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Sustained published research in the area of UN human rights treaty body reform has positioned O'Flaherty as the principal international specialist in the area. He led the 'Dublin Process on the Strengthening of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System', a process that is acknowledged globally as the primary context/forum for the reform of the treaty body system. A number of specific proposals made by the Dublin Process on reforming the human rights treaty body system draw directly from his research.
Emerging from investigations of social exclusion during the 1990s, the Unit's research into minority rights has led to outputs and consultancy ranging across political participation, identity, rights protection and international criminal law. The impact claimed here falls in two main channels. Firstly, research on socio-economic group rights, amplified by Castellino's work as co-chair of the relevant UN delegated group, has made a significant input into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015-30. Secondly, research has been incorporated into practice and capacity- building through projects involving judiciaries, advocates, statutory bodies, and NGOs. Beneficiaries include the public across 194 states who will benefit from implementation of SDGs over their 15 years lifespan; and civil society bodies and their users.
Eyal Weizman's decade-long programme of research into the relation between architecture and conflict has been formative to the establishment of the new field of "Forensic Architecture". His research-based books have been the basis for his production of influential human rights reports, several of which have been presented as evidence in international trials and/or have informed policies relating to the Israel/Palestinian conflict. Appointed as the director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths in 2005, in 2011 he was awarded ERC funding of €1.2M for a project [Forensic Architecture] on the place of architecture in international humanitarian law: this has generated spatial evidence crucial to legal issues concerning the conflicts in areas of the world including Palestine, Guatemala, Pakistan and the Yemen. His extensive collaboration with international human rights organisations and the UN have meant that his work has achieved very wide reach. His work reached multiple audiences through numerous public lectures and media presentations as well as extensive exhibitions in leading cultural and architectural institutions worldwide.
University of Bristol research into international, regional and national mechanisms for preventing torture is at the root of important changes in the operation and working practices of the key bodies involved. The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, the domestic legislation and policies adopted by national governments and the work of organisations set up by individual states to prevent torture have all been deeply and directly affected by Bristol's insights. The AHRC, which funded the research from 2006 to 2009, described the impact of the Bristol project as "dramatic". In the AHRC's judgment, it not only improved institutional processes but actually reduced the probability of torture taking place around the world.
The Middle East Centre (MEC) has achieved a unique standing in providing informed analysis of the region, based on its cumulative academic expertise. It has made significant contributions to the media's and the public's understanding of political and societal developments in the Middle East. The MEC has given advice both to emerging Arab democracies on their own political systems, and to other governments on their relations with the countries of the region. The centre itself has also become a place of neutral ground, where individuals from opposite sides in conflicts in the region can meet, away from local tensions.
a) Educational — improving the performance of school students in coursework and the knowledge and understanding of teachers and undergraduates at other HEIs. Dissemination by talks to schools, online publications and books and articles targeted at schools and undergraduate audiences.
b) The General Public — improving public knowledge and awareness through radio appearances, public lectures, online and book publications for non-academic audiences.
Reach: Direct, quantifiable contact (schools/lecture audiences, online `hits', single-authored books sales) at least 5,500 people. In excess of 160,000 if other reach is included — sales figures for journals, essay collections, radio programmes where Verney was a contributor.
This research underpins two key areas of public impact. The first relates to issues of human rights in Mexico and raising these same concerns at the House of Commons with government Ministers and Members of Parliament in order to change policies and perspective, and directly advising ministers who then raised the issue with their Mexican counterparts, to the benefit of victims of human rights abuses in Mexico. The most tangible outcome of Watt's contribution to the Mexican Human Rights campaign was the presentation of human rights violations before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica (IACoHR) in the case of The United Mexican States vs Radilla. The Court made an unprecedented ruling, ordering the Mexican state to pay reparations to victims of violations and to investigate past abuses. The second aspect of its impact relates to dissemination of the research to a global audience via mass media such as the BBC World Service, Al Jazeera and The Huffington Post, in order to change public perceptions of these pressing human rights issues.
This case study reports three inter-related impacts from Peter Clegg's research at UWE, Bristol. Firstly, his research has helped to shape the reform programme and the return to self-government in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Secondly, it has helped to frame the United Nations Decolonisation Committee's views on how best to implement the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. Thirdly, it has assisted the UK Overseas Territories governments to create an enabling environment for the protection and promotion of the human rights and dignity of People Living with HIV. It has done so by ensuring that these governments' laws and policies facilitate HIV prevention, care, treatment and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Research conducted by Dr Liora Lazarus and colleagues at Oxford helped shape public and parliamentary debate on the merits of a domestic Bill of Rights for Britain. Some had argued that if Britain were to replace the Human Rights Act (HRA), which allows rights in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to be argued before domestic courts, with a British Bill of Rights, the government would gain greater flexibility, e.g. in addressing terrorist threats. The research showed that to be incorrect. This finding informed Reports to the Ministry of Justice, was influential in hearings of the Joint Committee on Human Rights and among human rights professionals, and was later used in Ministry of Justice training materials for judges on the nature of `proportionality' in human rights adjudication. It has situated one of the most controversial debates in British politics on a more secure evidential foundation, and provided reliable information to governments and others on the way courts can be expected to handle certain human rights cases.
Dr Clara Sandoval's research has helped to clarify the scope of the obligation to provide reparations under international law. This research has informed legal cases worldwide considering claims to reparations: international courts such as the International Criminal Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have relied on her work and her expert advice when considering claims to reparations; lawyers have used her work to claim reparations for victims of human rights violations; and international NGO Redress has used her work in its campaigns.