In Conversation with Prof. William A. Schabas: The International Legal Order’s Colour Line

Professor William A. Schabas will be joined by Dr Maria Varaki for a discussion of Professor Schabas’ new book, ‘The International Legal Order’s Colour Line’. The book charts the development of regulation on racism and racial discrimination at the international level, principally within the United Nations. Most notably, it outlines how these themes gained traction once the Global South gained more participation in international law-making after the First World War. It challenges the narrative that human rights are a creation of the Global North by focussing on the decisive contributions that countries of the Global South and people of colour made to anchor anti-racism in international law.

Speaker Bios

Professor William A. Schabas: Professor of International Law at Middlesex University London and distinguished visiting faculty at Sciences Po in Paris. He further holds the titles of professor emeritus at Leiden University and University of Galway. He is honorary chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, and was a member of Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2002-2004), chairman of Human Rights Council fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict (2014-2015), and prepared quinquennial reports on the death penalty for the United Nations Secretary-General in 2020, 2015, and 2010. He is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of Royal Irish Academy, and holds several honorary doctorates.

Dr Maria Varaki: Lecturer in International Law at the War Studies Department, King's College London, and co-director of the War Crimes Research Group. Before moving to London, she has held posts at the Erik Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights in Helsinki, Kadir Has University in Istanbul, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the iCourts Centre at the University of Copenhagen. Additionally, she has worked for the OHCHR in Geneva, the UNHCR in New York and the Legal Advisory section of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Since November 2017, she is a member of the ILA Committee on Human Rights in times of emergency.