reported on activists against genocide who have been imprisoned, drawing on long political traditions through hunger strikes to demand justice.

To conclude, Michael stresses that the right to food is as much a civil and political issue as an economic one.

Michael discusses land tenure; a system which can be formal legal agreements, verbal agreements, or customary practice. It specifies who can use land, how, and for how long.

These systems are pluralistic. The challenge: how can we conceptualize land sovereignty in ways that respect this diversity?

Michael goes on to emphasise that the way we treat land is the way we treat people. Land isn’t just a resource; how it’s used reflects self-determination and sovereignty.

Looking ahead, a key issue is rethinking sovereignty. What if we framed it around how people actually experience land rights?

Michael notes that we need legal language that protects life-giving concepts, especially around land. This is the topic of his next UN report, coming in a few weeks.

Corporations destroy the life-giving force of land, transforming land into commodities, concentrated in the hands of a few.

Discussing his report on Palestine, Michael notes his close work with Zeina Jallad. He reflects on how international law rapidly develops vocabularies of death (genocide, ecocide, femicide, etc) often to catalogue extermination rather than deliver justice.

He notes that while he opposes the death penalty, he supports it for corporations: without structural limits, corporations “never die,” even when profiting from global suffering.

Before accountability, he says, we must ask how corporations amass such power. A key issue is corporate law, which limits personal liability & allows corporations to persist indefinitely.

He argues that one way to limit this manipulation of food systems includes revoking corporate charters.

Turning to corporate power, he argues that corporations now dominate global food systems. Since the 1970s, states have ceded sovereignty for profit, driving industrialised food systems that degrade the environment and enable human rights abuses.

Food systems must be transformed to ensure access to nutritious food, but the challenge has been agreeing what 'food transformation' means.

Michael’s position: food systems, oppression & conflict must be understood together. Ignoring these intersections means missing the leading causes of hunger.

He notes that occupation, war & conflict are the leading causes of hunger worldwide. The less power people have over their food systems, the less those systems serve their needs.

Hunger, Michael stresses, is always political, preventable & the result of political choices.

On food sovereignty: Michael argues it is a crucial way that people (especially Indigenous peoples) respond to basic needs. During the pandemic, the most transparent food systems were best able to mitigate the worst impacts.

Michael also highlights the starvation campaign perpetrated by Israel against Palestinian civilians, describing it as the largest starvation campaign in human history.

He also points to Sudan, where starvation has been used by both sides as a weapon against civilian populations.

He notes how global events have shaped his mandate, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 & its impact on global wheat supplies.

Michael reflects on his nearly six years as UN Special Rapporteur, with his term ending this May.

He began the role in 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, during a major global food crisis & in the wake of the Beirut port explosion, forcing him to examine the meaning & limits of his role as UNSR.

Michael references his background in TWAIL, noting his ambivalence to int'l law & its imperialist foundations.

He links this to capitalism: a social system in which increasing aspects of life are market-based & where capitalists are incentivised to restrict access to what is essential for living.

On human rights, Michael describes himself as agnostic: neither a believer nor a non-believer that human rights have power in themselves.

He notes that they can be used to oppress, exploit, maintain the status quo, or alternatively, as a force of liberation, resistance, or against occupation.

Coming to us from his dining room, Professor Fakhri notes that a major focus of his lecture will be corporate power within global food systems. Fakhri suggests that refocusing human rights, and international law more broadly, could offer a politically progressive path forward.