Recent Annual Research Day (Toogdag) on effectiveness of human rights

On Friday 21 June, all participants of the event gathered at the Statenzaal of the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University, and were welcomed by a speech from Professor Fons Coomans. An interdisciplinary plenary roundtable followed this, with the aim of clarifying what the panel participants mean when they talk about effectiveness in connection to human rights. 

Two panels were arranged during the day: a morning one and an afternoon one. The morning panel focused on the effectiveness of human rights and implementation at the domestic level. The panel occurred in two parallel sessions, which both consisted of two PhD researchers presenting their work, and a representative of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights introducing the work of the NIHR. In the first parallel session, the PhD researchers Elif Durmus and Bart Kleine Deters presented their work, and the NIHR presentation was given by Professor Nicola Jägers. In the second parallel session, the presenting PhD researchers were Nikolaos Papadopoulos and Renata da Silva Athayde Barbosa, and Dr. Jan-Peter Loof gave the NIHR presentation. 

After a lunch break, the afternoon session was opened. The theme of this session was ‘human rights at the individual level: individual experiences and key actors’. The first presentation was given by the Leiden University Assistant Professors Stephanie Rap and Katrien Klep, on the topic of child participation in legal proceedings. Subsequently, Elif Durmus presented the work of the Cities of Refuge project, concerning the role of individual agency of local government officials in the materialization of human rights at the local level. The day was completed with a closing keynote speech by Professor Suzanne Egan who in an extensive and eloquent way analysed the notion of effectiveness of human rights.”