When: Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PMWhere: Colette Bowe Room, Queen's Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
The Third Annual Conference of the Western Sahara Research Group, sponsored by the Centre for European and International Legal Affairs will be held on Wednesday 11 September 2024 at Queen Mary University of London. This event will interrogate Western Sahara’s international status and its ongoing significance from the vantage points of Public International Law, the law and policy of the European Union and International Relations/Politics.
0900 – 0915: Welcome: Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice (CEILA Co-Director)
0915 – 1030: Panel 1: Western Sahara, Self-determination, and Human Rights
Chair: Dr Stephen Allen (Conference Organiser, QMUL)
Professor Yael Ronen, ‘Implications for Western Sahara of the ICJ’s advisory opinion on the status of the Israeli occupation of the OPT’ (Hebrew University, Israel)
Professor Heidi Gilchrist, ‘Visibility and Invisibility in International Law: The Plight of Western Sahara’ (Brooklyn Law School, USA)
Attila Nagy, ‘Western Sahara and the Right to Self-determination in the MENA region according to the Abrahamic Accords’, (PhD researcher, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany)
1030 – 1045: morning coffee break
1045 – 1200: Panel 2: Western Sahara, the European Union and Spain
Chair: Dr Andrea Mensi (University of Bologna)
Professor Dr Manfred O. Hinz, ‘Comments on the Opinions of Advocate General Ćapeta in the Cases concerning Western Sahara pending before the European Court of Justice’ (University of Bremen, Germany)
Waleed Mahmoud, ‘Western Sahara and Non-Recognition through Economic Conduct’ (Doctoral fellow, Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute, Ghent University, Belgium).
Bernardo Mayor, ‘Western Sahara: Self-determination and Spain’s status as Administering Power’ (PhD researcher, University of Innsbruck, Austria).
1200 – 1300: Lunch break
1300 – 1415: Panel 3: The Use of Force, International Humanitarian Law and Western Sahara
Chair: Dr Jamie Trinidad KC (Wolfson College, University of Cambridge)
Dr Joris Fomba, ‘The Conflict in Western Sahara and the application of the Right of Self-Defense’, (Researcher, Centre of International and Community Law, University of Yaounde II, Cameroon)
Igor Di Bernardini, ‘Western Sahara as a Case of Prolonged Belligerent Occupation’, (Legal Councillor and Chancellor of the Italian Constitutional Court)
Janet E. Lord (Harvard Law School Project on Disability & Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law) and Bryce Hollander (International and Comparative Law Fellow, University of Maryland Carey School of Law) ‘The Western Saharan Conflict, Persons with Disabilities, and the Law of International Legal Protection’
1415 – 1430: Afternoon coffee break
1430 – 1545: Panel 4: Western Sahara in International Politics
Chair: Professor Francisco Pereira Coutinho (NOVA School of Law, University of Lisbon)
Professor Arthur Roberto Capella Giannatasio and Lucas Louzada Silva, ‘Irredentism and International Relations: An analysis of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara’s contention of Moroccan irredentism’ (Institute of International Relations, University of São Paulo, Brazil)
Dr Isaías Barreñada, ‘China's position on the Western Sahara issue’ (Lecturer in International Relations, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)
José Tomás Simeão, ‘(De)Constructing the Sahrawi Self-Determination Discourse: A Normative Assessment of United Nations Politics in Western Sahara’ (PhD Researcher in International Law, NOVA School of Law, University of Lisbon, Portugal)
1600 – 1630: The Work of the Western Sahara Research Group
The Editors: Western Sahara in the International Legal Order 50 years after the ICJ Advisory Opinion
Dr Stephen Allen (QMUL); Dr Andrea Mensi (University of Bologna); Professor Francisco Pereira Coutinho (NOVA School of Law); and João Francisco Diogo (NOVA School of Law).
1630 – 1700: Book Launch & Drinks Reception
Stephen Allen and Jamie Trinidad The Western Sahara Question and International Law: Recognition Doctrine and Self-determination (Routledge, 2024, open access)