June 2024 newsletter
The June edition of the CAHR newsletter.
CAHR Fellows invited to the Mansion House to meet the Lord Mayor
The Rt Hon Lord Mayor of York, the Rev Councillor Chris Cullwick, the Sheriff of York, Sue Hunter, the Lady Mayoress, Mrs Joy Cullwick and the Sheriff’s consort, Mr Nigel Goodwin welcomed the human rights defenders and members of staff and the Friends of defenders scheme to the Mansion house in May.
The civic party took time to learn about the work of the CAHR Fellows, and were pleased to hear that the defenders had found sanctuary in the city of York. The defenders were given a short tour of the house and invited to ask questions about the role of the local council and the civic party.
CAHR Fellow’s interview awarded this year’s “Best Interview” in the annual University of York Media Awards
CAHR Fellow, Abdalle Mumin, was interviewed by student reporter Ella Raw in December 2023. It was a powerful interview in which Abdalle shared his experiences of surviving persecution, civil-wars, military dictatorships and prison, before ending up on a group of students' doorstep.
Beyond Compliance Consortium kick-off workshop and public launch
Professor Ioana Cismas, Dr Piergiuseppe Parisi, Lway Mownt Noon, Samantha Homes and Wendy Burns joined a closed kick-off workshop of the Beyond Compliance Consortium’s research programme on “Building Evidence on Promoting Restraint by Armed Actors” at King’s Manor on 14 and 15 May.
Welcomed by the Principal Investigator, Professor Ioana Cismas, Co-Director of CAHR, the Consortium spent two days discussing the conceptual framework of this co-produced practitioner-academic research programme on harm and need in armed conflict that covers nine case study countries (Afghanistan, Colombia, DRC, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen). Joined by representatives from the funders at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Consortium discussed all aspects of the programme including qualitative and quantitative research approaches and research ethics.
The workshop was followed on 15 May with a Public Launch of the Beyond Compliance Consortium’s research programme which included an interactive discussion of why and how centring local communities’ lived experiences of armed conflict is essential to guide the design and implementation for the prevention and reduction of humanitarian need and civilian harm in war.
CAHR staff participate in the conference “Immigration and Public Power”
Between 29 and 31 May, Dr Mattia Pinto participated in the conference “Immigration and Public Power” at University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy).
Mattia presented a paper entitled “Penal Antagonism or Political Agonism: Re-thinking human trafficking and migrant smuggling from the migrants’ experiences” (in Italian).
Sam Pegram Award Ceremony
On 10 May, CAHR held an inspiring event dedicated to human rights careers and the memory of Sam Pegram, an alumnus of the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice who died tragically in 2019. In the first part of the afternoon, which was focused on careers, CAHR alumni shared their insights and tips for acquiring work in the sector. The careers' session was also supported by interventions from Claire Mahon, who is Founder and CEO of the Geneva-based Global Human Rights Group.
The second part of the afternoon was dedicated to the Sam Pegram Awards. The Award is given to LLM and MA student groups who demonstrate a commitment to reflective practice in their placements. This year, the LLM awardees were Seraphim Akrong, Helen Clifton and Callum Penman for their project Stop Disability Hate.
Their project was conducted in partnership with the Disability Rights Forum, City of York Council and North Yorkshire Police. The MA awardees were: Mao Suzuki, Abdul Karim Bin Ujang and Mahdi Abokor for their project with the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. The project undertook an assessment of training needs of human rights defenders for the development of UWC’s summer training school.