The Centre for Fundamental Rights cordially invites you to attend the 2026 Annual Keynote Conversation on “The Reach of Rights”
At a time when the rules-based international order appears to be crumbling, this event brings together leading voices in human rights adjudication to discuss how apex courts around the world and UN Treaty Bodies interpret the application of human rights beyond national borders. This is a hotly debated issue, particularly in situations where it is unclear whether and how far these protections extend. The conversation will consider key world challenges such as armed conflict, global security, climate change, and migration, and reflect on questions of power, State obligations, and accountability at national, regional, and global levels. Speakers will examine the effects and limitations of current trends in these domains, comparing approaches and contemplating on potential future directions.
Special attention will be paid to key recent decisions, including S.S. And Others v. Italy (migration control), Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal (climate litigation), Ukraine and The Netherlands v. Russia (war) by the European Court of Human Rights; A.S. And Others v. Italy (rescue at sea) and General Comment No 36 on the Right to Life by the UN Human Rights Committee; the new Advisory Opinion on Climate Change by the International Court of Justice, building on Advisory Opinion No 32/2025 by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; and the Judgment of 19 May 2020 - 1 BvR 2835/17 (foreign surveillance) by the German Constitutional Court.
The event is part of the Distinguished Lectures series hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.
Speakers
Ivana Jelić has been a Judge at the European Court of Human Rights since July 2018. She is Section I President and Vice-President of the Court. Prior to joining the Court, she was professor of public international law and human rights at the University of Montenegro. She studied law in Montenegro, Serbia and the US, specializing in public international law and international human rights law. She has held visiting professor positions at universities throughout Europe and beyond. In 2015, she became a member of the Legal Sciences of Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts. Before becoming a Judge, she held a series of expert positions in international organizations, such as a member and Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Committee, and a Gender Equality Rapporteur and Second Vice Chair at the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. She teaches master courses in the area of European human rights protection at the Europa Institut of the University of Saarland. Her recent publications are focused on gender equality, ECHR as a living instrument and the rule of law.
Andreas L. Paulus has been holding the chair for public law, in particular international law, at the Georg-August University of Göttingen since 2006. From 2010 to 2022, he served as a justice of the German Federal Constitutional Court, where he was the rapporteur, for, among other matters, freedom of art, right of inheritance, intellectual property, guardianship law, gambling law, as well as non-tax levies and local taxes. Currently, he serves as a substitute member of the Venice Commission for Democracy through Law. His publications deal, inter alia, with the theory of international law, the law of the United Nations, international jurisdiction, human rights, foreign relations law and international criminal law. Among his numerous appointments, he is a member of Advisory Board of Friedens-Warte, the Israel Law Review, and the Minerva Center for Human Rights in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Hélène Tigroudja is Professor at Aix-Marseille University (France) and Visiting Professor of Public International Law at CIL - NUS (Singapore). Since 2019, she has served as an Independent Expert of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in charge of the supervision of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2025, she was elected Vice-Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee and Rapporteur of the General Comment No. 38 on the Freedom of Association (Article 22 of the ICCPR). For several years, she has also served as lead expert for UNESCO missions on Protection of the Safety of Journalists and the Role of the Judiciary. She is the co-Director of the Masters 2 Humanitarian Action and Law and co-director of the Legal Clinic of Human Rights (Aix-Global Justice). She publishes extensively in public international law and international human rights law. In this regard, she recently published her collected Course at the Hague Academy of International Law on « Armed Conflicts and International Human Rights Law » (Brill, 2025) and she co-authored International Rights Law - A Treatise published by Cambridge University Press (2025)).
Moderator
Violeta Moreno-Lax is the inaugural Wübben Foundation Professor of International Law and the Director of the Hertie School’s Centre for Fundamental Rights. Before joining the Hertie School, she was a Full Professor of Law at Queen Mary University of London, where she served as founding Director of the (B)OrderS Centre for the Legal Study of Borders, Migration, and Displacement. Previously, she held the ICREA Research Professorship in International and European Law at the University of Barcelona. Moreno-Lax has published extensively in international and EU law at the intersection of border violence, global security, migration, and human rights. As a world-leading expert in these fields, she regularly consults for UN agencies, the EU institutions, and other organisations. She sits on the Editorial Boards of the European Journal of Migration and Law and the International Journal of Refugee Law.