UN Special Procedures: A Critical Analysis

Join us for an insightful Speaker Series on the UN Special Procedures with Professor Andrea Liese. This session will provide a critical analysis of these independent human rights experts and their role in the face of contemporary challenges.

This session will provide a critical analysis of these independent human rights experts and their role in the face of contemporary challenges.
Professor Liese will address key aspects of the UN Special Procedures, including:

• The evolution and current function of these mechanisms
• The expansion of mandates and its implications
• Addressing concerns of bias in appointments and outputs
• Strategies for maintaining effectiveness amidst delegitimization attempts and resource constraints

About the speaker

Andrea Liese is a Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Potsdam. She was a Visiting Professor at the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (2024), the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (2023), the Berlin Social Science Center (2012), and a John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University (2006-7) and previously worked at Humboldt Universität Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, and at the University of Bremen. From 2026 to 2024, she was a member of the interdisciplinary Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe "The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?" (Berlin and Potsdam), examining the role of international law in a changing global order. Prof. Liese has published extensively on the role of international organizations and their bureaucracies, non-state actors, and norms in global governance and in outlets such as Global Constitutionalism, Governance, International Studies Quarterly and Review of International Studies.

Chair: Dr Sophie Duroy is a lecturer at Essex Law School. Her current research focuses on the mutual influence of international law and intelligence practice. Her research interests span public international law, international human rights law, intelligence and security studies, and social science approaches to international law.

How to join us

All are welcome.

• If you would like to join us in person, please book your place via Eventbrite.
• If you would like to join us via Zoom, please register here.