From Peacekeepers to Slave Traders: A Lawyer's Journey to the United Nations and Beyond

October 21, 2014 • 12:30 PM • Law School 4045

Anne Gallagher, Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), will give a talk titled "From Peacekeepers to Slave Traders: A Lawyer's Journey to the United Nations and Beyond." This lecture is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, the International Human Rights Clinic and the Center for International & Comparative Law. Lunch will be served. For more information, please visit http://law.duke.edu/news/anne-gallagher/ or contact Ali Prince at ali.prince@law.duke.edu.

Abstract

Human rights are justly celebrated as one of the most successful social movements of modern times. But major fractures have emerged and the credibility of the international human rights system is being severely tested as it presently confronts contradictions and paradoxes that lay bare the fragile consensus on which it is built. Join Dr. Anne Gallagher as she reflects on her experiences inside the U.N. human rights system from 1992 to 2003; a particularly turbulent period that saw the proliferation of peacekeeping; the creation of new institutions including the International Criminal Court; and the shifting of attention to long-marginalized issues such as human trafficking, violence against women, and indigenous rights.  Drawing upon these and subsequent experiences, Dr. Gallagher will discuss how to address contemporary human rights flashpoints—such as religious freedom, the rights of women, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to privacy, and extraterritorial application of human rights—and the inevitable conflicts they generate.

Biography

Dr. Anne Gallagher is a global authority on the international legal and policy aspects of human rights and the administration of criminal justice, particularly human trafficking. She served as a UN official from 1992 to 2003 working with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1998, she was appointed Special Adviser on Human Trafficking to Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In that capacity, she represented the High Commissioner in the negotiations for the UN Organized Crime Convention and its Protocols on Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling. Dr. Gallagher's publications include articles in major journals such as the Human Rights Quarterly and the Virginia Journal of International Law; the official legal commentary to the UN Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking; and the sole legal reference text on this subject, The International Law of Human Trafficking, published by Cambridge University Press and awarded the 2011 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit – Honorable Mention. She continues to advise the UN and is the author of many more UN and ASEAN documents, handbooks, research reports, and training materials on human trafficking, human rights, criminal justice, and the rule of law. Dr. Gallagher is presently leading a multi-year research project, mandated by the UN Crime Commission, focusing on problematic elements of the international legal definition of human trafficking.  In June 2012, she was named a “2012 TIP Report Hero” by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for her ambitious work in the global fight against modern slavery.