Professor Paul Hunt: Reimagining the Future of Human Rights

Professor Paul Hunt is a British-New Zealand human rights lawyer and Emeritus Professor at the University of Essex. His work has been particularly influential in advancing social rights and establishing the right to health as a practical human rights framework. Paul served on the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights before becoming the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health. He later advised the World Health Organization and served as Chief Human Rights Commissioner of New Zealand. His experiences in Palestine and The Gambia shaped that work from its earliest years. Paul and our co-host, Professor Bert B. Lockwood, also share more than thirty years of friendship through Human Rights Quarterly and the University of Essex. “Human rights are meant to control states, but states control human rights,” Paul writes in his 2026 Human Rights Quarterly article, “Empowering Human Rights for Revolutionary Change.” Paul argues for strengthening human rights from the ground up and placing greater power in the hands of people and communities. At a time when the movement is confronting renewed authoritarianism, Paul continues to look ahead. His vision is not to abandon the human rights framework, but to rethink where power sits within it. It is a call to build on decades of progress while making human rights more responsive to the people they are meant to serve. SHOW NOTES Episode Transcript Here Professor Paul Hunt, University of Essex Human Rights Quarterly Articles: Empowering Human Rights for Revolutionary Change, Human Rights Quarterly Children’s Rights in West Africa: The Case of The Gambia’s Almudos, Human Rights Quarterly Configuring the UN Human Rights System in the “Era of Implementation”: Mainland and Archipelago, Human Rights Quarterly Resources: Articles, Reports, and Media Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, The Lancet Equality: The Road Less Travelled, TEDx University of Essex In Conversation with Professor Paul Hunt, RightsCast Podcast Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health: Mission to Sweden, Uganda, the World Bank and the IMF, United Nations Maranga Mai! Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission