News & Events

 Conference on 'Lighting the Shade: Effective Application of ECHR in Areas of Conflict in Europe'

Date: 1st of September 2022
Location: Aula Maxima, NUI, Galway

The Irish Centre for Human Rights and the School of Law at NUI Galway hosted an academic conference on the topic of 'Lighting the Shade: Effective Application of ECHR in Areas of Conflict in Europe'. The Conference was organised within in the framework of Ireland's Presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. The event  examined the practice of the Council of Europe’s human rights system in European territories where CoE mechanisms cannot function freely and effectively from both normative and operational perspectives. Speakers considered how the system might be better leveraged to improve the effectiveness of the European Convention on Human Rights throughout Europe.

Update (22/09): The final version of the Conference Conclusions can be downloaded here: ICHR ECHR Conference Conclusions 2022.

The speech by Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, can be accessed here.

Note: This event was organised solely and entirely by the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway. The Department of Foreign Affairs  contributed to the funding of the conference as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of Europe, 2022. The Department had no role in the agenda or content of the event.

Watch the entire event on YouTube

Event Programme 

0920h Welcome: Prof Ciarán Ó hOgartaigh, President of NUI Galway 

0930h Opening remarks: Minister/Deputy Min for Foreign Affairs 

Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General, Council of Europe 

0955h Special Guest Video Address: Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland / Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights / Chair of the High-Level Reflection Group to advise on the future role of the Council of Europe

10h Context-setting: The Challenge of Ensuring Effectiveness of the ECHR in Areas of Conflict in Europe,  Dr Andrew Forde, Visiting Fellow, Irish Centre for Human Rights

1020h Establishing ‘Jurisdiction’ in times of conflict and transition under the European Convention on Human Rights, Dr Stuart Wallace, Associate Professor, University of Leeds

1045h Coffee/Tea/Networking

11h – 12h Panel Discussion: Jurisdictional Challenges under the ECHR in cases linked to Areas of Conflict and Contestation in Europe

Moderator: Prof Siobhán Mullally, Director of Irish Centre for Human Rights / United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons

• Prof Philip Leach, University of Middlesex, UK
• Prof Başak Çalı, Co-Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights, Hertie School, Berlin, Germany
• Dr Isabella Risini, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany

1215 -1230h The Role of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in relation to Conflicts in Europe Mr Claude Kern, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President of the Sub-Committee on Conflicts concerning Council of Europe member States

1245h - 14h Lunch 

14h – 1415h Maximising the Effectiveness of the ECHR: A Perspective from the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, Gresa Caka-Nimani, President of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo

1430h – 1530h Panel Discussion: Ensuring Unrestricted Human Rights Monitoring and Advisory Access to European territories

Moderator: Prof Aoife Nolan, Vice-President, European Committee on Social Rights and Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham.

• Claudia Lam, Deputy Director, Office of Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights 
• Clare Ovey, Head of Department of Department for the Execution of Judgments, Council of Europe
• Mark Kelly, Member, Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT)
• Olena Ivantsiv, Protection Manager / Europe and Central Asia, Frontline Defenders

1530- 1545h Coffee/Tea/Networking

15.45h – 17h Towards a more practical and effective European human rights system 

Moderator: Dr Ed Bates, University of Leicester

• Nils Muižnieks, European Director - Amnesty International, former CoE Commissioner for Human Rights 
• Nino Lomjaria, Public Defender of Georgia (European Network of National Human Rights Institutions)
• Jörg Polakiewicz, Director of Legal Advice and Public International Law (Legal Adviser) of the Council of Europe
• Pavel Cazacu, PromoLex NGO , Republic of Moldova