Human Rights Speaker Series: Towards a new approach to National and Human Security

Please join us for the latest Human Rights Speaker Series, hosted by the University of Essex Human Rights Centre and the Essex Armed Conflict and Crisis Hub which will be presented by Hina Shamsi, Director of the ACLU's National Security Project and chaired by Professor Noam Lubell, School of Law, University of Essex.

Towards a new approach to National and Human Security

After four tumultuous and gruelling years, the United States is transitioning to a new presidency. It is also approaching the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Two decades on and with the shockwaves of the Trump presidency still being felt, Hina Shamsi will discuss where things stand on key human rights issues that defined the U.S. post-9/11 era, and what needs to change.  

Hina Shamsi

Hina Shamsi is the director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, which is dedicated to ensuring that U.S. national security policies and practices are consistent with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human rights. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, the National Security Project strives to ensure that people are able to participate fully in civic life and are free from discrimination, unwarranted suspicion and surveillance, unlawful force and detention, and the injustices and stigma that result from these abuses in the name of U.S. national security.

Ms Shamsi is also a Lecturer in Law at Columbia University Law School. She previously worked as a staff attorney in the National Security Project and was the acting director of Human Rights First's Law & Security Program. She also served as senior advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.

Professor Noam Lubell

Noam Lubell is a Professor in the School of Law, University of Essex, and is the Director of the Essex Armed Conflict and Crisis Hub. He was Head of the Law School from January 2014 until January 2017. Professor Lubell held the Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law at the Geneva Academy 2013-2019, and from 2010 to 2018 he was the Rapporteur of the International Law Association's Committee on the Use of Force.

During his research leave in 2017-2018, Professor Lubell was a Visiting Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the USA. Professor Lubell is the author of the book 'Extraterritorial Force Against Non-state Actors' (Oxford University Press), and co-author of the recent ICRC and Geneva Academy ‘Guidelines on Investigating Violations of International Humanitarian Law’.