Talk by Dame Rosalyn Higgins

Dame Rosalyn Higgins, former President of the International Court of Justice, is helping REDRESS celebrate its 20th Anniversary today with a talk and a reception at the Inner Temple. Dame Rosalyn’s talk, “The campaign for justice for torture survivors in the context of the human rights developments of the last 20 years”, will take place at the Parliament Chamber of the Inner Temple from 6pm to 8pm.

A short reception will follow the Q&A session.

Dame Rosalyn Higgins studied at Girton College, Cambridge, receiving her BA and LLB both 1st Class. She earned a Doctor of the Science of Law from Yale Law School supported by a Harkness Fellowship. She has received seventeen honorary doctorates, the Yale Law School Medal of Merit and the Manley O. Hudson Medal from the American Society of International Law.

Dame Rosalyn was a practicing barrister, specialising in public international and petroleum law
before becoming a Queen’s Counsel in 1986 and a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1989. She was a
member of the Committee on Human Rights from 1985 to 1995 and Special Rapporteur for new
cases from 1989 to 1991.

She has been counsel in a number of crucial cases including East Timor (Portugal v. Australia) and
Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention arising from the Aerial
Incident at Lockerbie (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya v. United Kingdom).

Dame Rosalyn was the first female judge to be elected to the International Court of Justice (1995-
2009), and was its President from February 2006 to February 2009. In 2009, Dame Higgins was
appointed adviser on international law to the British government’s inquiry into the Iraq war. She is
currently president of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

For further information, please contact:

Eva Sanchis at [email protected] or +44 (0) 2077931777.

REDRESS has held a number of events to commemorate its 20th anniversary this year, including a
literary evening chaired by Channel 4 News International News Editor Lindsey Hilsum, a lecture by
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez at Chatham House and the release of a special
edition of the International Journal of Human Rights edited by our chair Sir Emyr Jones Parry
available here.

On 12 December, also as part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, we will be
launching two films about REDRESS produced by award-winning filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies.

Note:

REDRESS was founded by a British torture survivor in 1992. Since then, it has consistently
fought for the rights of torture survivors and their families in the UK and abroad. REDRESS takes legal
challenges on behalf of survivors, works to ensure that torturers are punished and that survivors and
their families obtain remedies for their suffering. It has intervened in a range of leading torture
cases.