The School of Law & Criminology at Maynooth University recently hosted a keynote lecture by Professor E. Tendayi Achiume (UCLA School of Law), on ‘Race, Justice and International Law’. Professor Achiume has recently completely her 6-year term as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, which spanned a momentous period for racial justice movements around the world. She delivered a compelling and wide-ranging lecture, engaging with questions of how race and racism intersect with borders, climate change and global extractive economies. Professor Achiume also reflected on her experiences as UN Special Rapporteur, and the challenges that movements for racial justice and reparations continue to face and navigate in UN institutional settings and beyond.
Professor Achiume spoke to a packed audience, comprised of Maynooth academics and students as well as scholars from other universities and members of civil society organisations, state agencies and anti-racism groups. Professor Eeva Leinonen, President of Maynooth University, and Dr Fergus Ryan and Dr John Reynolds of the School of Law & Criminology provided opening remarks. Professor Achiume’s lecture was followed by a lively Q&A discussion, and concluding remarks from Professor Anastasia Crickley.
Professor Achiume’s lecture was the keynote session for a symposium on ‘International Law and Global Justice: Third World Approaches and Transnational Conversations’ which was hosted across the rest of the day by the School of Law & Criminology, featuring 15 speakers from universities around the world and addressing themes of economic justice, transitional justice and environmental justice.
The events were organised by the School of Law & Criminology with support from the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute (MUSSI) and the Maynooth University Research Development Office. They form part of a wider project entitled ‘TWAIL 2023: Democratizing International Law', supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in conjunction with the University of Windsor Law School, la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Los Andes, Maynooth University School of Law & Criminology, and the TWAIL Review journal.
Dr John Reynolds works and teaches on topics of international law and social justice, and is the Chair of the School of Law & Criminology’s LLM in International Justice masters programme.
