Helen Duffy
Helen Duffy currently runs Human Rights in Practice, an international law practice that represents victims in strategic litigation before European, African and Inter-American and international human rights courts and bodies. She is the Gieskes Professor of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the University of Leiden, where she teaches courses on terrorism, human rights and humanitarian law, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow. She has an LL.B. Hons (Glasgow,) LL.M. (University College London) and Ph.D. (Leiden). Helen was formerly the Legal Director of the Centro para Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos Guatemala, Counsel to Human Rights Watch on International Justice, legal officer in the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Legal Director of INTERIGHTS. For more than twenty years, she has been involved in groundbreaking litigation and advocacy relevant to discussions on the course. These include accountability for rendition and torture (Abu Zubaydah v. Poland and Lithuania before the European Court), judicial independence and accountability (Garzon v. Spain before the UN Human Rights Committee), slavery and trafficking (Hadijatou Mani v. Niger before the ECOWAS court) and genocide (Plan de Sanchez v. Guatemala in the Inter-American system). Her books and publications include ‘The War on Terror on the Framework of International law (2nd ed., Cambridge 2015) and ‘Strategic Human Rights Litigation’ (Hart 2018).
Currently Teaching
International Justice for Human Rights Violations (LAW-725R-001)
Selected Works
‘The War on Terror on the Framework of International law (2nd ed., Cambridge 2015) and ‘Strategic Human Rights Litigation’ (Hart 2018)
Areas of Specialization
- International/Comparative Law
- International Litigation on Human Rights
- International Human Rights/Humanitarian Law