91ÉçÇø

The International Human Rights Law Program seeks to continue the legacy of former 91ÉçÇø professors and deans Percy Corbett, John Humphrey, F. R. Scott and Maxwell Cohen. Its goal is to provide focus to research and scholarship in human rights law at the Faculty through the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, which operates a network of teaching, course concentration, research, publication, advocacy training, public education, seminars, public lectures and symposia, and the graduate program in human rights law.

The Program co-sponsors four Human Rights Lectureships of international reputation. The lectureships honour persons who have shown by word and deed how one person can make a difference, and are given by individuals who have helped to advance the cause of human rights and human dignity. Lecturers have included Natan Sharansky, who inaugurated the Lectureship in his name; John Humphrey, who inaugurated the John Humphrey Lectureship in Human Rights on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, who inaugurated the Raoul Wallenberg Lectureship in Human Rights; and Madame Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé of the Supreme Court of Canada who inaugurated the René Cassin Lectureship in Human Rights. The distinguished lecturers who have given the lectureships include Father Robert Drinan, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Alan M. Dershowitz, Richard Goldstone, Martha Minow, Bernard Kouchner, Beverly McLachlin, Stephen Lewis, Philippe Kirsh, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Sally Engle Merry, Shirin Ebadi, Aryeh Neier, and Asma Jahangir.