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2024
November 9th, 2024 – Roundtable on international law & double standards
Double standards are pervasive in the international legal system, often highlighted in debates on international peace, climate obligations, and internet regulation. NGOs frequently report discrepancies in how legal standards are applied, documenting when certain actors are held accountable while others are not. These perceptions of double standards have shaped public discourse on conflicts and humanitarian crises in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and Gaza. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has emphasized that upholding international law requires eliminating double standards.
Double standards, along with related issues like hypocrisy and whataboutism, undermine the fairness and legitimacy of international law. Accusations of double standards are especially damaging in fields like human rights, trade, humanitarian law, and international criminal law. They challenge the consistency on which international law relies, erode trust in reciprocity, and diminish the credibility of norms. Winston Churchill and Thomas Franck both noted the dangers of double standards, and despite the persistence of these concerns, there has been limited exploration of their impact on international legal practice.
Contemporary debates, spurred by conflicts like those in Gaza and Ukraine, have revived discussions about the legitimacy and purpose of international law. While accusations of double standards can challenge inconsistencies, they are sometimes politicized by states to deflect criticism, as seen in China’s calls for investigation into Canada’s treatment of Indigenous children and Duterte’s dismissal of the ICC prosecution. Despite their potential to deflect, these claims still highlight the uneven application of international legal norms.
Such accusations have become powerful tools in global politics, used by states to critique the post-WWII international order. For example, Russia and China have invoked double standards in justifying their actions in Ukraine and the South China Sea. Understanding the role of double standards in international law is essential, as they shape how law is practiced and perceived.
This roundtable, part of a project led by David Hughes (University of Toronto) and Patryk Labuda (Central European University), explores how perceived and actual double standards challenge the legitimacy of international law. Previous events have been held at Freie Universität Berlin and the American Branch of the International Law Association, with a major conference planned for May 2025 in Geneva. The University of Ottawa roundtable, supported by the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, will bring together experts from various legal fields for an informal discussion on the impact of double standards on the practice and perception of international law. Participants will explore how these dynamics intersect with political interests and selective enforcement, aiming to foster a deeper, interdisciplinary understanding of the issue.
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October 10th, 2024 – Refugee integration & ‘capabilities’: An informal roundtable discussion with Jenny Phillimore
Questions of refugee and migrant integration have been a focus for both scholars and policymakers for decades. Current events confirm their ongoing relevance: from anti-migrant riots fueled by misinformation, to larger community responses that emphasize inclusion, to polarized electoral debates across many societies – our collective experiences and perceptions of integration have significant consequences.
The term ‘integration’ itself is contested, and in recent years has been re-theorized in ways that emphasize shared responsibility, context, multi-dimensionality, and multi-directionality (Phillimore,Morrice, & Strang, 2024). Recent scholarship and policy frameworks not only recognize that integration is ‘a dynamic, two-way process of mutual accommodation by all immigrants and residents’ (European Commission, 2004), but it also brings a focus to the role of receiving societies in supporting and providing the context for integration and shaping refugee-integration outcomes (Hynie, 2018; Phillimore, 2021).
These are important advancements over earlier frameworks that tended to focus solely on refugees or migrants themselves, and their ‘success’ or ‘failure’ at ‘integrating’. Newer models adopt a more holistic approach, incorporating measures of integration outcomes that extend beyond economic considerations. This interactive roundtable discussion will consider the next steps for theory and practice on integration, building on these recent developments in the field.
One potential area for future work is to articulate a stronger bridge to concepts of refugee and migrant agency – ensuring that frameworks that emphasize societal context also make space for individual agency. The roundtable will consider emerging ideas on “refugee integration capabilities” as one potential bridge, informed by developing work by Prof. Jenny Phillimore – a leading UK expert on integration and Professor of Migration and Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham. The role of community-supported approaches to refugee resettlement and welcome, such as community sponsorship, will also be explored.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own insights and questions regarding the next steps for research and practice on integration. What other concepts or dimensions are missing or underdeveloped, and how can these gaps be addressed?
The discussion will be held in-person under the Chatham House rule to facilitate an active, participatory and candid discussion involving scholars and practitioners.
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October 10th, 2024 – Innovation in pathways to protection: Community sponsorship & complementary pathways
The ongoing global displacement emergency characterised by increasing numbers of forced migrants needing refuge has prompted the exploration of alternative solutions to traditional refugee resettlement programmes. Complementary Pathways and Community Sponsorship have emerged as innovative approaches to refugee resettlement which often involves partnership between the state and civil society and potentially the private sector. These initiatives build on years of experience from Canada in the shape of their Private Sponsorship Programme.
This presentation will focus on the global state of knowledge on Complementary Pathways and Community Sponsorship outside of Canada. Reporting the findings of a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research on these programmes, Professor Phillimore will highlight what is known, identify research gaps and outline a future research agenda.
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February 27th, 2024 – The war in Ukraine & the OSCE: Changing orders in pan-European security
From the Helsinki Final Act to the breakdown of consensus and relevance: The OSCE as a realist ending to a liberal internationalist construct. What are the implications and lessons? The CSCE was turned into the OSCE on the cusp of the ‘end of history’ in 1994. Turning a conference into an organization meant turning a Cold War construction into concrete and practical political commitments, making liberal democracy the foundation of a comprehensive approach to security. As the enthusiasm for liberal democracy has waned across the OSCE (and been plainly discarded by some), the possibility for states to agree on more consensus-based commitments has dramatically diminished. Its consensus-based governance model reaped its benefits during the euphoria following the end of the Cold War. However, it has now locked the organization in a governance game of diminishing returns as a consensus between states has fallen apart with increasingly fragmented state interests. For all states, there seems to be a pivot when international organizations of declining relevance no longer are useful. The War in Ukraine has underlined this shift of the OSCE from a liberal international institutionalist to a realist-driven tool for states. The ‘west’ (or the states west of Vienna) are now willing to bypass the consensus-based governance to achieve (neo)realist aims in using the organization as a direct tool supporting the Ukrainian effort. The recent Ministerial Meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia, 30 November – 1 December 2023, started with the dramatic walkout of the Foreign Ministers from Ukraine, Poland and the three Baltic states in anticipation of the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s arrival, but nevertheless produced a Chair for 2024, Malta, and an additional nine months of tenure for the top OSCE leadership, the OSCE Secretary General, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RfoM), the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The OSCE will continue to limp on in 2024, even if there still has not been any consensus on the budget since 2021. The essential question becomes whether the OSCE, to any degree, can implement its mandate with its current predicaments. The lecture will, in conclusion, outline some possible scenarios for the OSCE in the near to medium term, given potential geo-political developments.
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February 12th, 2024 – The world in crisis: Why a global treaty for the protection of minorities is needed more than ever
This event will feature Fernand de Varennes. He is Adjunct Professor in Human Rights at the National University of Ireland-Galway, as well as Visiting Professor at the Université catholique de Lyon (France) and of the University of Sarajevo (Bosnia-Hercegovina). He also held between August 2017 and November 2023 the mandate of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. He is renown as one of the world’s leading experts on the international human rights of minorities, issues surrounding languages, and the prevention of ethnic conflicts. He has been awarded prizes from Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Poland and has some 300 publications in more than 30 languages.
2023
October 16th, 2023 – Address of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Human Rights Research & Education Centre (HRREC) and the Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution were honoured to welcome Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the University of Ottawa, for his first and only public address in Canada.
2022
Workshop: The African Union at 20: Pan-African Pasts and Futures in Global Politics
The African Union will turn twenty in July 2022, providing an important opportunity reflect on issues of African governance, political thought, and the place of the continent in the wider global order. The founding of the AU was viewed by many as the culmination of the Pan-Africanist movement, as the organisation set out an ambitious agenda for a future of peace, democracy and prosperity across Africa, against the background of global liberal hegemony. Twenty years later, we face a very different political moment, as the African continent faces a host of existing and new challenges, whilst the global order is in transition, as democracy, market-based economics and human rights are increasingly under threat.
In April 2022, the Changing Orders project held a workshop and roundtable at CIPS to explore the possibilities and challenges presented by the changing role of the African Union and Pan-African political ideas in the contemporary world order. It brought together world class scholars on international relations and African politics, based in North America, Europe and on the African continent. The workshop aimed to examine three interrelated themes, first, how has the African Union transformed continental governance over the past 20 years? Second, how have the actions of the African Union and new developments in African political thought changed the way we think about the continent’s place in the global order? Thirdly, what are the new avenues and productive possibilities can we find in these debates to address the current crisis in global order? In exploring these questions, the workshop contributed to scholarly debates about the changing world order and to policy discussions about the nature of continental governance in African politics.
The workshop closed with a public roundtable titled “The AU at 20: Challenges and Opportunities” which featured Rita Abrahamsen, Oumar Ba, Thomas Tieku and Antonia Witt.
More than ever, countries around the world are confronted with the question of how law and policy should respond to the needs of individuals displaced due to climate change and other forms of environmental degradation. What forms of protection are available, or should be available? What is the role of advocates and the legal profession in securing justice and solutions for those who experience these forms of displacement? This workshop will examine these questions in the context of Canada and France.
Speakers: Maître Ludovic Rivière & Warda Shazadi Meighen
Moderated by: Yves Le Bouthillier
2021
February 10, 2021 – Transforming Civil Society: Democracy Promotion and Local NGOs in Zimbabwe
Speaker: Dr. Farai Chipato