Sam Pegram was a caring, kind and talented young man who tragically died in the Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 737 Max crash, in 2019, en route to Nairobi.

After spending two years volunteering and working for humanitarian NGOs in Jordan, Sam came to the University of York to study the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice. After graduating he secured a role as a research policy assistant for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Geneva where he was working when he died.

Sam was a wonderful presence in the classroom. He was committed, thoughtful and reflexive in his fieldwork. He was deeply committed to humanitarianism, the rights of people on the move, and social justice in a broad sense. He remains deeply missed by his friends and his family here at York, in Lancashire where he was from, and around the world.

Sam Pegram scholarship

In Sam's memory, the Sam Pegram Humanitarian Foundation established the Sam Pegram Scholarship. This scholarship provides one international student with full funding to study for an LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice, aiming to make a positive difference for the rights of people on the move and human rights more generally.

Read more about the scholarship

Sam Pegram awards

Sam’s friends, family and CAHR staff also established the Sam Pegram Awards. These awards recognise the outstanding project outputs of the Human Rights and Project Placements each year, highlighting their commitment to reflective human rights practice and centering the needs and voices of those involved in the struggle for human rights.

The Human Rights and the Project Placements are flagship modules in the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice and the MA in Applied Human Rights. They offer our students hands-on experience working with partners on practice-oriented human rights projects.

Read more about the LLM’s human rights placement

Read more about the MA’s project placement