This week, Faculty of Law Professor Joanna Harrington will be presenting at an international experts conference at Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, having been selected to participate through peer-review. Organized in cooperation with Seconda Università di Napoli of Italy and the Ghent Human Rights Centre of Belgium, the "Urgency and Human Rights" conference aims to bring together scholars, lawyers and NGOs to examine the various international and regional human rights mechanisms to deal with urgent situations of potential human rights violation. These situations include the imminent expulsion of individuals to countries where there is a substantial risk of torture, as well as urgent situations of grave human rights abuses arising within the context of counter-terrorism operations and armed conflict.
Harrington's presentation will provide a perspective from the Americas, reflecting on recent developments within the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as well as research concerning Canada's record in balancing national security concerns with the legal obligation to protect all persons from torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment. "There is a legal maxim that for every wrong, the law should provide a remedy - and this should be no less true in international human rights litigation," explained Harrington. "The conference aims to identify mechanisms to encourage countries to respect interim measures requests to avoid irreparable harm while an international human rights case is pending for further consideration."
Further details on the "Urgency and Human Rights" Conference can be found on the website of the Faculty of Law at Radboud University.