Declarations: The Human Rights Podcast
by Declarations: The Human Rights Podcast
A show about human rights coming to you every week from the Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights. Tune in each week as we explore how the concept and practice of human rights can remain fit-for-purpose and co-evolve with the changing world order, joined by fascinating guests from the University of Cambridge and around the world.
Episodes
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Resisting Algorithms: Human Rights in the Age of Platforms
In a digital age, where content creators are booming, shaping culture, influencing politics, and building entire livelihoods online, we find ourselves in a world governed by algorithms we didn’t design, and often can’t even see. So what does it mean to resist? From viral content that defies the...
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Justice in the Balance: Can the Law Save Democracy?
In this episode, we explore the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) — often hailed as the “conscience of Europe” and one of the most successful human rights institutions in the world. But in an era of democratic backsliding, populist politics, and eroding faith in institutions, what does...
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The Sociology of Humanity: Benjamin P Davis and “Another Humanity”
What does it mean to imagine another humanity in a century marked by war, displacement, and deep inequality? In this episode, we sit down with Benjamin P. Davis, author of Another Humanity: Decolonial Ethics from Du Bois to Arendt. Davis traces shifting ideas of “the human” through the works of…
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Shifting Tides: How the Media Landscape and Press Freedom Are Changing Worldwide
Welcome back to Declarations! In this episode, we’re joined by renowned journalist Kalpana Jain to explore how the media landscape has evolved and how press freedom is shifting across the globe. From the West to South Asia, we unpack the complex forces shaping what gets reported, whose voices are...
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Invisible Chains: How Censorship, Misinformation and Propaganda Shape Stockholm Syndrome in African States
Welcome back to the second episode of Season 9 of Declarations! We are often informed to the terrorising, oppressive and distressing effects of Human Rights abuses across the continent of Africa. However, what happens in the rare cases that citizens don't know they're being abused? By exploring…
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Human Rights and American Foreign Policy with Andrew Preston
Welcome back to Season 9 of Declarations! This season we are looking at the notion of Human Rights and The Polycrisis. In our first episode, Co-host Ed Parker sits down with Andrew Preston, an acclaimed historianof American foreign relations post 1890, to trace the role of human rights in…
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Human Rights Volunteers: Lessons from Due Diligence during Qatar 2022
Join our host, Iman, in conversation with Lucy Amis from the University of Cambridge's Centre for Sport & Human Rights (CSHR), alongside our panellist and podcast lead Shubham Jain, as they discuss the need for mainstreaming human rights in sports, and how the CSHR's innovative initiative, the...
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Advancing Rights Through Protest & Revolution in Syria
Join guest host, Dounia, in conversation with Omar Alshogre as they discuss the relationship between activism and human rights in the context of the Syrian revolution. What is the future of the Syrian revolution? Has it fallen into oblivion? Will Syrians ever succeed in getting rid of a regime...
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Unlearning Gender-Based Violence
Join our guest host, Maryam, in conversation with special guest Salman Sufi, founder of the Salman Sufi Foundation, as they discuss gender-based violence in Pakistan. How can the systemic infrastructure perpetuate such violence, and what can human rights activists do to mitigate these harms and...
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Prisons, Captivity & Justice in India
Join our host, Iman, in conversation with special guests, Uma Chakravarti and Suchitra Vijayan, and our panellist Jigisha Bhattacharya, as they discuss incarceration and its politics in contemporary India, focusing on addressing concerns such as human rights violations, democratic oversight and…
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Protecting the Protector
In the 100th Episode of the Declarations Podcast, Iman is joined by special guest Lucia de los Angeles Diaz Genao and panellist Matias Volonterio to discuss: what can we do about violence against activists? How do we protect the marginalised who raise their voices?
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Politics & Human Rights: With the Politics or Against the Politics?
In this episode of Declarations, our host Iman is joined by special guest Siri Gloppen and panellist Charlotte Abercrombie to discuss global democratic backsliding and its impact on human rights. They evaluate the role of courts in safeguarding human rights and the risks of politicising…
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Human Rights: Of, By, For Which People?
In this episode, our host Iman is joined by special guest Tarah Demant and panellist Tess Hargarten to discuss the impact of Western hegemony on modern human rights and the development of human rights organizations worldwide. This topic is especially relevant at the current moment, when multiple...
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Season 8 Episode 1 - Introducing Horror, Hope & Human
Who are human rights for? Where is the 'human' in 'human rights'? What have we learned about human rights conceptually, as well as in practice, over the last 75 years? In this brief first episode, our host Iman introduces our theme for this season, and gives an overview of the questions we seek…
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Season 7 Episode 9: Prioritising Human Rights in the Green Transition
In episode 9 Declarations host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by panellist Aimee Hobley and guest speaker Kristin Hughes. Their discussion explores the potential human rights challenges raised by the ongoing green transition. Kristin offers insight and expertise on how the multistakeholder green...
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Season 7 Episode 8: Voices from Across the Picket Lines
In this episode of Declarations, Neema Jayasinghe and panellist Isabella Todini sit down with Dr. Lorena Gazzotti, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and Vice President of the Cambridge branch of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) to discuss the right to strike, why lectures...
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Season 7 Episode 7: Women peacebuilders in a conflicted world order.
In our seventh episode, host Neema Jayasinghe joins panellist Yasmin Homer to discuss the work of women peacebuilders with guests Eva Tabbasam (GAPS UK) and Andrea Filippi (PeaceWomen Across the Globe). We discuss the importance of fostering and protecting civil society networks in peacetime and...
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Season 7 Episode 6: The Psychology of Border Violations in Mental Abuse
In our sixth episode, host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by previous podcast host and panellist, Dr Maryam Tanwir. With special guest, Professor Sam Vaknin, the episode unpacks discourses related to the psychology of personal border violations in mental abuse. The conversation questions how borders...
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Season 7 Episode 5: ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’: Poetry and Protest in Iran
In this episode, panellist Clare Francis discusses the interplay of poetry and protest in the Iranian state with Dr. Fatemeh Shams, an activist, award-winning poet, and Persian literary scholar. They explore the boundaries of art and activism in Iran, where successive regimes have historically...
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Season 7 Episode 4: Lawfare: The Modern Version of Warfare
In this episode, host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by panelist Vanessa Dib to discuss developments of lawfare, the power of law being used as a weapon of conflict, with guest Mr. Jason McCue. In this day and age, wars can take place within and outside the traditional confines of borders and...
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Season 7 Episode 3: Privacy for Public Figures
In this episode, host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by panellist Olivia Chen and guest Professor Gavin Phillipson to discuss the legal connotations of privacy for public figures. Professor Phillipson provides a detailed insight into how the law utilises both objective and subjective criteria to…
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Season 7 Episode 2: The policy that never took off: Assessing UK’s Rwanda Asylum Plan
This episode focuses on assessing the Rwanda Asylum Plan - UK’s most controversial migration policy in recent years. According to the proposal, 99 asylum seekers whose claims were declared “inadmissible” were scheduled to embark on a flight relocating them to Rwanda on the 14th of June 2022.…
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Season 7 Episode 1: The Race for Justice in Ukraine
In our first episode, host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by panellist Charlotte Duthie to discuss the contemporary race for justice in Ukraine with guest Dr. Felicity Gerry KC. The ongoing war in Ukraine has recently hit its year-long mark since the initial Russian invasion in February 2022. This...
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Season 7 Launch – Borders and Boundaries
In this first episode of Season 7, we gather our panelists to discuss the topics that will be on our minds this season. From boundaries of activism in the Iranian state to the right to privacy, we’re covering a global range of issues at the cutting edge of human rights advocacy, research and policy.
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Deepfakes and Non-Consensual Pornography
The Deepfake detection platform Sensity came out with a report in 2019 that 96% of Deepfakes on the internet are pornographic and 90% of those represent women. Deepfakes are a modern form of synthetic media created by two competing AI’s with the goal of replicating hyper-realistic videos, images,...
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Artificial Intelligence: The ultimate threat to workers’ rights?
In this episode, host Maryam Tanwir and panelist Archit Sharma discuss the impact of technology on employment with our guests, Martin Kwan and Dee Masters. This area is a complicated web of issues, but our guests have the expertise to help us better understand the stakes. Dee is a leading...
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Freedom of Expression and Internet Shutdowns in Pakistan
In this week’s episode of the Declarations podcast, host Maryam Tanwir sat down with Munizae and Sulema Jahangir to discuss freedom of expression and internet shutdowns in Pakistan, and their implications for human rights in the country. Freedom of expression, attacks on civil society groups, a...
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Biometrics and Refugees
In episode 5 of this season of the Declarations podcast, host Maryam Tanwir and panelist Yasar Cohen-Shah sat down with Belkis Wille, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, and former UN official Karl Steinacker to discuss the collection of refugee biometric data. In summer last year, Human...
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Empathy Games
For Episode 4 of this season’s Declarations podcast, host Maryam Tanwir and panelist Alice Horrell sit down with Karen Schrier, Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Games and Emerging Media program at Marist college, and Florent Maurin, creator of The Pixel Hunt, a video games studio...
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Live Facial Recognition in the UK - The London Metropolitan Police’s trial
The third episode of this season of the Declarations Podcast delves into the topic of live facial recognition. Host Maryam Tanwir and panelist Veronica-Nicolle Hera sat down with Daragh Murray and Pete Fussey, who co-authored the “Independent Report on the London Metropolitan Police Service’s…
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Fortress Europe
In this week’s episode, host Maryam Tanwir and panellist Yasmin Homer discuss the role of technology in the securitization of European borders with MEP Patrick Breyer and researcher Ainhoa Ruiz. It was 71 years ago that the 1951 UN Refugee Convention codified the rights of refugees to seek...
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Predictive Policing with Johannes Heiler and Dr Miri Zilka
For this week’s episode, host Maryam Tanwir and panelist Nanna Sæten speak about predictive policing with Johannes Heiler, Adviser on Anti-Terrorism Issues at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Miri Zilka, Research Associate in the Machine Learning Group at…
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Welcome to Season 6
The Declarations Podcast is back for its sixth season, where we will be exploring the relationship between new technologies and human rights! In this episode we provide an overview of the topics we will be discussing in each of the season’s episodes. Maryam Tanwir, this season’s host, discusses...
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Kathleen Schwind: Water Security and How to ‘Ignite Your Story’
In our final episode of the season we are delighted to be joined by Kathleen Schwind. A 2015 Coca-Cola Scholar, Kathleen focuses her research on the issues of water security in the Middle East and North Africa. She has studied at MIT and the University of Cambridge and joins our host, Muna Gasim,...
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Foro Penal & Macro/Micro-Resistance in Venezuela, featuring Alfredo Romero
For this week's episode, host Muna Gasim and panelist Eddie Kembery speak to Alfredo Romero, one of the founding members of Foro Penal, a human rights organization that won the 2017 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for its work in Venezuela. Beginning with Alfredo’s own story, this episode is…
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Reporting on Human Rights in Yemen with Afrah Nasser
This week, host Muna Gasim and panellist Akshata Kapoor welcome journalist Afrah Nasser for an in-depth discussion on human rights reporting, bias, gender inequity, and more in Yemen and the international community at large. Our discussion this week covers topics ranging from the role of...
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Counterterrorism & Human Rights in Conversation with Tom Parker
This week, host Muna Gasim welcomes guest Tom Parker, counterterrorism practitioner and former UN war crimes investigator, for a discussion about situating the fight against terrorism within a human rights framework. They discuss the power of language, justifications for the use of force, peace...
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Thai Protests & The Fate of the Future Forward Party
This week, host Muna Gasim and panellist Neema Jayasinghe speak with Chamnan Chanruang from Thailand’s Future Forward party about the anti-monarchy protests currently ongoing in the country. Chanruang is a former Political Science and Law lecturer at Chiang Mai University, and has a professional...
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Existential Risk, Climate Crisis & Indigenous Rights with Natalie Jones
For this week’s episode, host Muna Gasim and panellist Eddie Kemberry are joined by Natalie Jones, Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, to discuss existential risk, the climate crisis, indigenous rights, and the ways that all three intersect. Natalie shares insights...
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Human Rights in the Digital Space - A Conversation with Alina Utrata
For this week's episode, we are delighted to welcome Alina Utrata, a Ph.D. candidate in Politics and International Studies and a 2020 Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, whose research focuses on the influence of technology on state and corporate power. She joins our host Muna Gasim and...
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We Need to Talk: Hate Crime Response and Prevention with Alex Raikes
For this week's episode, host Muna Gasim and panellist Ashling Williams are joined by Alex Raikes, the Strategic Director of Stand Against Racism & Inequality, for a discussion on the escalating and pervasive crisis of hate crimes in the United Kingdom. Alex discusses both the long-term…
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Dalit Rights Matter: The Fight for Equality and the Long Road Ahead
Our conversation this week turns to the question of Dalit rights in India, assessing the progress that has been made and what further change must come. To discuss this, we are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar from Jindal Global University. An Associate Professor at the Jindal School of...
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#NoRightsNoGames: The Uyghur Genocide & the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games
This week, host Muna Gasim and producer Sam Baron are joined by Zumretay Arkin, the Program and Advocacy Manager at the World Uyghur Congress, an umbrella organization based Berlin, Germany that advocates for the rights of Uyghur people, an ethnic group from Xinjiang in Northwest China. Despite…
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The #EndSARS Protests, Part 2: Women in Activism, Social Media, and the Road Ahead in Nigeria
This week, for the second in our two-part series focusing on the #EndSARS Movement, we are joined by three powerful activists working to end police brutality and abuse of power in Nigeria: Aisha Yesufu, Vome Aghoghovbia-Gafaar, and Lola Omolola. Our guests share stories about living in fear under...
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The Sudanese Revolution: Women’s Rights and the Power of Social Media
For our first episode of 2021, we return to the 2018-19 Sudanese Revolution that overthrew Omar al-Bashir and his National Congress Party. Joined by Dinan Alasad and Aida Abbashar, the conversation highlights the course of the revolution, the importance of international attention and the…
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We Need to Talk: The Climate Crisis with Daze Aghaji
The topic of conversation this week is the ongoing climate crisis and our urgent need to act. We are joined by the remarkable Daze Aghaji, a university student and high-profile climate justice activist who has fought to combat the climate emergency at an international level. The climate crisis…
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Understanding the #EndSARS Protests, Part 1: Anti-Corruption and Political Power in Nigeria
This week, in partnership with Global Integrity, we are joined by Dr. Jackie Harvey of Northumbria University and Dr. Pallavi Roy of SOAS University of London to discuss the structures of political power in Nigeria and the underlying systems of corruption that culminated in the protests of the...
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“Call it Genocide”: The Rohingya Crisis in Conversation with Dan Sullivan and Tun Khin
In the second episode of Season 5, we are joined by Dan Sullivan, the senior advocate for human rights at Refugees international, and Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK to discuss the situation of the persecuted Rohingya minority in the context of Myanmar's second general...
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Welcome to Season 5
In the first episode of Season 5, the new team of panellists sets the stage for a broader discussion of human rights under threat. Through their experience with human rights issues in NGO work, academia as well as their personal lives, they problematise some aspects of human rights while...
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We Need to Talk: Over-information
In the past few months, online activism has exploded, enabling us to build transnational solidarity and make cross-topical connections like never before. In this episode, we talk about the possibilities and sometimes fraught experience of online activism, the importance of doing due diligence…
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About this show
A show about human rights coming to you every week from the Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights. Tune in each week as we explore how the concept and practice of human rights can remain fit-for-purpose and co-evolve with the changing world order, joined by fascinating guests from the University of Cambridge and around the world.
Hosted by
Declarations: The Human Rights Podcast