Internationally-renowned human rights expert Professor Sir Nigel Rodley has been elected President of one of the world’s leading human rights organisations.

Professor Rodley, who is Chair of the University’s Human Rights Centre, follows in the footsteps of Mary Robinson (former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) and Pedro Nikken (former President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) as President of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

Professor Rodley said: “I have collaborated with the ICJ for some forty years and have been directly involved as a Commissioner for almost a decade, and as a member of the Council of Justice, its British branch, for much longer. It is a signal honour to have been elected to the ICJ’s highest representational function by such a distinguished group of legal personalities from all over the world, and to succeed such eminent predecessors.”

One of Professor Rodley’s first responsibilities as President was to close the ICJ 17th World Congress where a landmark declaration on access to justice and right to remedy in international human rights systems was adopted.

In his closing speech, Professor Rodley explained: “The focus was how to make international regional human rights systems more able to respond to the needs of those who cannot secure justice at home. There was special urgency bearing in mind the attempts of governments to weaken the systems’ ability to call these same governments to account.”