Panel Discussion on Human Rights and Peace-making in Times of Global Crisis

Venue: Cripps Auditorium, Magdalene College 

Public lecture and panel discussion with Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge; Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the subject of ‘Human Rights and Peace-making in Times of Global Crisis’; Sir Stephen O’Brien, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on ‘Humanitarian Action and Peace-making’ and Lyse Doucet, an award-winning Chief International Correspondent and Senior Presenter for BBC World News television and BBC World Service Radio.

The Rt. Hon. Sir Stephen O’Brien KBE is a British businessman, politician, diplomat, industrialist and lawyer who completed his term as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in late 2017, and is currently non-executive director and Vice-Chairman of Savannah Petroleum PLC and an international business consultant. Born in Tanzania, Sir Stephen was educated in Kenya and the UK, where he attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. He was elected to Parliament as a Conservative member in 1999, and became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development in 2010. In 2012, he was appointed the Prime Minister’s Envoy and UK Special Representative to the Sahel, working for peace in the region. Throughout this time, Sir Stephen has been a leading advocate for global health. In 2004 he founded, and then served as first chairman, of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases. He has also been Co-founder/Chairman of the Malaria Consortium, Vice-President/Director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and is Chair of the Innovative Vector Control Consortium, and Global Advocate for the UN/WHO’s inter-agency Roll Back Malaria Partnership. He was appointed to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Privy Council in 2013. In 2015, Sir Stephen was appointed UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, leading the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In this role, he argued powerfully for compliance and accountability under international humanitarian law, unimpeded access to people in need and the necessary US$23 billion funds, under the transformative Agenda for Humanitydeveloped under his leadership. His responsibilities included oversight of all UN humanitarian operations globally, and leadership of coordination mechanisms between UN agencies and other partners. In recognition of his achievements in humanitarian and development work, Sir Stephen was awarded a Knighthood (KBE) in June 2017.

Lyse Doucet is an award-winning Chief International Correspondent and Senior Presenter for BBC World News television and BBC World Service Radio. She is regularly deployed to anchor special news coverage from the field and interview world leaders. Lyse also reports across the BBC including for BBC Newsnight. She played a key role in the BBC’s coverage of the “Arab Spring” across the Middle East and North Africa and has covered all the major stories in the region for the past 20 years. She is a regular visitor to Afghanistan and Pakistan from where she has been reporting since 1988. Before joining the BBC’s team of presenters in 1999, Lyse spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent with postings in Jerusalem, Amman, Tehran, Islamabad, Kabul and Abidjan. Her awards include an Emmy (with a team of fellow correspondents) for outstanding continuing coverage in 2014 for reports from Syria; an Edward R Murrow award for radio reports from Tunisia in 2012; a Peabody and David Bloom Award in 2010 for television films from Afghanistan; and Radio News journalist of the Year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in the UK. Earlier awards include the Silver Sony Award for News Journalist of the Year, International Television Personality of the Year from the Association for International Broadcasting and the News and Factual Award from Women in Film and Television. Born in eastern Canada, Lyse has four honorary doctorates from leading Canadian Universities as well as from the University of York in Britain. She has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto and a BA Hons from Queen’s University in Kingston.

Further information:https://human-rights-and-peace-making.eventbrite.co.uk or contact Andrea Varga, av457@cam.ac.uk