About the Centre

The Centre's mission is:

'To promote the study of human rights in a dynamic and critically-aware fashion, thereby engaging the interest and excitement of the scholarly community, human rights practitioners, and the wider public'

'The Centre is ideally situated to act as an educational and scholarly bridge, connecting the aspirations of the human rights community and of human rights activists with the worlds of academe, of economics, politics and of business.‘

Mary Robinson, Former UN High Commissioner on Human Rights

Half a century ago the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, declaring 'a common standard for the achievement of all peoples and nations'. Today the idea of human rights commands enormous public respect and attention throughout the world. Yet widespread violations and evasions by states and societies endure.

Launched in autumn 2000 – and, thanks to the generous support of The Sigrid Rausing Trust, with a full-time director in post since October 2002 – the Centre for the Study of Human Rights draws upon LSE’s considerable expertise and resources in the social sciences to develop its programmes of teaching, research and outreach in the field of human rights.

‘Human rights is a subject that is finally coming of age. Once a subject on the margin of many debates but central to none, the concept of human rights now attracts people right across the political spectrum. The idea of human rights seems to many to offer a vital element in a world of conflict, competition and seemingly inexorable globalisation. Our ambition in the Centre is that it should become an indispensable part of the domestic and international human rights discourse, offering scholarly analysis, practical research, excellent teaching and public outreach on this most important of 21st century themes’

Professor Conor Gearty, Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights

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