The Transformation of the Prohibition of Torture in International Law
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
- Room
- Student Alumni Lecture Theatre, PWW
- Event type
- Book launch
About this event
The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment has a special status.
It is the foremost international human rights norm protecting persons from attacks on their dignity and integrity. Consequently, it has been at the forefront of a series of developments in international human rights law and international law more broadly. Having withstood sustained challenges to its absolute nature in the ‘war on terror’, it has broadened its scope of application, becoming more sophisticated and complex in the process.
In this thought provoking discussion, Professor Lutz Oette will deliberate on the transformation of torture with Michelle Staggs Kelsall and its ramifications for the future of its prohibition. The discussion will be followed by a comment and appraisal by Professor Carla Ferstman, former Executive Director of REDRESS and herself author of Conceptualising Arbitrary Detention (OUP 2024).
Photo by Joel Filipe via Unsplash
About the speakers
Lutz Oette is Professor of International Human Rights Law, and Convenor of the LLM Human Rights, Conflict and Justice and MA Human Rights Law in the School of Law, Gender and Media at SOAS. He is Co-Director of the Centre for Human Rights Law; and the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies; and a Member of the Centre of African Studies.
His publications include: Bantekas, Ilias and Oette, Lutz, International Human Rights Law and Practice and The Transformation of the Prohibition of Torture in International Law.
Dr Michelle Staggs Kelsall is Senior Lecturer in International Law; Deputy Head of Undergraduate Admissions in the School of Law, Gender and Media; and Co-Director of the Centre for Human Rights Law. Her background is in Human Rights, including at the UNHCHR and as DeputyDirector of the Human Rights Resource Centre (for ASEAN).
She is Co-founder of ATLAS, to secure equal representation of women lawyers working in international law and policy across the globe.
Carla Ferstman is Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, which she joined in January 2018. She is a barrister and solicitor (British Columbia, 1994); DPhil (Public International Law) (Oxon); LL.M (NYU); LL.B (UBC); BA (Philosophy) (Western). Ferstman has worked largely in the human rights field, including at REDRESS, winner of the MacArthur Foundation Award for creative and effective institutions during her tenure as Legal Director / Director.
