Inaugural Newsletter: March 2026
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Spotlight on the New HRC Alumni Committee
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The Essex Human Rights Centre is pleased to announce the launch of its new Alumni Committee, a dedicated initiative aimed at strengthening connections across the Centre’s global community of graduates.
Formed following an open call for applications, the Committee brings together alumni from across more than 40 years of HRC programmes, including the MA in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights and the LLM in International Human Rights Law. Its members represent different regions of the world and a wide range of professional pathways, spanning civil society, international organisations, government, and academia. What unites them is a shared commitment to advancing human rights and to staying actively engaged in the field, often under increasingly challenging conditions.
In its initial phase, the Alumni Committee is focusing on two key priorities:
- Strengthening alumni engagement, including by sharing news, fostering dialogue, and developing communities of practice — starting with the launch of this very newsletter.
- Supporting Essex HRC students through the development of a structured mentoring framework to accompany the transition from study to human rights practice, which will lead in future to a peer-to-peer support network.
As Professor Carla Ferstman, Director of the Human Rights Centre, noted, the HRC benefits from “one of the most diverse and committed communities of graduates who are working in all facets of human rights protection”. Committee members echo this sentiment, emphasising both the importance of giving back and the value of collective reflection at a time when human rights are increasingly under pressure worldwide.
The Alumni Committee aims to serve as a space for connection, dialogue, mutual support, and shared learning.
The inaugural members of the Alumni Committee are: Emma Baldi (LLM, 2021); Francesco Cannone (LLM, 2021); Jenna Dolacek (LLM, 2017); Catherine Dunmore (LLB, 2010); Steven Malby (LLM, 2002); Miguel Martín Zumalacárregui (MA, 2013); Passent Moussa (MA, 2018); Karuna Parajuli (LLM, 2018); Tatjana Perić (MA 2004); Francesco de Sanctis (LLM, 2003); Michele Stephens (LLM, 2021); and Lore Vilchez (LLM, 2022).
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Call for HRC Blog Contributions
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The Essex Human Rights Centre has long been a hub for critical reflection, research, and practice at the interface of human rights theory and real-world challenges. With a global community of over 2,000 alumni, students, academic members, fellows and partners, the Centre thrives on diverse perspectives, lived experience and engaged scholarship.
We’re delighted to invite Essex HRC alumni to contribute to the HRC Blog, a space that seeks to showcase thoughtful commentary on human rights issues from around the world. Whether your focus is academic analysis, reflections from practice, policy insights, or analysis of contemporary human rights challenges, we welcome your voices and expertise.
Blog posts help connect our vibrant community, broadening our shared impact and fostering dialogue across disciplines and geographies. Submissions are welcome from alumni across backgrounds and stages of career, whether you’re pursuing research, working in practice, policy, litigation, advocacy, or teaching.
If you have an idea you would like to develop or are ready to submit a draft, please get in touch at humanrightscentre@essex.ac.uk.
We look forward to amplifying your voice and continuing to build a blog that reflects the diversity, passion and intellectual rigour of the Essex HRC community.
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Despite a challenging global environment for the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights and a difficult moment for the UK higher education sector, the Human Rights Centre continues to innovate and to thrive, with groundbreaking research, teaching and engagement.
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Have a look at our latest Annual Review, which showcases our recent activities. Some of the recent research that members of our community have published this year includes:
This year, we have also launched a new seminar series: Human Rights Through Art. See HERE for more information.
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We’re keen to stay in touch with the Essex Human Rights Centre alumni community and to keep the conversation going beyond this newsletter.
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If you would like to get in touch, share updates, or have ideas you would like to discuss, you can contact us at hrcalumni@essex.ac.uk.
You can also follow the Essex Human Rights Centre on LinkedIn and across our other online platforms to keep up to date with news, events, publications and opportunities.
We’ll also be sharing further opportunities to connect with fellow alumni and the Human Rights Centre in the coming months.
We look forward to staying connected.
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Help us recruit the next generation of human rights defenders.
Know someone driven by justice and ready to build the skills to put human rights into practice? Send them to us so that they can follow in your footsteps.
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Essex Human Rights Centre
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