5th Research Forum of the Department of Public and International Law on ‘Recent Trends in Right to Development: International Law Perspectives’
The Department of Public and International Law organized its 5th Research Discussion Forum on 7th of March 2022 From 8.30 p.m. onwards. The guest speaker, Mihir Kanade is a Professor of International Law, Department of International Law, United Nations University for Peace, San Jose, Costa Rica. Professor Kanade (India) is the Academic Coordinator of the University for Peace, the Head of its Department of International Law, and the Director of the UPEACE Human Rights Center. He is also an adjunct faculty at Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio (Spain), Long Island University (LIU Global Center in Costa Rica), and Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia). Dr. Kanade serves as the academic co-coordinator of the LLM programme in Transnational Crime and Justice offered at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, Turin, Italy. He also serves on the International Advisory Board of the International Bar Association on the topic of Business and Human Rights. Dr. Kanade currently holds office as an expert member of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development. Dr. Kanade co-leads an e-learning project in partnership with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNU-IIGH for training UN staff, diplomats of permanent missions of States, staff of NGOs and academics on operationalizing the Right to Development in Implementation of the SDGs. He also chairs the drafting group of international experts appointed by the OHCHR for preparing a legally binding instrument on the right to development. He holds a degree in law from Nagpur University, India (LLB), Masters in International Law and Ph.D from University for Peace. His principal area of academic research and study is the interface between globalization, governance, public international law and human rights, covering several themes including trade, business and investment, sustainable development, forced displacement of people, indigenous peoples’ rights, public health, amongst others.
During his lecture, he focused on the evolution of the right to development and highlighted contemporary trends in this field. He further shared his experience relating to the drafting of internationally binding documents on the right to development. Something unique about this session was that Prof. Mihir Kanade was able to speak about the individual contributions made by each state party during the drafting process. This provided valuable insights into the motivations of different states with regard to the right to development.
The session was commenced by Professor Wasantha Senevirathne with a welcome note and an introduction to the guest speaker. The research forum arranged a question and answer session towards the end of Professor Mihir’s speech. Then the session was concluded with a formal vote of thanks made by Mr. Isuru Liyanage.
Due to the pandemic situation prevailing in the country, the forum took place on an online platform. Any researcher or student of law interested in listening to his lecture and would like to access the materials shared by the resource person are encouraged to write an email to pil@law.cmb.ac.lk requesting the same, mentioning their name, occupation, affiliation, and the purpose.
