Our Networks

The ANESC - RACSE was established in 2006 and brings together academics who focus on the European Social Charter in their teaching and writing. The network aims to promote improved understanding and a more widespread use of the European Social Charter. This is achieved through teaching and publication both within universities and in cooperation with other governmental and non-governmental partners. The Network also constitutes a pool of expertise on the Charter that can provide training on the instrument for public servants, judges, NGOs and unions, and organise academic conferences. The Network coordinates special issues in law reviews and seeks to promote teaching of the Charter in universities.

While independent from the Council of Europe’s Secretariat of the European Social Charter, the Network works in close cooperation with the Secretariat, which has encouraged its establishment and lends support to its activities.

Details of the Network Members and assistant to the network. Details of publications by network members. Professor David Harris, Co-Chair of the HRLC, has authored an article on the European Social Charter which is downloadable in our publications section.

The Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) comprises 25 academic institutes specialising in research and education in the human rights field. This makes it the largest consortium of human rights research institutes in the world.

Founded in 2000, AHRI aims to promote research, education and discussion in the field of human rights. The initiative to create AHRI came from former Director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Nils Butenschøn, with the main purpose of coordinating research projects and applications for research funding, and to organise seminars and conferences.

In September 2009, HRLC hosted the 10th Annual AHRI Conference in Nottingham.

CARA began life in 1933, as the Academic Assistance Council, to assist academics persecuted by the Nazi regime. CARA has provided support and relief to over 9,000 academics whose academic freedom has been restricted by war and repression, from Argentina, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Jordan (West Bank), Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda, USSR and Vietnam. The organisation has supported 18 academics who became Nobel laureates. Renamed the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics in 1998, CARA aims to help university teachers and researchers around the world who are unable to carry out their work on grounds of religion, political opinion or race.

CARA's Grant and Fellowship Programmes form the core of the organisation's work in providing practical assistance to displaced, refugee and at-risk academics. HRLC received a CARA Pathfinder Grant in 2006 to identify appropriate research opportunities within the University for refugee academics and at-risk scholars.

SAR is an international network of universities and colleges that promotes academic freedom and defends the human rights of scholars around the world. It aims to bring scholars who are suffering from discrimination, intimidation or violence in their home country to positions at universities and research centres in safe regions. SAR began at the University of Chigaco in 1999 and relocated to New York University in 2003.

The University of Nottingham is part of the UK Universities Network, a partner network set up by CARA and SAR in 2005 that helps refugee scholars in the UK as well as threatened scholars still in their home country.

HRLC is on the steering committee of the EU-China Human Rights Academic Network, co-ordinated by the National University of Ireland, Irish Centre for Human Rights and funded by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). The first Network seminar, held in May 2009, was made possible as part of a €1.5 million European Commission contract awarded to the Irish Centre for Human Rights. 65 European and Chinese academics, practitioners, NGO representatives and officials came together to discuss access to justice in both Europe and China and the rights of persons with disabilities.

HRLC forms part of the legal experts group, known as FRALEX, which has been commissioned by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in Vienna to produce a number of annual reports, thematic studies, flash reports and bulletins on specific fundamental rights issues in EU member states. Under the European Human Rights Law Unit, reports and studies are prepared by a team of HRLC legal experts, led by Professor David Harris.

The EHRL Unit completes a maximum of 4 UK-specific thematic studies annually on specific fundamental rights issues.  These studies contribute to a deeper understanding of the issues involved, analyse the fundamental rights conformity of relevant national legislation and legal practice when implementing EU law and present relevant statistical data and good practice.  The studies are used as a basis for comparative analyses amongst the 27 EU Member States and for EU policy development and legislation in the subject area. The Unit also produces flash reports designed to enable the FRA to contribute to ongoing policy discussions or requests for opinions or information on specific issues at short notice. Additionally the Unit prepares quarterly bulletins and other publications.

The International Criminal Court's Legal Tools Outsourcing Partners Network comprises a group of universities and NGOs committed to maintaining and developing the collections, databases and commentaries of the ICC Legal Tools Project. This project aims to equip users with the legal information, commentaries and software required to work effectively in the field of international criminal law. The Tools currently comprise a virtual library of over 25,000 documents and legal commentaries.

With these tools, the ICC aims to provide the general public with free access to basic legal information on international criminal law. It is also aimed at supporting criminal jurisdictions, counsel and NGOs working on international crimes cases. The HRLC has created the National Implementing Legislation Database (NILD) as part of the Court’s Legal Tools, an online knowledge transfer platform developed at the ICC Office of the Prosecutor to provide the general public with free access to the most comprehensive electronic library on international criminal law and justice. Through NILD, users have access to a fully-searchable, relational database of national implementing legislation.