Welcome to AHRI's October newsletter. 

In 2023 we celebrate that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 75 years old, 30 years since the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and 25 years of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. 2023 is also a year where we see massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. At its annual conference in 2019 AHRI adopted the Potsdam Declaration on the Relationship Between International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights which included the following statement which is worth repeating:

"AHRI strongly condemns the many violations of international humanitarian law that have occurred in recent conflicts, and is gravely concerned about the blatant nature of many of these breaches. More than ever, international humanitarian law is facing challenges of implementation which need to be addressed, including through international and national accountability and justice mechanisms. AHRI emphasises the importance of strengthening compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law and calls upon parties to an armed conflict to ensure the full implementation of the norms laid down in the four Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols."

- AHRI Secretariat 

The next annual AHRI conference will be hosted by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden, 12-14 September 2024. A call for papers will be circulated in December. The following year, in September 2025,  the conference will be hosted by Instituto de Democracia y Derechos Humanos at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima, Peru.

From 27 to 29 September the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights in Vienna, Austria, hosted a conference to commemorate 30 years since the world conference on human rights in 1993 which adopted the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. The conference brought together human rights experts from across the world to discuss achievement and current challenges to human rights protection. AHRI member institutes arranged a number of the panels at the conference.

Call for applications, Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University

The Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) invites applications for short-term research mobility (1–4 weeks) in 2024. The objectives of the mobility program are to promote research collaboration between researchers at ÅAU and partner universities, to develop new and deepen existing research and development initiatives, and to support the internationalisation of research training in human rights. The call is targeted at scholars on different academic levels (professors, postdoctoral researchers, and doctoral candidates). Priority is given to scholars in law, or scholars from other disciplines with an interest in law as a social and/or cultural phenomenon. Application deadline: 7 November 2023. Find out more here

Call for proposals, Louis Bruyns scholarship, University of Antwerp

For 2024, UCSIA will finance a scholarship for a PhD student at a university in the Global South, who wants to spend a period at the University of Antwerp under the supervision of a UAntwerp academic staff member. During his/her stay at UAntwerp, the student will also co-organize a public event on a topic of concern for the Global South, in line with UCSIA’s theme of solidarity in Europe and the World. The scholarship consists of a monthly allowance of 1750 euro for a maximum duration of 10 months (starting at the latest on the 1 October 2024) and travel costs. Deadline for application: 5 January 2024. Find out more here

The University of Dayton Human Rights Center Social Practice of Human Rights Conference

 The 2023 Joint Convening of the Social Practice of Human Rights Conference and the 6th International Conference on the Right to Development will offer scholars and practitioners a valuable space to exchange perspectives on this year’s theme of Decolonization and Development for Africa and People of African Descent. The Conference is scheduled for 2-4 November 2023 and is in hybrid format. Find out more here. 

As an AHRI member do you have something that you would like to share in the newsletter or on the AHRI website? You can share information about your research and publications, past and upcoming events, scholarship opportunities etc. Please submit via the newsletter form or via email: administration@ahri-network.org