High Level Panel on the Policing of Assemblies and Human Rights: Freedom of Assembly, Prohibition of Torture and Right to Life

Picture of the High Level Panel Speakers Picture of the High Level Panel Speakers

1 May 2017

The High Level Panel on Policing of Assemblies and Human Rights held on 1 May 2017 discussed issues such as the human rights that are at stake during the policing of assemblies, the challenges posed by specific weapons and the role and potential of the revised Minnesota Protocol. It was co-organised by the Geneva Academy and the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa.

Leading Experts and Practitioners

Panelists included Christof Heyns, Member of the UN Human Rights Committee and Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Pretoria; Nils Melzer, Swiss Human Rights Chair at the Geneva Academy, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment and Professor of International Law at the University of Glasgow; Anna Giudice, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer at the Justice Section Division of Operations (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime); Luís Miguel Ribeiro Carrilho, Chief Superintendent Senior Inspector at the Portuguese National Public Security Police Inspectorate.

The panel was moderated by Ambassador Valentin Zellweger, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations and the other international organizations in Geneva.

Annual Expert Seminar on Current Challenges to Human Rights

This high-level panel forms part of the annual expert seminars series on current challenges to human rights organized by the Geneva Academy and the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa. The 2017 Expert Seminar focuses on the rights affected by the use of force in law enforcement, in particular during the policing of assemblies.