Human Rights Speaker Series: Localising Human Rights: Campaigners’ experiences

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.

HRC Speaker Series: Localising Human Rights: Campaigners’ experiences 

Using international law as a reference point, campaigners and community groups in the UK and internationally are vernacularising human rights; in other words, they are building on lived experience to acknowledge local narratives while remaining loyal to the global pillars human rights are built upon. Localising human rights consists in connecting international human rights law with local activism in a way that reinforces both spheres, but puts the centre of gravity of human rights action and research at the local level.

Localising human rights encourages us to expand and develop a model of human rights advocacy from the ground up, reflecting lived experiences and amplifying local narratives to trigger hope and change. This event will be an opportunity to learn directly from local campaigners and advocates about their work monitoring social rights locally, raising the voices of families living in poverty, and successfully preventing the closure of public libraries.

Speakers

Diana Skelton is in the National Coordination Team of All Together in Dignity Fourth World UK (ATD Fourth World) and on the editorial board of the Journal of Poverty and Social Justice. She is the author of Artisans of Peace Overcoming Poverty: Defending Human Rights and the editor of How Poverty Separates Parents and Children: A Challenge to Human Rights. She has spoken on human rights and poverty to the Human Rights Commission of Ireland and contributed an article on "Redressing the Human Rights Debt" to Penia and Poros (Pio Manzu International Research Centre).

Katy Vargas is a lone parent who depended on libraries but who had never been an active campaigner before. The threat of closure was a tipping point that spurred her into action, and she has since been involved in all aspects of the SOLE campaign.

Andy Abbott was part of the SOLE organising group for its mass protests at County Hall, and he is also part of its media team. He has been referred to as a "veteran campaigner", having previously organised protests from opposing the arms trade, to the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. More recently he played a leading role in successful campaigns in Chelmsford against the closure of Broomfield A&E and plans to criminalise homeless people via a Public Space Protection Order. He is also an alum of the University of Essex, graduating with a History degree in 2007.

Lyle Barker is a Research Officer at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre and Law School, providing human rights research under the project Human Rights Local. He is an alum of the LLM in International Human Rights Law programme (2020-2021), where he was also a member of the Human Rights Centre Clinic. Lyle is also the Human Rights Officer at Just Fair, leading on its next phase of social rights movement building and community work. Lyle is the co-author of Poverty and Social Rights in Essex (University of Essex Human Rights Centre and School of Law 2022).

Chair:

Dr Koldo Casla is a Lecturer in the Law School, the Director of the Human Rights Centre Clinic, and the project lead of Human Rights Local. For more information about the project, visit the website