The Australian and Brazilian Branches of the International Law Association are pleased to invite you to a livestream event to be held at 9am on Friday 15 January 2021 where Professor Jose Alvarez will discuss ‘What to Expect from International Law from the Biden Presidency‘.

Professor Alvarez will examine the possibilities for US (re-)engagement with multilateral international law and institutions across a range of domains. He will argue that while we will see a ‘restoration’ of the place of international law in US foreign policy, it will be tempered thanks to changes in the world and in the US over the past four years.

 

Together with the UNSW Australian Human Rights Institute, we invite you to join the Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG, Professor Megan Davis and Professor Justine Nolan for a conversation with author John Pace, former Secretary to the UN Commission on Human Rights, about his new book: The UN Commission on Human Rights: ‘A Very Great Enterprise’.

 

When: Wednesday 2 June 2021, 5:00PM-6:00PM (AEST)

Location: Online (Zoom link to be sent to registered attendees)

RSVP: via Eventbrite.

 

About the book

The UN Human Rights Council faces a critical phase in its development. Between 2021 and 2026, the Assembly is due to review its status, with a view to determining, to quote Kofi Annan at its inauguration in 2006, whether its work has ‘so clearly established [its] authority that there would be a general will to amend the Charter, and to elevate it to the status of a Principal Organ of the United Nations‘.

John Pace’s new book is intended to aid the process of review by furnishing, in one volume, the entire record of the Commission and the Council since the inception of UN work in human rights in 1946. The UN Commission on Human Rights: ‘A Very Great Enterprise’ was published by OUP in 2020. Event attendees are eligible for a 30% discount on purchase of the book.

About the author

In the course of a career spanning more than 50 years in the field of human rights, John Pace has worked in a wide range of human rights activities at the international and regional level. He has headed several sectors of the human rights programme and was Secretary to the Commission on Human Rights (1978 to 1994) and Coordinator of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights (1991 to 1993). He also has a long association with UNSW, where he has taught and headed the Australian Centre for Human Rights in the early 2000s. He is currently Senior Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Law and Justice and is a member of the Board of Directors and the Diplomacy Training Program.

We encourage you to share the details of this event with your networks.