Lecture
#HumanRightsWeek: Mr. Michael O'Flaherty - What future for human rights?
- Date
- Saturday 10 December 2022
- Time
- Explanation
- Welcome with coffee from 9:45 hrs
- Address
-
Kamerlingh Onnes Building
Steenschuur 25
2311 ES Leiden - Room
- A1.44 (Lorentzzaal)
Traditionally we have a special guest to join us in celebrating International Human Rights Day, i.e. 10 December.
This year we will welcome a very distinguished speaker: Mr. Michael O’Flaherty, the director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in Vienna. In his long and varied career, Mr. O’Flaherty was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) and of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC); he taught at the University of Nottingham and the National University of Ireland; he held several headquarters and field positions in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including in Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In his lecture Mr. O’Flaherty will reflect on the many challenges currently facing human rights – ranging from climate change and the Russian invasion in Ukraine to the risk of economic recession and the assault on democratic institutions including on independent courts, free media, and civil society. How to engage these multiple challenges at a time of widespread scepticism?