Promoting human rights: Dr Kurt Mills

Issued: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:11:00 BST

An initiative at Glasgow is bringing together researchers, practitioners, members of civil society organisations and policymakers to address human rights issues.

The Glasgow Human Rights Network marshals the wide expertise in human rights at the University and elsewhere and contributes to the College of Social Sciences’ themes on justice, rights, security and conflict; and inequalities, inclusion, identities and social change. A key player in the new network is social scientist Dr Kurt Mills.

‘The network is an attempt to harness all the various types of research being carried out in human rights across the University, and also to bring in people from other universities, civil society organisations and relevant government bodies in Scotland who have an interest in human rights issues, to look at common research projects and teaching, and generally facilitate interchange between academics and practitioners,’ says Dr Mills. Members of the network include academics from seven universities in Scotland and organisations such as Amnesty International, the Black & Ethnic Minority Infrastructure in Scotland, Oxfam and the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

In an attempt to identify common groupings of interest among network members, a number of research clusters have been developed in the areas of equality and diversity; security, conflict and protection; promoting awareness and respect for human rights; and theoretical and philosophical approaches to human rights.

There is also a cluster for postgraduate students focusing on human rights to share research and ideas, which will also create opportunities for students to get involved in activities coordinated by the network.