External links
- Raoul Wallenberg Institute of human Rights and Humanitarian Law
- RWI presented by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) is an experienced research and academic institution with offices, programmes, and convening power covering 40 countries. RWI's mission is to combine evidence-based human rights research with direct engagement with international organizations, governments, national human rights institutions, the justice sector, local and regional authorities, universities, and the business sector to bring about human rights change for all. This is done by having a network-based organization that works through strong partnerships with multiple actors at the grassroots and through that bring about a wider understanding of, and respect for, human rights and international humanitarian law.
This independent academic institution affiliated with Lund University was established in 1984 and was named after Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews and other people at risk in Hungary at the end of World War II.
RWI is present in Europe (Lund and Stockholm in Sweden as well as in Belarus and Turkey), Asia (Jakarta, Beijing, and Cambodia), Sub-Saharan Africa (Nairobi) and in Middle East and North Africa (Amman) and operates in many countries across these regions.
Its work focuses four main thematic areas: 'People on the Move', 'Inclusive Societies', 'Fair and Efficient Justice' and 'Economic Globalisation and Human Rights':
This first thematic include researches on Migration and Refugee Law but also on the Displacement of Persons due to Climate Change.
This focus area refers to many different topics such as Human Rights Cities, Poverty issues or The rights for Persons with Disabilities and Eldery People. The idea is to study these topics and reflect on how to make our societies more inclusive and respectful of everyone's rights.
The objective of the Institute with this thematic area is to work with local partners around the world to promote and develop justice systems accessible to all and respectful of everyone's rights.
The 'Economic Globalisation and Human Rights' thematic area focuses on the realisation of a sustainable and fair economic globalisation as well as the inclusion of Human Rights considerations in the process.
To achieve the Institute's objectives uses three main approaches: Direct Engagement on the field, Research and Human Rights Education.
Programme Officers conduct their work on the field in close collaboration with local partners including individuals, institutions and companies. They work in Europe and in Asia but also in the Middle East and in Africa. Programmes on the five continents are contributing with their expertise to implementation and protection of Human Rights standards. The Institute has sometimes also taken the initiative to establish networks between cooperation partners, such as the Southeast Asian Human Rights Studies Network (SEAHRN). There has also been cooperation with the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) and the Asia Pacific Forum on National Human Rights Institutions (APF).
Researchers from many different countries work at RWI to develop a better understanding of Human Rights related topics. Each year a certain number of researches related to topical issues are published. Researchers then often share their findings during conferences and webinars. In 2021 for instance, RWI organised a Webinar Series on the Forthcoming EU's Directive on Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence. Another focused on Poverty and Human Rights and How to Address the Post-Pandemic Poverty Crisis.
Part of the Institute's activities are also dedicated to the transmission of knowledge on Human Rights. In Lund, Sweden, The Raoul Wallenberg Institute hosts the largest Library exclusively dedicated to Human Rights in the Nordic countries. Students can come, read and borrow the books. RWI is also offer a Master's Degree specialised in Human Rights in collaboration with the University of Lund. RWI is also organising an annual Swedish Human Rights Film Festival offering the screening of a movie followed by a panel discussion with international experts.
The Institute is now working with the Pufendorf Institute. RWI has also developed various Blended Learning Courses in Asia.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
Hans Axel Valdemar Corell is a Swedish lawyer and diplomat. Between March 1994 and March 2004 he was Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations. In this capacity, he was head of the Office of Legal Affairs in the United Nations Secretariat.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency is a government agency of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Sida is responsible for organization of the bulk of Sweden's official development assistance to developing countries. According to the OECD, 2022 official development assistance from Sweden increased to US$5.5 billion, representing 0.9% of their Gross National Income (GNI).
Lyal S. Sunga is a well-known specialist on international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law.
The American Swedish Historical Museum is the oldest Swedish-American museum in the United States. It is located in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia, on part of a historic 17th-century land grant originally provided by Queen Christina of Sweden to settlers of New Sweden.
The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States was created in May 1981 to "perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg".
The Raoul Wallenberg Award is bestowed by The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States on "individuals, organizations, and communities whose courage, selflessness and success against great odds personified those of Raoul Wallenberg himself." It has been awarded periodically since 1985, when the inaugural award was given to Wallenberg himself.
The Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation is the foreign affairs ministry of Belgium and is responsible for Belgian foreign policy, relations with the European Union, development cooperation policy and certain aspects of foreign trade policy. The central government in Brussels directs the network of diplomatic and consular representations abroad.
The German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) is a German research institute. It analyses political, economic, and social developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and combines this analysis with comparative research on international relations, development and globalisation, violence and security, and political systems. GIGA advises the Federal Foreign Office and other branches of the federal government. The institute is based in Hamburg and has an office in Berlin.
Guy Fredrik von Dardel was a Swedish physicist who researched particle physics and participated in the establishment of CERN.
Madubuko A. Robinson Diakité is a U.S.-born human rights lawyer and documentary filmmaker currently residing in Sweden. He has traveled widely throughout Africa and currently freelances as a guest lecturer and consultant on African migration, the African diaspora, human rights law, film history and mass media.
The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) is a research institute based at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1986 and promotes human rights awareness, in the field of genocide and mass atrocities by hosting frequent events, publishing policy briefs, engaging in counter activism on the web, and many other programs. Its keystone project is the Will to Intervene (W2I) Project which, under the advisement of Lt. General Roméo Dallaire and MIGS' Director Frank Chalk, builds domestic political will in Canada and the United States to prevent future mass atrocities.
Morten Kjærum is a Danish lawyer, who is the new head of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden. From 2008 to 2015 he directed the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA),based in Vienna, Austria. He is also a former director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights and of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
Cephas Lumina is a Zambian lawyer and human rights expert. From 2008 to 2014 he was the "United Nations Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights", appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. He was succeeded by the Argentine lawyer Juan Pablo Bohovslavsky.
The Icelandic Human Rights Centre was established in 1994 by nine different organizations and actors working in Icelandic human rights field. Centres mission is to promote and raise awareness about human rights in Iceland and abroad, and spread its knowledge to the public.
Elisabeth Gerle is Professor of ethics with a special focus on human rights at Uppsala University and Ethicist at the Research Department, Church of Sweden. She has spent several years at Princeton University as visiting scholar, first at The Center of International Relations and then at Princeton Theological Seminary. Since she returned to Sweden in 1995 she has lived in Lund and worked as senior ethicist and associate professor and lecturer at Lund and Malmö University in Ethics and Human Rights. During 2001–2005 she was dean of the Pastoral Institute in Lund. Her Lund office is situated at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.
The Clemens Nathan Research Centre (CNRC) is a British human rights organisation that focuses on organising international conferences with speakers from multidisciplinary fields, as well as publishing edited books.
A Human Rights City is a municipality that engages with human rights. There are other definitions of human rights city available which are more specific and look at the human rights city from a particular angle. One says that a Human Rights City is a municipality that refers explicitly to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards and/or law in their policies, statements, and programs. Another definition states that a Human Rights City is 'a city which is organised around norms and principles of human rights'. This sociological definition emphasises the Human Rights City as a process to which to a varying degree a variety of agents contribute: from activists, experts and academics to international organisations, state governments, and local authorities and officials. Also, this definition does not qualify human rights as international, based on the fact that cities sometimes articulate human rights in their own charters in ways that have no formal or immediate recognition in international law, and may anticipate their appropriation by international bodies and incorporation into international law. The author claims that this definition captures better the different ways in which cities engage with human rights and participate in their co-production, not simply as receivers but also agents of human rights.
Dr. Sumudu Anopama Atapattu is an international jurist in human rights, environmental and climate change law, and both a Senior Lecturer and Director of Research Centers at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She is an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, an Affiliated Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, and Lead Counsel for Human Rights and Poverty Eradication at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law.
Brigadier general (professor) Dan Kuwali serves in the Malawian Defence Force as the Chief of Legal Services and Judge Advocate General. Dan Kuwali is an author, a Professor of International Law and International Relations at the University of Pretoria and an Affiliated Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University.
