United Nations and Capacity Building
Since its establishment in 2005, the Post Conflict and Capacity Building Unit has built up an international reputation for its policy-linked research and capacity-building work. Outputs have included major book publications, reports which have impacted upon policy nationally and internationally, provision of high level training, and delivery of capacity building support to governments and civil society.
The Unit sometimes provides opportunities for students to contribute to its work through its internship and student research assistance programmes for University of Nottingham LLM students and graduates. Please see our student activities section for current opportunities.
Projects
Key projects include:
-
Human Rights Treaties: Maximising the Engagement of Iraqi Civil Society: a UNOPS-funded project to build the capacity of Iraqi civil society organisations to write shadow reports. The project will provide civil society organisations with the necessary skills to compile, draft and disseminate shadow reports to be submitted to treaty bodies during the reporting process.
-
-
Consolidating the Profession: The Human Rights Field Officer: an international research, training and capacity-building project in support of enhanced delivery of services by human rights field operations. The project sought to identify the professional parameters for the work of human rights field officers and to generate research findings and training materials that promote good practice.
-
Guiding Principles for Human Rights Field Officers: publication and dissemination of the first comprehensive set of professional standards specific to the work of HRFOs, a major output of the collaborative project ‘Consolidating the Profession’. The Principles are intended to contribute to the professional quality of the work of field officers.
-
People
Unit Head: Professor Dominic McGoldrick
There have also been numerous interns and research assistants who have contributed to the Unit's work.
Unit Head Expertise
Professor Dominic McGoldrick, head of the United Nations and Capacity Building Unit is Co-Director of the HRLC. He is a human rights law specialist with a particular interest in issues concerning human rights and religion, such as the use of Sharia law and Muslim veiling controversies in Europe. He has experience of teaching and leading various capacity-building projects including the HRLC Law of Armed Conflict course. Professor McGoldrick's full biography is available in our staff section.
Publications
Key publications include:
-
McGoldrick, D., 'Religion and Legal Spaces - in Gods we Trust; in the Church we Trust, but need to Verify' Human Rights Law Review (2012)12(4);
-
McGoldrick, D., 'The Boundaries of Justiciability' International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2010);
-
McGoldrick, D., Terrorism and Human Rights Paradigms - The United Kingdom after 9/11 in Bianchi, A., and Keller, A., eds, Counterterrorism: Democracy's Challenge (Hart, 2008);
-
O'Flaherty, M., and Ulrich, G., The Professional Identity of the Human Rights Field Officer;
-
Guiding Principles for Human Rights Field Officers Working in Conflict and Post-conflict Environments;
-
O'Flaherty, M., ed., The Human Rights Field Operation: Law, Theory and Practice (Ashgate, 2007);
-
White, N., co-ed., The UN, Human Rights and Post Conflict Situations (Manchester University Press, 2005).