Contemporary Conflicts and International Law: Sudan and South Sudan

This session will be led by experts from Essex Law School and external speakers: 

Carla Ferstman is the Director of the Essex Human Rights Centre and a Professor at Essex Law School. She is a member since 2018 of the Council of Europe's Expert Council on NGO Law (a specialist body that provides commentary and expertise on the regulation of civil society activities throughout the Council of Europe). She is also on the Justice Rapid Response SGBV Justice Experts Roster and on the Advisory Committee of Lawyers for Justice in Libya. Before joining Essex, she was the head of REDRESS, a nongovernmental human rights organisation which pursues justice on behalf of victims of torture and related international crimes.

Lina Marwan Abdulrahim holds an LLM in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from Essex Law School. She currently works with the People's Legal Aid Center, a human rights organisation based in Sudan providing legal services and representation for vulnerable populations. Previously, she worked with Saferworld and the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation’s office in Khartoum, Sudan.

Ebba Lekvall is a Lecturer at Essex Law School. Her main research interests are reparation, transitional justice, international criminal law, indigenous rights as well as international human rights law.  Outside of academia, Ebba worked at Group for Legal and Political Studies in Kosovo and as a case officer/refugee status determination officer at the Swedish Migration Agency. She has also worked as a law clerk in the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Chair: Franziska Fluhr

How to attend

This event is being held in EBS.1.1. It is free to attend, all staff and students are welcome.

If you are unable to attend in person we will also be attend via Zoom (Meeting ID: 920 2724 2115)

Contemporary Conflicts and International Law Series

Throughout the academic year, colleagues from Essex Law School lead sessions on different contemporary conflicts to provide an opportunity for students and staff to discuss a wide range of issues arising in international law. In each session, a specific conflict is highlighted to examine a particular way in which law operates, affects, and regulates conflict.

In this academic year, we focus on conflicts in Ethiopia, Syria, Israel-Palestine, Sudan, South Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Columbia. We discuss issues such as the role of international courts, displacement caused by conflict, transitional justice, Fact-Finding Missions and Commissions of Inquiry, sanctions, intelligence activities, and the responsibility of businesses operating in conflict-affected areas.