International Human Rights Law in a Shifting World: Between Persistence and Renewal
Plenary Panel III
The rise of authoritarianism and democratic backsliding, together with geopolitical fragmentation, erode long-held assumptions about the universality and authority of international human rights norms. The international human rights system stands at a crossroads: how can it uphold its core principles and resist political backsliding while adapting to evolving global realities and emerging demands? This panel will assess systemic pressures confronting the human rights regime in times of declining trust in multilateral institutions as well as opportunities for renewal of the human rights regime in a rapidly changing global order. How can human rights institutions adapt without compromising core values, and how can international human rights law reconcile legitimacy and effectiveness in this turbulent era? What is the impact on global and regional human rights institutions and courts, and what is their response?
Convenor
Gerd Oberleitner is professor of international law, UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Human Security and Director of the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy at the University of Graz. He worked in the Austrian Foreign Ministry and was Lecturer at LSE’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights, and was Visiting Professor at the universities Québec à Montréal, Addis Ababa, Prishtina, Ljubljana, Rutgers, Antwerp, and DAAD Visiting Professor at the University of Bochum. He is co-editor of the European Yearbook of Human Rights. Publications include Blurring Boundaries - Human Security and Migration (Brill 2017), Human Rights in Armed Conflict: Law, Practice, Policy (CUP 2015), International Human Rights Institutions, Tribunals and Courts (Springer 2018), and Research Handbook on International Law and Human Security (Edward Elgar 2022).
Panelists
Violeta Moreno-Lax is the inaugural Wübben Foundation Professor of International Law and the Director of the Hertie School’s Centre for Fundamental Rights. She is also a Full Professor of Law at Queen Mary University of London (on leave), where she leads the (B)OrderS Centre for the Legal Study of Borders, Migration, and Displacement. She is also a Visiting Professor of the College of Europe and a legal adviser and founding member of the de:border / / migration justice collective, focusing on strategic litigation. Previously, she held the ICREA Research Professorship in International and European Law at the University of Barcelona. Moreno-Lax has published extensively in international and EU law at the intersection with migration and human rights. As a leading expert in these fields, she regularly consults for UN agencies, the EU institutions, and other organisations. Her work has been cited by senior courts, including the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Belgian Conseil d’État. She sits on the Editorial Boards of the European Journal of Migration and Law and the International Journal of Refugee Law
Lauri Mälksoo is Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu in Estonia. He is member of the Institut de Droit International and of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. He has published widely on the history and theory of international law, especially in East European and Eurasian contexts. He is the author of a recent monograph "Russia, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Continuity in International Law" (OUP, 2025) and is co-editor in chief of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law (De Gruyter Brill).
Hélène Tigroudja is Professor at Aix-Marseille University (France) and Visiting Professor of Public International Law at CIL - NUS (Singapore). Since 2019, she has served as a Member of the UN Human Rights Committee (surpervisory body of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and in 2025, she was elected as its Vice-Chair. She publishes extensively in public international law and international human rights law. She recently published her collected Course at the Hague Academy of International Law on « Armed Conflicts and International Human Rights Law » (Brill, 2025) and she co-authored International Rights Law - A Treatise (CUP, 2025).
Gentian Zyberi is the Head of Department (2025-2027) and Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. Professor Zyberi has been a member of the UN Human Rights Committee (2019-2022) and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, the Netherlands (2016-2028). He has served as chair (2025-2026) and member (2023-2028) of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. His over 20 years’ academic career includes working at universities in the Netherlands, Norway, Kosovo, North Macedonia, China, the US, and Albania. Professor Zyberi has also practised before international courts and tribunals, including the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice.