Publications

Our publications are grounded in and respond to real-world human rights and humanitarian challenges and opportunities. 

They advance academic knowledge, inform policy-making processes, and make contributions to grassroots activism and human rights teaching.

Journal of Human Rights Practice

The Centre for Applied Human Rights hosts the Journal of Human Rights Practice, published by Oxford University Press.

"The JHRP has not only filled a very big gap in the human rights literature, but has succeeded in bringing a whole range of new perspectives to bear on the field. In a short period, it has established itself as a must-read journal for everyone interested in how human rights advocacy actually works, or doesn’t work, in practice."

Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, New York University

Selected publications

Staff at the Centre for Applied Human Rights publish monographs and edited volumes, articles in peer-reviewed journals, working papers, policy briefs, reports, blogs and other outputs under the auspices of the signature programmes of knowledge exchange - the UNESCO Human Rights Defenders Hub, the Generating Respect Hub, and the Human Rights City Hub - and other research projects. Some recent publications are listed below.

The complete list of publications and outputs by CAHR members is listed in the University of York Research Database

Recent works (2023)

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Justice in Global Health: New Perspectives and Current Issues by Himani Bhakuni & Lucas Miotto.

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'The Relevance of International Law Standards to Religious Leaders' by Ioana Cismas. Published in Religion, Hateful Expression and Violence, TOAEP.

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'Considerations and Guidance on the Humanitarian Engagement with Religious Leaders' by Ioana Cismas, Marta Furlan, Piergiuseppe Parisi, Chris Rush, Ezequiel Heffes and Hasnaa El Jamali. Published by the Generating Respect Project, University of York.

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'Children and Armed Conflict: A Legal Glossary on Abduction and Deportation, Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict & Centre for Applied Human Rights’ by Ioana Cismas, Ezequiel Heffes and Brook Morrison. Published by Generating Respect Hub, 2023.

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'Universities as Sites of Activism and Protection', Working Paper No. 14, Human Rights Defender Hub Working Paper Series, by Paul Gready and Emma Jackson. Published by the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York.

Transitional Justice in Tunisia: Innovations, Continuities, Challenges, edited by Simon Robins and Paul Gready.

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'Transitional Justice as a Driver of Transformation in Colombia' by Paul Gready, José Antonio Gutiérrez Danton, Piergiuseppe Parisi, and Simon Robins, Policy brief 6. Published by CAPAZ - Instituto Colombo-Alemán par la Paz

State, Political Power and Criminality in Civil War, edited by Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín and José Antonio Gutiérrez Danton

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'Justicia transformativa y conflicto agrario. Elementos para un debate necesario' by José Antonio Gutiérrez Danton, Eric Hoddy, Dáire McGill, Rocio del Pilar Peña-Huertas, Irene Vélez-Torres and Diana Marcela Muriel. Published by Universidad Santo Tomás.

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Legal culture and climate change adaptation: An agenda for research by Eric Hoddy, Simon Halliday, Jonathan Ensor, Christine Wamsler, and Emily Boyd. Published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change.

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'Re-membering Red Riding Hood: situated solidarities between Ireland and Uganda' by Ruth Kelly. Published in Feminist Theory.

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'A tax like any other? Rebel taxes on narcotics and war time economic order' by Zachariah Mampilly and José Antonio Gutiérrez Danton. Published in International Politics.

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'The Report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the Death of Giulio Regeni' by Piergiuseppe Parisi. Published in The Italian Yearbook of International Law Online.

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'Human Rights as Penal Drivers Across the World' by Mattia Pinto. Published in The Transformation of Criminal Jurisdiction: Extraterritoriality and Enforcement.

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'Coercive Human Rights and the Forgotten History of the Council of Europe's Report on Decriminalisation' by Mattia Pinto. Published in The Modern Law Review.

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'Discursive alignment of trafficking, rights and crime control' by Mattia Pinto. Published in International Journal of Law in Context.

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'Silvana Tapia Tapia: Feminism, Violence Against Women, and Law Reform: Decolonial Lessons from Ecuador.' by Mattia Pinto published in Feminist Legal Studies.

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'Framing Noma: Human Rights and Neglected Tropical Diseases as Paths for Advocacy' by Alice Trotter & Ioana Cismas. Published in Justice in Global Health: New Perspectives and Current Issues.

Publications that marked their field of study & practice

From Transitional to Transformative Justice

Edited by Paul Gready and Simon Robins

From Transitional to Transformative Justice - book cover

Transitional justice has become the principle lens used by countries emerging from conflict and authoritarian rule to address the legacies of violence and serious human rights abuses. However, as transitional justice practice becomes more institutionalized with support from NGOs and funding from Western donors, questions have been raised about the long-term effectiveness of transitional justice mechanisms. Core elements of the paradigm have been subjected to sustained critique, yet there is much less commentary that goes beyond critique to set out, in a comprehensive fashion, what an alternative approach might look like.

This volume discusses one such alternative, transformative justice, and positions this quest in the wider context of ongoing fall-out from the 2008 global economic and political crisis, as well as the failure of social justice advocates to respond with imagination and ambition. Drawing on diverse perspectives, contributors illustrate the wide-ranging purchase of transformative justice at both conceptual and empirical levels.

Religious Actors and International Law

By Ioana Cismus

Religious Actors and International Law (Ioana Cismas, 2014)

This book assesses whether a new category of religious actors has been constructed within international law. Religious actors, through their interpretations of the religion(s) they are associated with, uphold and promote, or indeed may transform, potentially oppressive structures or discriminatory patterns. This study moves beyond the concern that religious texts and practices may be incompatible with international law, to provide an innovative analysis of how religious actors themselves are accountable under international law for the interpretations they choose to put forward.

The book defines religious actors as comprising religious states, international organizations, and non-state entities that assume the role of interpreting religion and so claim a 'special' legitimacy anchored in tradition or charisma. Cutting across the state / non-state divide, this definition allows the full remit of religious bodies to be investigated. It analyses the crucial question of whether religious actors do in fact operate under different international legal norms to non-religious states, international organizations, or companies. To that end, the Holy See-Vatican, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and churches and religious organizations under the European Convention on Human Rights regime are examined in detail as case studies.

The study ultimately establishes that religious actors cannot be seen to form an autonomous legal category under international law: they do not enjoy special or exclusive rights, nor incur lesser obligations, when compared to their respective non-religious peers. Going forward, it concludes that a process of two-sided legitimation may be at stake: religious actors will need to provide evidence for the legality of their religious interpretations to strengthen their legitimacy, and international law itself may benefit from religious actors fostering its legitimacy in different cultural contexts.