Congratulations to Professor Joanna Harrington who is part of a team of Canadian law academics and non-profit sector lawyers that has secured a $2.5 million partnership grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to assist the victims of mass atrocity crimes.
Led by Professor Fannie Lafontaine of Laval University, the "Strengthening Justice for International Crimes: A Canadian Partnership" project aims to connect research with concrete actions in practice in support of efforts to ensure accountability for the world's worst crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious violations of the laws and customs of war. Sadly, 2014 saw the highest level of deaths from armed conflict and atrocity crimes since 1945, leading to 21.3 million refugees and 40.8 million internally displaced persons - the highest levels since the founding of the UN.
The five-year project brings together a team of 12 law professors from both French and English Canada, along with lawyers working with the Canadian Centre for International Justice and Lawyers Without Borders Canada, in support of efforts before both national and international courts on behalf of the victims of international crimes. In addition to providing the funds for further research, the project also aims to provide experiential learning opportunities for law students interested in pursuing further work in both national and international law, including refugee law, international criminal law, and international human rights law.
"It's a great team of legal academics from across the country, working with an equally great team of lawyers from the NGO community," said Professor Harrington. "Many of the professors in the partnership have also worked with or for the institutional structures that we hope to influence - whether as prosecutors at the international criminal tribunals, as lawyer-diplomats within a foreign ministry, as advocates with Amnesty International and other international NGOs, or as advisors with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. These experiences infuse our research and teaching, and provide real-life examples to our students of the range of opportunities for using a legal education in the service of others, including the victims of crime."
The partnership also brings together eight universities: the University of Alberta, Dalhousie University, Université Laval, McGill University, Université de Montréal, the University of Ottawa, Queen's University, and Western University.
This is the second SSRHC Partnership Grant project for the Faculty of Law, with Professor Eric Adams being a successful co-applicant for the Landscapes of Injustice project in 2014.