Introduction

The right to peace is recognised as both an individual and a collective human right in a range of international instruments of varying normative status, including the Declaration on the Preparation of Societies for Life in Peace (1978), the Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace (1984), and the Declaration on the Right to Peace (2017). At the regional level, the ASEAN Human Rights System acknowledges an individual and collective right to enjoy peace (the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (2012) art. 38 and the ASEAN Declaration on Promoting the Right to Development and the Right to Peace Towards Realising Inclusive and Sustainable Development (2025)), whereas the African Human Rights System enshrines a collective right of peoples to national and international peace (the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981) art. 23 and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003) art. 10). Although the Arab, Inter-American, and European Human Rights Systems emphasise the close relationship between peace and human rights, they do not explicitly recognise the right to peace. At the domestic level, provisions relating to the right to peace have been embedded in constitutions and have received judicial protection in several states, such as Japan, Congo, Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia.

At the same time, the ‘sacred right to peace’ (the Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, para. 1) continues to be one of the least developed and most neglected human rights. Over 120 armed conflicts currently unfolding worldwide highlight the extent to which the right to peace is being violated by states and non-state actors alike. There is still no consensus in either legal scholarship or international practice regarding its nature, status, content, and scope, the territorial and extraterritorial obligations deriving from, and corresponding to, the right, or on the relevant duty-bearers. The webinar will contribute to filling this gap. It will address the history of the struggle for the human right to peace, which reflects the ideological conflict between the so-called “Global South” and the “Global North”. The participants will also discuss contemporary approaches to interpreting, institutionalising, and implementing the right in international and regional law. They will analyse the role of the right in promoting peace, decolonising and improving the international legal order, and empowering the most vulnerable individuals and societies. Finally, the webinar will propose ways to advance the right to peace as a universal, high-priority, claimable, and enforceable legal entitlement.

This webinar will be moderated by Dr. Elena Pribytkova and Dr. Maria Varaki

Speakers

Professor Cecilia Marcela Bailliet | U.N. Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity; Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway

Professor Cecilia Marcela Bailliet is the U.N. Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity. She is Professor and Director of the Masters Program in International Law at the University of Oslo. She has a combined J.D./M.A. (honours) degree from the George Washington University Law School & Elliott School of International Affairs (U.S.A) and received her Doctorate in law from the University of Oslo. She has published extensively on transnational and cross-disciplinary issues within international law including general public international law, human rights, refugee law, constitutional law, counter-terrorism, gender/women's rights, solidarity and peace. She has contributed lectures to the United Nations AudioVisual Library of International Law. Her authored and edited books include:  Research Handbook on International Solidarity and the Law (Edward Elgar 2024), The Construction of the Customary Law of Peace: Latin America and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Edward Elgar 2021); The Research Handbook on International Law and Peace (Edward Elgar 2019), Promoting Peace Through International Law (OUP 2015).

Professor Surya Deva | U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development; Professor at Macquarie Law School, Australia

Professor Surya Deva is Professor at the Macquarie Law School and Director of Macquarie University’s Environmental Law Research Centre as well as the B&HR Access to Justice Lab. He is also the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development. He is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of business and human rights and he is a former member of the U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights (2016-22). He has advised U.N. entities, Governments, national human rights institutions, multinational corporations, trade unions and civil society organisations on issues related to business and human rights. Deva researches in the areas of business and human rights, comparative constitutional law, international human rights law, sustainable development, climate change, and gender equality. He is one of the founding Editors-in-Chief of the Business and Human Rights Law Journal and is an elected Vice President of the International Association of Constitutional Law (2022-26).

Professor Hélène Tigroudja | Vice-Chair of the U.N. Human Rights Committee; Visiting Research Professor at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore; Professor at Aix-Marseille University, France

Professor Hélène Tigroudja is a Visiting Research Professor at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore and Professor of Public International Law at Aix-Marseille University (France). She has been serving as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee since 2019. She has published extensively on various topics dealing with human rights and international law. She recently co-authored the Commentary of the American Convention on Human Rights (OUP 2022) and a Treatise of International Human Rights Law (CUP 2025). In 2023, she gave a course at The Hague Academy of International Law on “Armed Conflicts and Human Rights” that will be published in the Collected Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law (forthcoming, Brill). Since 2002, she has acted regularly as an expert for the Council of Europe; UNESCO, and the European Union. Her focus in teaching and research ranges from international law, European law, international human rights law, international criminal law, and international migration law, with special focus on comparative approaches of universal and regional human rights mechanisms; remedies; States’ and International Organisations’ immunities; and the application of human rights in context of armed conflicts and situations of occupation.

Dr. Paidamwoyo Mukumbiri | Lecturer of Law at the Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law, the University of Zimbabwe; Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya

Dr. Paidamwoyo Mukumbiri is a Lecturer of Law at the Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law at the University of Zimbabwe where she teaches masters in women’s law. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, where she teaches modules on women’s rights in environmental governance. She is a practicing lawyer with a focus on commercial, administrative, and family law. Paidamwoyo’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of human rights, as well as gender and the law. In 2023, she defended a dissertation “An Analysis of the Implementation of Women’s Right to Peace by the African Union Peace and Security Architecture: A Case Study of Zimbabwe” at the Centre for Human Rights, Facylty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa. She has had extensive experience with the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) where she has facilitated in training programs on gender and the law for different stakeholders involved in the implementation of women’s rights, such as traditional leaders, police officers in the Victim Friendly Unit, and members of the judiciary.

Moderators

Dr. Elena Pribytkova | Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore

Dr. Elena Pribytkova is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore. She received a Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.) degree from Columbia Law School and is a Habilitation candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Basel. Her main research areas are Human Rights Law, Public International Law, Digital Technologies, Environmental Law, Sustainable Development, Comparative Law, and Legal and Political Philosophy. In particular, she focuses on the role of international law and human rights in reducing poverty and inequality as well as in promoting social, global, digital, and environmental (including climate) justice and sustainable development. Elena has held various research and teaching appointments at leading universities and research institutes all over the world, including Columbia Law School, New York University School of Law, University of Oxford, European University Institute, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg University, Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, University of Basel, University of Michigan Law School, and National University of Singapore.

Dr. Maria Varaki | Lecturer at the War Studies Department, King’s College London

Dr. Maria Varaki is a Lecturer in International Law and Director of the MA in Peace, Security and International Law at the War Studies Department, King’s College London. Before moving to London, she held research positions with the Erik Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights in Helsinki and the Law Faculty of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She was also an Assistant Professor in International Law at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. Currently she is a Research Associate in 3 Generations of Digital Human Rights, ERC project, 2023-2028, Hebrew University, Faculty of Law. She holds a PhD in International Criminal Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, Ireland and two LLM degrees in International and Comparative Law, one from Tulane University, School of Law and one from New York University, School of Law. Additionally, she has worked for the OHCHR in Geneva, the UNHCR in New York and for the Legal Advisory section of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.