Acknowledgements
A number of people have made an outstanding contribution to what
is widely considered to have been a successful conference. In the first place I
would like to thank the Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs Department (CHAD) of
the Department for International Development for financing the project and Dr
Mukesh Kapila, co-director of the conference, for his intellectual and moral
support which was immeasurably helpful in undertaking a project that was not a
typical academic conference. Also his colleague, Ms Natalia Langlais, Programme
Officer (CHAD) provided necessary day-to-day liaison with the University of
Essex conference team.
Many people at the University of Essex deserve thanks. Its Vice
Chancellor, Professor Ivor Crewe, immediately saw the importance of the project
and provided leadership in ensuring that the University’s administrative bodies
facilitated the resolution of the problems that arose. He set the tone of the
conference in his welcome address at its opening, a tone characterised by
intellectual rigour, practical analysis and an informed exchange of ideas.
The Steering Committee convened by the Human Rights Centre of
the University ensured that the conference sought to bring as many facets as
possible of the issues to be discussed coherently before its participants. Its
members, in addition to myself, were Professor Kevin Boyle (Director of the
Centre), Ian Martin (Fellow of the Centre), Professor Geoff Gilbert, Professor
Françoise Hampson and Jane Wright (all of the Department of Law), Dr Anthony
Verrier (Department of Government) and Kate Mackintosh who prepared the
conference working paper. In fact, Ian Martin’s wide field experience coupled
with an impressive record of scholarly analysis of field operations was an
indispensable anchor for the whole endeavour.
The praise many have given to the practical functioning of the
conference belongs squarely with the team of organisers: first Alison Jolly laid
the foundations, but could not see the project through because she went to join
a UNHCR human rights project in Tashkent at the end of 1997, and then by her
successor Anne Slowgrove, staunchly assisted by Dr Marina Arlati. Thanks are
also due to the staff at One Great George Street Conference Centre.
Finally, and certainly top of the bill, thanks are due to all
the participants, governmental, non-governmental and academic; especially those
who agreed to bear the burden of writing the authoritative papers that are
reproduced here. Many also travelled far to be with us.
Nigel S Rodley
Professor of Law
Human Rights Centre
University of Essex
May 1998
