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A Humanitarian Approach to Human Rights: A Roundtable on Palestine & Israel

Register here [1].

Our roundtable will discuss the efficacy of having a humanitarian perspective in a rights-based framework in Palestine and Israel.

About this event

If a humanitarian approach to Human Rights exists, what does it include? If it doesn’t, how can we help to motivate such discussions through our roundtables?

This RoundTable event will focus on Palestine and Israel as a case study in which to explore and discuss human rights issues. Guest speakers will highlight key issues and concerns from their own perspectives and experiences. This will enable audience members to generate questions and discussion points which can then be presented at the Q&A and taken further into group discussion. Breakout room sessions will then explore what was discussed in the first part of the RoundTable and ask the question: how would a humanitarian approach to Human Rights affect the situation in Palestine and Israel? Action points will be generated and noted down to be drafted into a report following the event.

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Please note that the following agenda is subject to change (all times are in BST)

17:30 – 17:35: Welcome and Overview

17:35 – 17:45: Dr Ksenia Wesolowska, Lecturer of International History, Diplomacy and Secret Intelligence, and Co-Director of the MSc in Diplomacy and International Security, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

17:45 – 18:00: Shirine Jurdi, Gender Focal Point for Middle East and North Africa, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)

18:00 – 18:15: Dr Eurig Scandrett, Senior Lecturer in Public Sociology, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

18:15 – 18:30: Sir Vincent Fean, Vice Chair of Trustees, Balfour Project

18:30 – 18:35: Respondent with Dr Jasmine Gani, Senior Lecturer, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews

18:35 – 18:55: Question & Answer/ Discussion Session

18:55 – 19:00: Closing Remarks

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Sir Vincent Fean

Sir Vincent Fean is member of the British Diplomatic Service (DS) 1975-2014, his last post was as Consul-General, Jerusalem (2010-14). Before Jerusalem, he was Ambassador to Libya, and previously High Commissioner to Malta.

Vincent advocates equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, and British Government recognition of the state of Palestine alongside Israel on pre-June 1967 lines. He is the Vice Chair of Trustees of the Balfour Project.

Dr Eurig Scandrett

Dr Eurig Scandrett is a Senior Lecturer in Public Sociology at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. He worked as an environmental scientist before moving into community education, and was Head of Community Action at Friends of the Earth Scotland. He was part of Friends of the Earth International’s observer mission to Palestine and, in collaboration with Palestinian activists, has published on the environmental impact of the settler colonisation of Palestine. He is a trade union activist, secretary of Scottish Universities Supporting Palestinian Students and chair of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Dr Ksenia Wesolowska

Dr Ksenia Wesolowska is a Lecturer of International History, Diplomacy and Secret Intelligence, and the Co-Director of the MSc in Diplomacy and International Security at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Since about 2011 her main research interests focus on questions of the interplay between the study of international conflict resolution and international history. In particular, her research interest lies in the fields of international diplomacy (international mediation, negotiation and diplomatic practice), Arab-Israeli conflict; US foreign policy and the Cold War era. She is interested in analysing the environment of conflict management in ways crucial to our understanding of not only how the conflicts have ended, but also under what circumstances the agreements have been achieved. Her most recent research area is the analysis of the historical and contemporary areas of intelligence – especially the Cold War Turkey.

Shirine Jurdi

Shirine Jurdi has almost 20 years of experience working in the field of peacebuilding and conflict prevention. As per her work at the Permanent Peace Movement and as the GPPAC MENA Regional Liaison Officer, she spearheaded the establishment of the MENA Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security; and establishment of a working group of women and conventional weapons in MENA. Currently, she builds community work through establishing an Early Warning Early Response system in the MENA region. She is a strong believer in cross-regional exchange and the concept of human security. She works to advance more locally informed decision-making on the national, regional and global level. Shirine works to localise global agendas such as Women, Peace and Security, Youth, Peace and Security, the 2030 Agenda on sustaining peace, Responsibility to protect, and Small Arms and Light Weapons (UNPOA and ATT). Since 2003, Shirine is a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Lebanon; currently is the team leader for the Stop Killer Robots Campaign in her section, and acted as the MENA Regional Representative in the International Board (2018-2022). She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Arab States CSOs and Feminist Network. She is also a member of the International Board of the Control Arms Coalition. In 2019, Shirine was awarded the International Young Women’s Peace and Human Rights Award from Democracy. Shirine holds an ABD in Peace and Conflict Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Dr Jasmine Gani

Dr Jasmine K Gani is Senior Lecturer in the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and Co-Director of the Centre for Syrian Studies. She writes and teaches on colonialism, knowledge production, US–Syrian relations, ideologies and social movements, and Middle East politics. She co-edited, with Jenna Marshall, the International Affairs 100th Anniversary Special Issue on Race and Imperialism in International Relations, and is author of The Role of Ideology in Syrian–US Relations: Conflict and Cooperation (2014). She is also co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Middle East and North African State and States System (2019) and Actors and Dynamics in the Syrian Conflict’s Middle Phase (Routledge 2022).