Mr Hanny Megally to deliver 2020 Annual Justice Lecture Hosted by Lawyers for Justice in Libya and SOAS

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Mr Hanny Megally, Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation and Commissioner with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, will deliver the 2020Annual Justice Lecture, hosted by Lawyers for Justice in Libya (LFJL) and the Centre for Human Rights Law at SOAS, University of London.  

The Lecture, entitled ‘Doing Justice: International Investigations and the Path to Accountability,’ will take place online at16.00 BST on Tuesday 13 October. The lecture will be delivered in English and simultaneous translation in Arabic will be available. It is the second in a series of lectures designed to explore questions of justice related to Libya or using Libya as a case study. 

This year's lecture examines lessons learned from past Commissions of Inquiry and the key elements of a successful investigative mechanism to facilitate accountability. This is particularly timely given the increased use of investigative mechanisms to pursue accountability including, most recently, the establishment of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya (FFM). The FFM will document human rights and international humanitarian law violations and abuses committed in Libya since 2016 and ensure the preservation of evidence with a view to holding perpetrators accountable. 

Mr Megally previously served as Chief of the Asia, Pacific, Middle East and North Africa Branch at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Vice-President for Programs at the International Center for Transitional Justice. He has over forty years of experience in the field of human rights, transitional justice and conflict resolution. He began his professional career at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in 1977, and from 1984 to 1994 he headed the organisation's Middle East Research department. He later ran the Ford Foundation's social justice program in the Middle East, based in Cairo, and from1997 to 2003 he was the Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.  

LFJL Director Elham Saudi said: “We are delighted to welcome Hanny Megally to deliver the second Annual Justice Lecture. We're confident that his considerable expertise on this year’s theme will contribute not only to a fascinating event, but to the success of future investigative mechanisms." 

Dr Lutz Oette, Director of the Centre for Human Rights Law at SOAS, said: “Hanny Megally’s forthcoming lecture could not be more timely given the increasing importance of Commissions of Inquiry and investigative mechanisms to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations. We greatly look forward to welcoming him to deliver this year’s Annual Justice Lecture as part of our ongoing conversation and efforts to strengthen human rights protection in Libya and elsewhere.” 

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Register here

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Notes to Editors

• Attendance is free, with a suggested voluntary donation of £10 to support the projects carried out by Lawyers for Justice in Libya. To donate, click here. 
• Lawyers for Justice in Libya is a Libyan and international independent non-governmental organisation and UK-registered charity committed to achieving justice and respect for human rights in Libya through advocacy and outreach, accountability, transitional justice initiatives, research and capacity building.   
• The Centre for Human Rights Law at SOAS, University of London, seeks to advance research and the teaching of human rights law and engages in standard setting and policy-making processes concerning the protection of human rights. SOAS is the leading higher education institution in Europe specialising in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East. With our vast repository of knowledge and expertise on our specialist regions, we are uniquely placed to inform and shape current thinking about the economic, political, cultural, security and religious challenges of our world. SOAS  ranks in the top 50 of UK Universities in the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021 and is ranked joint fifth in the world in the Times Higher Education University Impact Ranking 2020 for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.” 
• This year’s lecture is presented in partnership with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and is made possible with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. The ICTJ is an international non-governmental organisation which works for justice in countries that have endured massive human rights abuses under repression and in conflict. ICTJ works with victims, civil society groups, national, and international organizations to ensure redress for victims and to help prevent atrocities from happening again. 
• The inaugural lecture was delivered by Mr Pablo de Greiff, who served as the first UN Special     Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence from 2012 to 2018, and was appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council as a Rapporteur in the group of experts to advise on the Council’s prevention role. He has lectured in many universities around the world, including Yale, Harvard, Columbia and New York University, and published extensively on transitions to democracy and the relationship between morality, politics and law. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Director of the Transitional Justice Program at the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at the School of Law at New York University.

For more information contact
 

Vesna Siljanovska 
Communications Manager at SOAS, University of London 
+44 (0)20 7898 4135      
v.siljanovska@soas.ac.uk 

Tim Molyneux 
Strategic Communications Manager at Lawyers for Justice in Libya 
+44 (0)7400 995648 
tim@libyanjustice.org