Britain and its international ethical obligations: the case of genocide - Professor Philip Spencer

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Time: 1.00pm - 2.00pm
Venue: Room 5005, John Galsworthy Building, Penrhyn Road campus, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE
Price: free
Speaker(s): Prof Philip Spencer

This event is part of the Human Rights Festival 2019, hosted by Kingston University's Centre for Human Rights, Solidarity and Practice and the Department of Politics.

After the Holocaust, the international community (in the form of the newly organised United Nations) responded with the creation of the Genocide Convention. This was agreed alongside the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. British involvement in this development was less than wholeheartedly supportive, although Britain did in the end sign up to both.  This talk will examine why the British response was so guarded at the time; why, across the political spectrum, British political parties and social movements have consistently failed to take seriously what the Convention mandated; and what this might mean for our understanding (in terms of human rights and social justice) of Britain's place in the world.

Speaker
Philip Spencer is Emeritus Professor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Kingston University, where he taught for many years. He is a Visiting Professor in Politics at Birkbeck College, where he is also a Research Associate of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. He is the author of a number of works, including Genocide since 1945;  Nationalism - A Critical Introduction  and  Nations and Nationalism (both with Howard Wollman); and most recently of Antisemitism and the Left - on the Return of the Jewish Question (with Robert Fine). He is currently writing a longer history of genocide.  

For further details about the festival contact Hannah Miller.

For further information about this event:

Contact: Hannah Miller
Email: h.miller@kingston.ac.uk