Professor Sigrun Skogly

PhD Supervision Interests

I welcome applications in the broad fields of Public international law;International Human Rights Law; Economic, social and cultural rights; International human rights obligations; Extraterritorial human rights obligations International institutional law
Current or recent topics covered in PhD supervision: The Right to Water as a Human Right. The Implementability of the Right to Water.Foreign Direct Investment and Human Rights WTO.Human Rights and the Right to Health in Thailand. The Right to Participation in Human Rights.Indigenous Peoples and International Law. Language rights of immigrant minorities.International law, internal conflict and the duty to protect.The right to development and poverty. Trafficing in women in international law and the United Arab Emerets. Economic variables and the right to social security.Rights of Women in Pakistan.Discrimination in the right to education - experience from a European settting

Current Teaching

• Public International Law
• International Dispute Settlement
• International Human Rights Law

Profile

Collaboration with research users

Member of the editorial boards of Human Rights Law Review and Nordic Journal of Human Rights

Member of the Steering Committee of the International Consortium of NGOs and Academic Institutions on States' Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations, 2007 - present

Member of the AHRC Peer Review College - 2009 - present

President of FIAN International (Human Rights Organisation on the Right to Food) - 2006 - 2008

An Expert Seminar was organised with the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights around her work on "Extraterritorial human rights obligations in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights", Geneva, April 2005.

Chair of the Board of the Oxford based company Rights and Accountability in Development (2003-2006).

Consultancy work for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2001-2002) on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty.

Consultancy work for the International Council for Human Rights Policy (2002) on human rights obligations in relationship to international assistance and cooperation and economic, social and cultural rights.

Presented her work on the IMF and the World Bank to the World Bank's Lawyers' Forum, 2001

Conference and seminar papers

Selected conference participation:

Presented the 4th Volume of Freedom from Poverty and Human Rights: Law's Duty to the Poor, at launch at the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, 9 June 2010. Conference organiser: UNESCO.

"Extraterritorial Obligations in the Context of Land-Grabbing", paper presented at the conference "The Global Land Grab and Human Rights", organised by The Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Programme, the Graduate Institute, Geneva and 3D, Geneva, 16 May 2009

"Violations from abroad? The role of foreign states and transnational corporations in abuses of indigenous peoples' rights", Paper presented at University of Liverpool, 31 Janaury 2009

"How Relevant is Robin Hood? The Human Right to Health in a Global Perspective", paper presented at Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, 23 November 2008

"State Responsibility, Causality and Transnational Human Rights Obligations", paper presented at the ESF-Exploratory Workshop on Transnational Human Rights Obligations in the Field of Economic,Social and Cultural Rights, Tilburg University 24-26 January 2008

"States and their obligations in a globalised world", Keynote speech at "Human Rights without Borders - What are Obligations for Germany?", conference organised by Bread for the World, Eed, and FIAN, Berlin, 9 November 2006

"Extraterritorial obligations and the national implementation of the right to food", paper presented at the Expert Seminar on National Implementation of the Right to Food, organised by the Max Plank Institute for Comparative and International Law; the FAO; and FIAN International; Heidelberg, September 11-12, 2006. Invited

"Economic Rights and Extraterritorial Obligations", paper presented (with Prof. Mark Gibney) at the conference Economic Rights: Conceptual, Measurement, And Policy Issues, at the Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut, October 27th-29th 2005

"International Assistance and Cooperation and an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights", paper presented at the High Level Experts Seminar on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Organised by the French Foreign Office, Nantes, 5-7 September 2005. Invited.

"Economic Development, Financial Resources, Market Systems: A Right to Adequate Food Approach" paper presented at the International Workshop: Policies Against Hunger IV: Implementing the Voluntary Guidelines. Organised by the German Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Nutrition and Agriculture, Berlin 14 - 16 June 2005. Invited

"Implementation of the Millennium Goals: Human Rights Obligations of Wealthy Countries", paper presented at the conference UN Millennium Goals and Human Rights, organised by Rights & Democracy, Ottawa, 8-9 June 2005. Invited

"Extraterritorial human rights obligations in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights", Paper presented at Expert Seminar at the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, April 2005. Invited

"The role of the international financial institutions in a rights-based approach to the process of development". Paper presented at the Nobel Symposium, Oslo, October 13 - 15, 2003. Invited

"Human Rights at Home or Abroad? - States' operations through International Institutions", paper presented at the international conference entitled "Global Governance and the Search for Justice", organised by Sheffield University, Department of Law, April 29 - May 1, 2003.

"The duty to co-operate internationally through international institutions." Conference entitled "International states' obligations under economic, social and cultural rights", organised by FIAN-Germany, 4 April 2003. Invited

"The Right to Development: Accountability for Whom?" >Paper presented at the Finish Institute of Human Rights, Turku, Finland, on the occasion of the annual meeting of European Human Rights Institute, May 22-24, 2002. Invited

"The Human Rights Obligations of the World Bank and the IMF", paper presented at the conference on "World Bank, IMF and Human Rights", organised by Globus, Institute for Globalisation and Sustainable Development of Tilburg University, CEDAR (Centre for Dignity and Rights) and the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research, 11-13 October 2001. Invited

"The European Fundamental Charter in light of European and International Human Rights", paper presented at the European Communities Studies Association's Biennial Meeting, Madison, Wisconsin, 31 May - 2 June, 2001

"Poverty and Human Rights: a critical assessment of the UN initiatives", paper presented at the World Bank Lawyers' Forum, Washington DC., 16-17 May, 2001. Invited

Selected Speaking invitations:

"Violations from abroad? The role of foreign states and transnational corporations in abuses of indigenous peoples' rights", paper presented at University of Liverpool, 30 January 2009

"Complicity or Impunity: States' responsibility for the human rights effects of their foreign policy", paper presented at Queens University, Belfast, 26 February 2008

"The World Bank, the IMF and Human Rights" paper presented at University of Nottingham, 20 March 2006

Lectures given over two days at the European Union's Master Programme in Human Rights and Democracy, Venice, 20-21 October 2004

"Beyond National Borders: States' Extra-territorial Human Rights Obligations", paper presented at University of Essex, Centre for Human Rights, 19 February 2003

"Globalisation and its discontents: Human Rights and the Challenges of an Integrated World", paper given at University of North Carolina at Asheville, 28 October 2002

"States' transnational human rights obligations", speaking invitation for seminar at University of Liverpool, 29 November, 2001

"Economic and social human rights as part of a comprehensive human rights perspective". Lectures to be given at University of Bergen Law School, November 21 and 22, 2001

Invited to participate at World Bank roundtable on the revision of the World Bank's operation directive on indigenous peoples, Washington DC, 15-16 November, 2001

"Human Rights and Poverty", Guest Lecture at the University of Bergen, 20 April, 2001

Career Details

Sigrun Skogly received her first degrees from the University of Oslo , and College of Europe in Bruges. She graduated from the University of Essex with an LL.M in International Human Rights Law in 1988. Her Doctoral Degree is from the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo . Her doctoral dissertation studied the human rights obligations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund from a public international law perspective. She has worked for research institutions and non-government organisations in the fields of human rights and development in the United States , Norway and elsewhere in Europe. She currently holds a Visiting Professorship at University College Buskerud, Norway.

Sigrun has taken the initiative to create a Human Rights Forum on campus, and is the Coordinator for the International Human Rights Obligations Network (IntHRON). She is member of the Steering Committee for the International Consoritum on Extraterritorial Obligations pertaining to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Research Interests

International Law, International Human Rights Law - in particular human rights obligations and economic, social and cultural rights, Law of International Institutions.

• Universal Human Rights in Practice

  01/10/2007 → 31/12/2010
  Sigrun Skogly
  The project is aimed at exploring states' obligations in relation to economic, social and cultural rights when acting outside their own borders. The project, carried out by a network of academics and ... Read more»

• Extraterritorial Obligations in International Human Rights Law

  01/09/2006 → 01/09/2008
  Sigrun Skogly
  This project will result in an edited book (with Prof. Mark Gibney, University of North Carolina - Asheville) entitled Extraterritorial Obligations and International Human Rights. The book addresses h ... Read more»