Institute of Commonwealth Studies Students and Alumni

13/10/2025

Calling all graduates and current students of our post-graduate human rights programmes - join us in London this Thursday to celebrate our 30th anniversary of excellence in human rights education! 🎉 🎉 🎉

Thursday 16 October 2025, Chancellors Hall, Senate House, London 6pm-9pm

https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/news-events/events/30th-anniversary-celebration-human-rights-education-institute-commonwealth-studies

This event will bring together a panel of distinguished alumni, scholars, and practitioners to reflect on the evolving role of human rights in addressing today’s most urgent challenges—from climate justice, digital surveillance, and forced migration to rising authoritarianism and global inequality.

Alumni, current students and friends of the ICwS welcome - booking required.




School of Advanced Study - University of London
University of London

18/10/2023

Forthcoming event: A uniform civil code: stakes for Indian democracy

23 November 2023, 4:30pm - 6pm GMT, Room 243, Second Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

The recent reactivation of the project of a uniform civil code (UCC) for India envisaged in 1947-48 by the Constituent Assembly and integrated as a directive principle (Article 44), or an ideal to be achieved, is triggering fresh debates. The UCC would be applicable to all religious communities in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, hitherto left in the hands of different religious communities. Over the years, political narratives and positions of political parties, feminists, minority groups, civil society representatives have shifted on the question. The talk will trace the shifts in responses to the implementation of a UCC in India since 1947, and its implications for democracy and minorities today.

Speaker: Professor Arundhati Virmani (L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Marseille)

Arundhati Virmani is a historian, teaching at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), Marseilles. She trained in European history, with a PhD in 19th century French history at the Sorbonne, Paris, and then reoriented her research to colonial societies. Her works on transformations of cultural and political practices from the colonial period to the contemporary moment, focus on questions of national construction, and political cultures that encompass cultural and social practices. Her publications in English and French include A National flag for India. Rituals, Nationalism and the Politics of Sentiment, Delhi, Permanent Black, 2008, 2017; Atlas Historique de l’Inde, Paris, Autrement, 2012 ; Les Indiens. Voix multiples, Paris, Ateliers Henri Dougier 2015 (Winner of the International Association of Francophone writers’ Asia Prize in 2015), ed. Political Aesthetics, Culture, critique and the everyday, (London, Routledge, 2015, 2016); ed. Aesthetic perceptions of Urban Environments (London, Routledge, 2020). Forthcoming publication: ed. With Jean Boutier and Manohar Kumar, Social Scientists and the civic space. Ethical perspectives on democratic involvement (Routledge, Delhi, 2024)

This event is in collaboration with the Human Rights Consortium.

Register here: https://hrc.sas.ac.uk/events/a-uniform-civil-code-stakes-indian-democracy

12/09/2023

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies is proud to host Memorial2007's event 'Remembering Enslaved Africans and their Descendants' with guest speaker Paterson Joseph.

Date: Thursday 28 September 2023
Time: 18:30 - 20:30 BST
Location: Chancellor's Hall, Senate House, University of London, Malet St, WC1E 7HU

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/memorial-2007-annual-lecture-hosted-by-the-icws-tickets-687207956497



School of Advanced Study - University of London
University of London

Seeing is Believing: Memorial as Story. Paterson Joseph will address our national amnesia surrounding Britain's Slavery Past

14/04/2023

ICWS Senior Research Fellow and SAS Historian Dr Susan Williams wins Windham Campbell Prize. Read the full story:

https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/news/icws-historian-dr-susan-williams-wins-windham-campbell-prize

School of Advanced Study - University of London
Senate House Library
Yale University


📷 - Sam Armstrong

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies' Dr Susan Williams has been awarded a prestigious literary prize.

15/03/2023

Events TODAY - 10:15-17:30 GMT: Soft Power in the Contemporary with Hon Michael Kirby’s hybrid lecture - 12:30-13:30 GMT: 'The and its contemporary relevance' https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/search-events

14/03/2023

ONLINE EVENT TODAY
Trends in International Criminal Justice and the Commonwealth
14 March 2023, 1:00PM - 2:30PM

The incoming Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Kingsley Abbott, will discuss trends in international criminal law and the Commonwealth.

Impunity for serious human rights violations remains a persistent challenge around the world. To complement the work of the International Criminal Court, States are increasingly using universal jurisdiction to hold perpetrators to account. At the same time, UN bodies, victims, human rights defenders and civil society are employing new and creative strategies to identify and support avenues to accountability. With reference to the Commonwealth, this discussion will highlight some of the recent developments in the field of international justice.

Kingsley Abbott has more than 20 years’ experience in international non-governmental organisations, the United Nations and domestic legal practice. For the past nine years he was based in Thailand where he served the International Commission of Jurists as the Director of Global Accountability and International Justice. During this time, he developed and led numerous human rights and rule of law initiatives in Asia and around the world. Prior to that, he worked as a Senior Legal Adviser at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia and as Trial Counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Hague. He started his career in his home country.

This session will be chaired by current ICwS Director, Dr Sue Onslow.

All welcome

This event is free to attend, but booking is required. It will be held online with details about how to join the virtual event being circulated via email to registered attendees in advance.

https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/trends-international-criminal-justice-and-commonwealth

03/03/2023

The University of London is hosting a topical range of events in March linked to the first Commonwealth Day since King Charles was appointed monarch following the death of Her Majesty the Queen.

https://www.london.ac.uk/news-opinion-commonwealth-day-2023

A wide range of events are scheduled to celebrate Commonwealth Day 2023

27/02/2023

Forthcoming online event on 14th March, 1pm-2pm GMT:
'Trends in International Criminal Justice and the Commonwealth' with incoming ICWS director Kingsley Abbott.

Impunity for serious human rights violations remains a persistent challenge around the world. To complement the work of the International Criminal Court, States are increasingly using universal jurisdiction to hold perpetrators to account. At the same time, UN bodies, victims, human rights defenders and civil society are employing new and creative strategies to identify and support avenues to accountability. With reference to the Commonwealth, this discussion will highlight some of the recent developments in the field of international justice.

Kingsley Abbott has more than 20 years’ experience in international non-governmental organisations, the United Nations and domestic legal practice. For the past nine years he was based in Thailand where he served the International Commission of Jurists as the Director of Global Accountability and International Justice. During this time, he developed and led numerous human rights and rule of law initiatives in Asia and around the world. Prior to that, he worked as a Senior Legal Adviser at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia and as Trial Counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Hague. He started his career in his home country.
This session will be chaired by current ICWS Director, Dr Sue Onslow.

All welcome - this event is free to attend, but booking is required.

Register your place now:
https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/trends-international-criminal-justice-and-commonwealth

24/02/2023

Week is coming up (13-17 March) and the alongside the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Institute of Historical Research and other University of London (City, University of London, Goldsmiths, University of London and King's College London) will be hosting Commonwealth-related events throughout the week.

Learn more and register here: https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/commonwealth-week-events-2023

School of Advanced Study - University of London

10/02/2023

Forthcoming conference - Soft Power in the Contemporary Commonwealth: Approaches, Opportunities and Challenges
15 March 2023, 9:30AM - 5:30PM, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR

Registration for this event will close on Sunday 12 March 2023.

This event has been organised by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, National University of Singapore and the Instituto de História Contemporânea.

Keynote lecture by The Hon Michael Kirby, Former Attorney General, Australia

Panel sessions include:
- SOFT POWER REVISITED: ACTORS, NORMS AND INSTITUTIONS
- CULTURAL DIPLOMACY, EDUCATION NETWORKS AND ALTERNATIVE MODES OF LEARNING
- THE POLITICS OF RIGHTS AND JUSTICE IN THE CONTEMPORARY COMMONWEALTH: SOFT POWER NETWORKS IN ACTION

A provisional conference programme is available to download here: shorturl.at/iouJ1

Conference Fees:
Academic: £20.00
Retired/Student: £5.00

Learn more and book your place online: https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/soft-power-contemporary-commonwealth

On Commonwealth Day 2013 (11 March), Queen Elizabeth II signed the Commonwealth Charter, the result of wide-ranging consultations across the governments, associations and people of the Commonwealth, after the Eminent Persons Group on Commonwealth reform first promoted the idea of a single, non-bindi...

10/02/2023

New on the blog about the 'Nigerian Election 2023' which comes at a time of heavy economic uncertainty for . Written by Biodun Omojola. Read it here: https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/blog/nigerian-election-2023

Not since the 1993 election, and, to a lesser degree, the 1999 election, have Nigerians and, indeed, the world been so fixated on any Nigerian election. Back in 1993, the major problem facing Africa’s biggest economy was how to get the military out of governance after having ruled for 10 years, be...

10/02/2023

Event on MONDAY - Come along to the book launch for 'Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War' written by Martin Plaut and Sarah Vaughan.

Date: 13 February 2023
Time: 4pm-5:30pm
Venue: ONLINE
Hosted by: Dr Sue Onslow, Director of the

The authors will present their book "Understanding Ethiopia's Tigray War”, which Hurst is publishing this week.

The conflict, which erupted on 4th November 2000 is the most vicious and possibly the least understood conflict of the last two years. It involved forces of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, supported by ethnic militia, who combined in an attempt to crush the Tigrayans. The fighting and accompanying blockade led to an estimated 600,000 deaths – more than the number who died in the 1984-5 famine. International journalists were banned as Tigray was sealed off from the outside world by Ethiopian and Eritrean governments prosecuting a strategy designed to crush it at almost any cost.

This book is the first to attempt to chronicle why the war took place, in the context of Ethiopia’s long and complex history. It provides details of the battles and the destruction to infrastructure and livelihoods across the region.

Register now and get a discount code for a 25% off the book. https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/understanding-ethiopias-tigray-war-book-launch