We sat down with Petra Tötterman Andorff, the Secretary General of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, to discuss the United Nations 1325 Resolution on Women, Peace & Security.

This landmark resolution was adopted in 2000 and drew three main objectives: 
-	To ensure women participation in peace agreement processes 
-	The protection of women and girls against conflict related sexual violence 
-	The integration of gender perspectives into peace agreements. 

Twenty-one years later, we discussed its achievements but also the challenges faced today. As the Secretary General of the organisation, Petra also offered us an overview of the role of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation in its implementation.

Why peace agreements tend to be more sustainable when women are involved in their adoption? 
Why women still tend to be excluded from the signatories? 
How to ensure a better implementation of the 1325 Resolution? 

These are questions we are discussing in this podcast. Enjoy!

Credits for the music : Siddhartha Corsus - Winds of Change
Credits for the photo : Viktor Gårdsäter

Mystic Gate: Songs for the Hidden Peak

The 1325 United Nations Resolution on Women, Peace and Security : Achievements & Challenges

Sweden is usually not the first country that comes to mind when one thinks of racism or racial discrimination. Yet, as in the United States and many European countries, it has been part of its history and it is still an issue today. We sat down with Paul Lappalainen, American lawyer and member of the European Network of experts in gender equality and non-discrimination to discuss the Swedish legal framework and how it could be used by anti-discrimination organisations and civil society to become an effective drive for change.

Racial Discrimination in Sweden : Driving Change Through the Use of Law

Campaining Against Racism in Sweden: Interview with Isatou Aysha Jones

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996, Farima Nawabi was a high school student. Suddenly, she was asked to stay home for five years.  Her house turned into a prison for her sisters and her. 
“The prison of our dreams, goals and hopes for a free and independent life. Our only crime was being women in Afghanistan.” 
Under the Taliban rule, Farima was not allowed to school. Her life felt like a living hell. “I was mentally exhausted and hopeless for five years in a row. The shock of losing my education was brutal. I could no longer see the future I had imagined for myself. Even many years later I felt the effects of the Taliban school ban on my life.”  
On 23 March Taliban’s again put a ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan. Listen to this podcast with Farima Nawabi, a former diplomat who worked at the Afghan Embassy in Stockholm until the Taliban takeover. She is currently holding an Afghan Fellowship from Sida as is based at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund during 2022. 
Her research focus is women’s rights in Afghanistan. Stay tuned for more podcasts with Farima!

Farima Nawabi on the Taliban's Ban on Girl's Education 2022

In our latest episode of “On Human Rights” we spoke with Virginia Dignum, a professor in social and ethical AI at Umeå University in Sweden.  We discussed the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence and its connection with human rights. 

In this interview, we cover a range of topics relevant to AI and human rights, from AI itself, misconceptions, and current developments. We discussed areas of interest where AI is affecting human rights, as well as potential problems and friction that may emerge as AI becomes ever-more relevant to the ways our society functions. 

Professor Dignum is the Wallenberg Chair on Responsible Artificial Intelligence a Scientific Director of WASP-HS (Humanities and Society). Her research is focused on the overlap between people, organizations, and technology. She is also associated with the faculty of Technology Policy and Management at Delft University of Technology.

AI and Human Rights

The right to housing is a human right that is critical to a person’s health, dignity, safety, inclusion and contribution to their community. According to the UN Special Rapporteur, courts must protect both negative and positive housing rights guaranteed by these international instruments.

In this podcast you will access insight from the global director of the Shift, Leilani Farha, a UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing.

The right to housing - Leilani Farha

Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days. Most of us do not reflect much about what it does. Nevertheless, it is a part of our lives. We do get a lot of help from AI systems and the benefits are many. AI is fast, accurate, has a low cost and works around the clock.

Artificial intelligence is a part of our infrastructure and helps with a vast number of things such as administration of justice (it assists in court with bail or pre-trial detention, sentencing), law enforcement (‘predictive policing’), healthcare (health risk, prevention, cures, cutting-edge research), and education (admissions to schools and universities, personalised education, feedback and engagement).

It assists social security and social welfare (detecting fraud, checking entitlements and criteria for qualification), environment (systems for agriculture, irrigation, climate change challenges) and smart cities (waste management, mobility, traffic, air and water quality, safety and security of public places). (Sue Anne TEO, PhD Fellow, Center for Comparative European and Comparative Legal, Studies (CECS), Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen.)

“As a sociotechnical system, AI is embedded within society. Values and worldviews are baked into the design and development of emerging technologies. In turn, these values are reflected in technological tools that we use. There are consequences for society, such as discrimination”, says Sue Anne Teo, who looks into the challenges posed by AI systems to the foundations of human rights.

She undertakes her research using a meta-theoretical framework, looking at threats to human rights foundations from conceptual, contextual (social and material existence conditions) and normative aspects.

AI can have negative implications on human rights and concerns should be acknowledged. In this podcast, we talk to Sue Anne Teo about what AI is, how we usually define AI and what the benefits of AI are. We also talk about ethical challenges vis-à-vis AI and human rights.

Sue Anne Teo highlights the importance of ethics, the prevention of AI-caused negative impacts on human rights, and explores actions policymakers and legislators are taking.

AI ethics and human rights challenges

On the occasion of this auspicious day, we met with Tyson Nicholas and Julia Dalman to discuss the issue of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV).

Tyson Nicholas is currently the Staff Officer Gender, Peace and Security in the Royal Australian Navy. He has previously served as the Military Expert on Investigations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the UN Department of Peace Operations and will soon commence another period of seconded service as the Strategic Military Advisor within UN Women. He graduated from the LLM in International Human Rights Law at Lund University in 2019. (www.linkedin.com/in/tyson-nicholas-898b00153)

Julia Dalman is a legal analyst at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM). She graduated from the International Human Rights LLM at Lund University in 2021.
( www.linkedin.com/in/julia-dalman-846b16146)

Our conversation is to be released in a two-parts podcast series.

In the first episode (released on the 25th of November 2022), Julia and Tyson offered an introduction to CRSV. After defining CRSV and explaining how it differs from Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), the discussion moved on to the significance of the association of CRSV with the terms ‘tactic of warfare’. Following, Julia and Tyson talked through the different paths for prosecution at both national and international level

On Human Rights - Conflict-related Sexual Violence - Part 1

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the 16 Days Campaign against SGBV, we met with Tyson Nicholas and Julia Dalman to discuss the issue of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV).

Tyson Nicholas is currently the Staff Officer Gender, Peace and Security in the Royal Australian Navy. He has previously served as the Military Expert on Investigations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the UN Department of Peace Operations and will soon commence another period of seconded service as the Strategic Military Advisor within UN Women. He graduated from the LLM in International Human Rights Law at Lund University in 2019. (www.linkedin.com/in/tyson-nicholas-898b00153)

Julia Dalman is a legal analyst at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM). She graduated from the International Human Rights LLM at Lund University in 2021.
( www.linkedin.com/in/julia-dalman-846b16146)

Our conversation is to be released in a two-parts podcast series. This is the second episode.

On Human Rights - Conflict Related Sexual Violence - Part 2

Richard Bennett - Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.

Morten Koch Andersen, expert on human rights and corruption explains

Morten Koch Andersen - The nexus between human rights and corruption

Marthe is a Cameroonian human rights, gender and peace activist. Since the 1990s, she has worked to prevent and fight sexual violence against children. She founded her organization ALDEPA in 1998, where she supports the well-being of girls through education, bro-bono legal assistance and psychosocial care. In 2019 she was awarded the Right livelihood award for her work in defending the rights of local communities affected by the exploitation of natural resources in Cameroon.

Marthe Wandou - On her work as a gender and peace activist

Alyn Ware is a peace educator and nuclear disarmament consultant from New Zealand. In 2009, he received the Right Livelihood Award for his vast efforts to promote peace education and disarmament.
The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” is an international award given annually to honor individuals, organizations, and movements that have made significant contributions to the promotion of social justice, sustainable development, and environmental protection.

Alyn Ware - Peace Educator and Nuclear Disarmament Consultant

With firsthand professional experience both as a delegate at international forums representing her homeland and in the classroom, Prof. Romero brings a unique perspective to the Maritime Law and Policy Specialisation. She lectures on International Organisations and Maritime Conventions, the Law of the Sea, and the Protection of the Marine Environment and oversees these courses. In addition, she organises the annual Moot Court Competition, which focuses on current issues of the Law of the Sea, along with a field study trip to The Hague and Hamburg. She has also received an invitation to lecture at the IFLOS Summer Academy, hosted at ITLOS in Hamburg, Germany.

María Carolina Romero Lares - World Maritime Day 2023

Mohammad Abul Ahrar Ramizpoor is an Afghan academic, Peace and Human Rights activist who has served as a lecturer at Kabul University, Sharia and Law faculties, where he completed his BA studies in Islamic Jurisprudence and Law in 1990. He is currently an Afghan Research Fellow at RWI. 

Mr. Ramizpoor is a council member of the Pugwash Conferences organization, the Afghanistan Human Rights Defenders’ Committee, and the Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism. He has been closely engaged in his collaborations with several national, regional, and global organizations on promoting peace, human rights, and analytical thoughts on Islamic Law, Human Rights, free society values, peace, and the market economy. Since July 2007 to 31 March 2022, Ramizpoor has served as a Human Rights officer at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), actively engaging with Afghan civil society groups, human rights defenders, media, and peace activists.

Civic Space in Afghanistan under the Taliban

Neshan’s professional experience includes engagements with Government, non-government, bilateral and multilateral sectors and was a former member of the international civil service. Neshan Gunasekera has a background in international law, human rights, international relations, programme and project management and has worked to promote environmental considerations within the humanitarian-peace-development nexus. He has served as visiting faculty and examiner at several tertiary educational institutions, teaching public international law, human rights law, and humanitarian law. He holds a master’s in international Relations with a focus on Sustainable Development and has completed specialized trainings in various areas including on peacebuilding, conflict transformation and environmental governance. He has supported several clinical legal education initiatives, including moot courts.

In 2020, he was recognized for his continuous work over decades for Justice, Peace, and Sustainable Development, especially in South Asia and Sri Lanka, through his engagements with various global, regional and national institutions by being awarded the H.E. Judge C.G. Weeramantry International Justice Award.

His interests are in furthering principles of international law and environmental law, including specifically the principles of intergenerational equity and Earth trusteeship through educational initiatives to safeguard the integrity of our Earth system. Neshan is married to Bridgette and they have a son, Aryesh Kael.

Neshan Gunasekera - Earth Trusteeship, ecocide and climate action

Ms. Evelyn Adzovi Addor is a Climate Youth Negotiators Programme-trained Loss and Damage Negotiator for Ghana and the African Group of Negotiators. She is a development communications professional and the communications lead at EcoCare Ghana, a right-based natural resources and environmental advocacy non-governmental organisation in Ghana. 

Evelyn is passionate about designing campaigns to increase climate change awareness and influencing climate policy at the local, national and international levels. She is also a trained Climate Reality leader, and a member of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Forest Watch Ghana and the Youth in Natural Resources and Environmental Governance Platform.

Through her work, Evelyn develops and implements stakeholder engagement strategies to safeguard the rights of people living in forest-fringed and vulnerable local communities in Ghana. As part of EcoCare Ghana’s Cocoa Governance and Advocacy Project, she works on protecting the lands rights of Migrant Cocoa Farmers in the Wassa Amenfi East District of Ghana, securing Tree Tenure Rights for farmers and Living Income for Cocoa Farmers in Ghana. As a member of FEMNET, Evelyn works in solidarity with other women across the continent to promote the voices of African Women in Climate Change at the local, national and international levels. She has been active in the youth climate space in Ghana, enhancing youth voices and has been instrumental in youth-led campaigns in Ghana such as the Anti-Coal Campaign, Renewable Energy for Communities, Climate Strikes, and Save Atewa Forest Campaign among others

Evelyn Adzovi Addor on Communication and Climate Negotiations in Ghana

In this podcast we talk with a human rights activist within the Women! Life! Freedom! movement about Narges Mohammadi and her lifelong work. She is the Iranian human rights activist that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 on Sunday 12 of September, for her lifelong work and activism on human rights and Women’s rights in Iran. Most of her adult life Narges has been politically active- from publishing a book of political essays and joining the Defenders of Human Rights Center to being arrested multiple times for her criticisms of the Iranian government, her open support of feminist civil disobedience and the abolition of the death penalty in her country. Currently she is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi. A month ago, in October 2023, while still in prison and despite the condemnation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Narges was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”. Yet, her work doesn’t not stop even if she is in prison. Since November 2021 and during the Mahsa Amini protests in 2022, Narges has published multiple reports on the life conditions in Evin Prison and the human rights breaches that solitary confinement imposes. Her latest book “White Torture” centred around solitary confinement, has been translated to German, titled “Women! Life! Freedom!” and published this year.

Women, life, freedom: talking to an activist on Nobel Peace Prize 2023 winner Narges Mohammadi

Mahmouda Sonia Eqbal is a Research Fellow at RWI Afghanistan Programme shares insights on her latest research report titled "Afghan constitutions and the placement of education." shedding light to women and girl´s education in Afghanistan.

Mahmouda Sonia Eqbal - Shedding light to women and girls education in Afghanistan.

Matthew Scott is senior researcher and leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He is also adjunct senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Lund University. His work focuses on integrating social science perspectives with international legal standards to promote context-sensitive, human rights-based law, policy and practice relating to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. His primary area of expertise concerns migration and displacement in the context of disasters and climate change, on which he has published a monograph entitled Climate Change, Disasters and the Refugee Convention (CUP 2020), an edited volume entitled Climate Change, Disasters and Internal Displacement in Asia and the Pacific: A Human Rights-Based Approach (Routledge 2021) and a range of book chapters and academic articles. Current research interests concern the role of local authorities in addressing climate- and disaster-related migration and displacement. Read more on RWI s work on climate change adaptation here: https://rwi.lu.se/human-rights-and-the-environment-2/

Matthew Scott on Human Mobility and Climate Change Adaptation

Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is Leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area and senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Her work unites legal analysis and sustainability science for examining environmental and human rights governance challenges and innovative levers to address them. She has bridged the human rights and biodiversity “communities of practice” through leading research such in the Biodiversa project on safeguarding ecosystems and human rights through law and regulation. Read more here: https://rwi.lu.se/human-rights-and-the-environment-2/

Connecting the dots between biosphere defenders, women's rights and just transitions

Hanifa Girowal was a young female politician, and human rights advocate who served as Kabul’s deputy governor on socio-economic and development affairs, managing development and funding projects, mitigating conflicts, and providing essential services to Kabul residents.

Previously, she worked with the Afghanistan Independent human rights commission (AIHRC), where she contributed to creating the independent human rights and gender units in Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). She published the first report on the situation of Afghan women in ANDSF, bringing a dramatic change in the situation of women serving in the police, intelligence, and armed forces, from a rise in their pay to help them get access to professional development programs that qualified them to obtain leadership positions.

Hanifa is also a managing partner and senior advisor to Alpha Afghanistan, a non-profit organization that is working to help young Afghan innovators and social thinkers to turn their ideas into actions to foster social change in the country through technology. Girowal holds a master’s degree in public international law from Brunel University London, which she acquired through Chevening Scholarship. Hanifa has also served as a trainer on Women’s leadership, Good Governance, and Sustainable development goals with the United Nations Institute for training and research (UNITAR).”

Hanifa Girowal - Women's Rights Violations in Afghanistan and the Need for Accountability

She is a Pakistani activist, entrepreneur, writer, and disability rights advocate, known for her efforts to promote inclusivity and equality for people with disabilities in Pakistan. Tanzila Khan has been actively involved in raising awareness about the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and working towards creating a more accessible and inclusive society. She has also gained recognition for her writing, using her platform to address social issues and advocate for positive change.
 
She founded Girlythings.pk for menstrual kits in Pakistan. At 16, she wrote 'A Story of Mexico,' funding community projects. Through Creative Alley and "Iwish," she supports SDGs. Recognized with awards, she made the film "FruitChaat" and launched "Brain Masala," Pakistan's first accessible podcast. In May 2022, she won the Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award in London.

Tanzila Khan- On Activism, Entrepreneurship and Disability

Mr. Vishal Prasad is the Campaign Director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, a youth-led organization campaigning for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate change and human rights. He is from Suva, Fiji, and has studied international politics and law at the University of the South Pacific. He has been part of the ICJ advisory opinion movement since 2019 and is also part of the global ICJ advisory opinion movement under the World’s Youth for Climate Justice. As part of the ICJ advisory opinion campaign, he has a strong focus on securing the Pacific youth demands on the protection of the rights of current and future generations from the adverse effects of climate change.

"Jump on Board the Vaka" Vishal Prasad on climate justice and the ICJ advisory opinion

David Cingranelli is a Professor of Political Science at Binghamton University of the State University of New York. He also is the Co-director of the Binghamton University Human Rights Institute. He has written widely on human rights, democracy, governance, and labor rights. He is a champion of the quantitative, scientific study of human rights. He is a former President of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association. He, Skip Mark of the University of Rhode Island, and Mikhail Filippov of Binghamton University co-direct the “CIRIGHTS” data project, which is the most comprehensive and widely used human rights data set in the world. The 2023 Global Rights Report uses those data to show that worker rights are among the least protected of all internationally recognized human rights. 
You can see David discussing on producing indicators of national human rights practices: https://youtu.be/20QAIi1BVI4
And argue that we need national human rights report cards: 
https://academicminute.org/2023/05/david-cingranelli-binghamton-university-the-need-for-national-human-rights-report-cards/
More on CIRIGHTS: https://web.uri.edu/artsci/wp-content/uploads/sites/1132/2023-Human-Rights-report-PDF-Final.pdf

David Cingranelli on Labour Rights and Accountability

Ehsan Qaane was a Research Fellow for the Afghanistan Programme in 2023. Prior to this, he worked with Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy researcher organisation, as a political and legal affairs researcher (2012-2022) and as the country director (2017-2020). He is a member of and adviser to several human rights networks in Afghanistan, including the Afghanistan Forensics Science Organisation (AFSO) and Transitional Justice Coordination Group (TJCG). He has published a vast amount of research on the conflict in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court’s engagement in Afghanistan, human rights and international humanitarian law. He worked as a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court.

Ehsan Qaane on the ICC's Afghanistan Investigation

Anna Bruce, Senior Researcher at RWI, shares insights from her participation in the review of Sweden by the CRPD Committee and her work on Sweden's current implementation of the CRPD. 

-Work in progress version of book chapter in Swedish: Bruce, A, Funktionsrättskonventionen: Fördragskonform tolkning i norm(dis)harmoni, Lind, A-S, Thorburn Stern, R. & Österdahl, I. (red.) (2024). Folkrätten i svensk rätt. Ett nytt decennium. Lund: Studentlitteratur : https://rwi.lu.se/pyramid-publications/funktionsrattskonventionen/ 

-Reports by the students in the Lund Disability Human Rights Clinic on Access to Justice: https://rwi.lu.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/From-comittment-to-reality_Acess-to-justice-in-Sweden-for-persons-with-disabilities.pdf

-The recorded dialogue between the CRPD Committee and the Swedish delegation: 
https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1d/k1df2kmul9 
https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1v/k1vc0oy5na 

-Closing statement from the CRPD Committee after the dialogue between the CRPD Committee and the Swedish delegation:
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCRPD%2FOCR%2FSWE%2F30th%2F36586&Lang=en 

-Concluding observation by the CRPD Committee after the dialogue between the CRPD Committee and the Swedish delegation:
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRPD%2FC%2FSWE%2FCO%2F2-3&Lang=en

Anna Bruce on systemic challenges to the implementation of the CRPD in Sweden

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But is it really universal? A growing number of states are claiming that human rights are incompatible with their culture. 

In this episode of On Human Rights, Jamie Bowd sits down with Professor Emeritus in International Law at Stockholm University and the Swedish National Defence College and former board member at RWI, Ove Bring to discuss how historical examples of human rights practices around the world have contributed to the modern understanding of human rights.

Are Human Rights Really Universal?

In this episode of “On Human Rights” we speak with Dennis Mungo, the executive Director of Youth Alive Kenya, a youth led non-governmental organisation that advocates for and supports youth participation in development processes. We discuss Dennis' work and talk about youth inclusion and human rights in Kenya.

"Nothing for us, Without us!" - on youth inclusion

What is a Human Rights City? Our podcast "On Human Rights" is happy to present a two part special on the topic of human rights cities. Human Rights Cities is growing concept and movement that anchors human rights in cities and local context – in the daily lives of people. But what does this actually mean?

In the first episode, we sit down with our Director Morten Kjaerum to discuss the past, present and future of human rights cities. Kjaerum is a board member of the Human Rights Cities Network and has written and co-written several publications on human rights cities.

Popular tracks by On Human Rights