The Centre has considerable expertise in relation to the European Human Rights Regime, including at professorial level, and a number of Centre members are currently engaged in research focusing on rights developments in the UK. These include the work of Kim Brayson on discourse theory and rights, Dr Elizabeth Craig on cultural rights, Professor Susan Millns on dignity, Verona Ni Dhrisceoil on language rights and Dr Charlotte Skeet on women’s rights.
Centre members have organised a number of events focusing on the European Human Rights Regime, including events focused on the human rights of minorities and migrants and on the issue of gender equality. We also a number of PhD students whose work focuses on the European Human Rights Regime – e.g. Bugem Galip - Property Disputes in Cyprus and the European Court of Human Rights; Monica Beard - Subsidiarity in the EU after Lisbon: A Feminist Perspective on Victims of Sex-Trafficking and Domestic Violence Victims and Haydar Karaman - The Right of Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Turkey - A Comparison with International Standards on Alternative Civilian Service.
The Centre has engaged fully with the debates within government - both the previous Labour administration and current Coalition government – on the development of a UK Bill of Rights. This raises issues of the retention or repeal of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the role of the European Court of Human Rights. It also raises specific issues surrounding the introduction of a UK Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, and Bills of Rights within devolved administrations. The Centre is particularly well placed, due to the expertise of its members, to engage in, and have an impact upon, these policy debates through research which is both conceptual and more practical. For example, Elizabeth Craig worked as legal advisor to the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights Forum in 2007/8 and Kim Brayson produced a briefing note for the Liberal Democrat Lawyers Association on the Future of Human Rights in the UK considered at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference September 2012. Meanwhile a number of internal events have been held focusing on civil liberties in the UK and on the need for a UK Bill of Rights (and Responsibilities), as well as on the opportunities and challenges posed by current initiatives.
Research students working in this area include Tom Southerden, whose research on the place of legal action in defending migrants’ human rights in the UK is funded under the ESRC/Sussex doctoral training scheme, and Michele Wilkinson on the Effectiveness of Local Local Authority Powers to Evict Travellers from Unauthorised Encampments.