Editorial

Javaid Rehman, Ayesha Shahid and Steve Foster

The editors are very pleased to present volume 3 of the Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (AYBHRHL). Volume 1 and 2 of ­AYBHRHL were published in October 2017 and September 2018 respectively. Both the previous volumes of the Yearbook have been embraced and received by practitioners of human rights and humanitarian law as well as by academics working in this field.

Volume 1 conducted an original, incisive and highly insightful examination of the many complex issues generated by the problematic ‘Islamic State’, ISIS or ‘Da‘esh’.1 A selection of papers presented at the first international conference of AYBHRHL held at Brunel University in September 2016 were published in volume 1 of the Yearbook. The focused theme of volume 2 of AYBHRHL was ‘Islamic Law and its Implementation in Asia and the Middle East’. The focused theme represented articles, earlier versions of which were presented at the second annual conference for AYBHRHL.2 This conference took place on 6 October 2017 at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London (BIICL).We were extremely honoured to have the participation of leading scholars and jurists from across the globe in the 2017 conference and indeed in the publication of the volume 2. The keynote contributors and speakers included Sir Michael Wood (KCMG, Member of the UN International Law Commission), Professor Dr. Martin Lau, (former Dean of the Law School at Lahore University of Management Sciences LUMS and Professor of Law at SOAS, University of London), Professor Shaheen Sardar Ali (Professor of Law at Warwick University, UK), Professor Ibrahim M. H. Aljazy, (founding Partner of Aljazy & Co and former Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Jordan), Professor Surya P. Subedi, OBE, QC (Hon) (Professor of International law at the University of Leeds, UK), Professor Mashood Baderin (Professor of Law at SOAS, University of London) Professor Robert Gleave, (Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK), Dr. Damos Dumoli Agusman, (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia) and Professor Umut Turksen, (Coventry University, UK). The publication of volume 2 in September 2018 was followed by the highly anticipated third annual AYBHRHL conference held at BIICL on 26 October 2018.

International Conference and Focused Theme AYBHRHL Volume 3 (2018) Friday 26 October 2018

Coventry Law School, in collaboration with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), and Brunel Law School organised the AYBHRHL third annual international conference entitled: ‘Law, Gender and Sexuality: Challenging Traditional Perspectives’. The conference took place at the historic and prestigious venue of Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square London on Friday 26 October 2018. The annual conference and volume 3 of the AYBHRHL has been dedicated to the late Ms. Asma Jahangir, one of the leading human rights lawyers and advocates of her generation. Asma Jahangir died in Lahore in February 2018 and her untimely death came as a major shock to the entire international human rights fraternity. For decades, Asma Jahangir campaigned for the rights of the vulnerable, the weak, and the marginalised communities within Pakistan and at a global level. These communities included religious, ethnic, or sexual minorities, women who were victims of domestic violence or honour killings and those persecuted because of their political or ideological opposition to oppressive regimes. Asma Jahangir indeed was the voice of the voiceless. Asma Jahangir’s contributions at the global level included her service as the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions (1998–2004) and as the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief (2004–2010) and most recently as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran (2016–2018).

During the conference tributes were paid to Asma Jahangir by a number of delegates. These included Professor Martin Scheinin, (the former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism and former member of the UN Human Rights Committee), Professor Shaheen Sardar Ali (former Vice Chair of the Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions and Professor of Law, School of Law University of Warwick), Dr. Arjumand Bano Kazmi (University of Warwick), Ms Noor Ejaz (Advocate AGHS) and Professor Javaid Rehman (Professor of Law, Brunel University, UK) who has succeeded Asma Jahangir as the UN Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in Iran.

As regards the proceedings of the conference, delegates were welcomed by the opening remarks made by Dr. Ayesha Shahid, Professor Stephen Hardy (Coventry University) and Kristin Hausler (BIICL). Professor Shaheen Sardar Ali (School of Law, University of Warwick), Professor Siobhán Mullally (Established Professor of Human Rights Law and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway), Professor Robert Wintemute (Professor of Human Rights Law, Kings College London) were the keynote speakers at the conference. Other prominent international speakers at the conference included Professor Brenda Cossman (Professor of Law, University of Toronto), Dr. Ummni Khan and Jean Ketterling (Carleton University, Canada) Professor Scott Titshaw (Mercer University Law School, Georgia, USA), Professor Keisuke Mark Abe (Seikei University, Japan), Professor Yoshiaki Sato (Professor of International Law, Seikei University, Japan) and Dr. Karenjot Bhangoo Randhawa (University of California, Berkeley, USA).

Women’s rights activist and campaigner for Crowd funded Private Prosecution, Emily Hunt, made an excellent and impressive lunch time presentation. The conference was well attended by academics, lawyers, human rights activists and students, who all contributed to a fruitful exchange of ideas and dialogue throughout the day. At the end of the conference, Dr. Ayesha Shahid, thanked the co-organizers, Professor Stephen Hardy, Kristin Hausler and Lindy Melmam (Brill-Nijhoff) for their generous support towards organizing the conference and making it success.

AYBHRHL Volume 3 (2019)

We are delighted at the publication of volume 3 of AYBHRHL. As noted above, the publication is in a large measure fruition of a highly successful conference held in cooperation with BIICL on 26 October, 2018. The second of the series of conferences held in cooperation with BIICL confirms the strengthening of relationships between the AYBHRHL and BIICL and as editors of the Yearbook we are remain enormously thankful to colleagues at BIICL for their generous support. In particular we remain extremely grateful to Kristin Hausler (Dorset Senior Research Fellow in Public International Law, BIICL), Dave Sutton (Conference and Events Officer, BIICL) and Carmel Brown (Marketing & Membership Manager, BIICL). We are also grateful to Professor Spyros Maniatis (Director, BIICL) for his generous approval and support for this event.

As always, we remain enormously thankful to Brill-Nijhoff publishers of the AYBHRHL. We owe a special debt of gratitude to our friend and publisher, Lindy Melman. She has supported the Yearbook from its inception and has been a consistent source of strength. She has enthusiastically participated in all of the Yearbook’s conferences and has always responded to all of the publisher’s enquiries and questions with care and great detail.

We would also like to thank our sponsors for the third annual conference. We are grateful to Professor Stephen Hardy, Head of Law School, Coventry University. Professor Hardy has been most generous in supporting AYBHRHL and we were delighted and honoured to have his presence at the international ­conference on 26 October, 2018. We are also enormously thankful to Professor Hardy and Coventry University for the most generous support in hosting this major international conference; without the financial support from Coventry University it would have been impossible to have international and national delegates attend and participate in the event. We remain thankful to a number of other colleagues from Coventry University, especially Professor Nigel ­Berkeley and Professor Umut Turksen from Coventry University.

Following the pattern of the previous volume, the substantive structure of volume 3 consists of five parts. The focused theme (consisting of twelve articles) presents selected papers from the 26 October 2018 conference, including the keynote presentation by Professor Shaheen Sardar Ali. The General Articles as well as the Recent Development Sections also include revised and updated versions of some of the papers presented at the October 2018 conference. Denise Venturi and Silvia Venier, provide Summaries of Proceedings of Human Rights Monitoring Bodies (Covering the Period September 2017–August 2018) in the document section, whereas the final section on book reviews is edited by Dr. Annapurna Waughray.

Editorial Updates

We are honoured and delighted to have Professor Hardy and Professor Turksen as part of our International Advisory Board. In addition, Dr. Steve Foster (Coventry Law School, Coventry University) joined the newly constituted Editorial Committee, as one of the Editors in Chief. Dr. Steve Foster, joins Dr. Ayesha Shahid and Professor Javaid Rehman as Editors in Chief with Professor Rehman also acting as the General Co-ordinating Editor of the Yearbook. Additional members of the Editorial Committee include Dr. Ben Stanford (Coventry Law School, Coventry University), Dr. Matthias Vanhullebusch (KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and Dr. Gerard Conway (Brunel Law School, Brunel University). Dr. Ben Stanford, Dr. Matthias Vanhullebusch and Dr. Gerard Conway join the Editorial Committee as Associate Editors. Denise Venturi (Faculty of Law, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium) and Silvia Venier (Institute of Law, Politics and Development, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy) also join the Editorial Committee as contributors of the Document Section and Dr. Annapurna Waughray Manchester Law School, Manchester Metropolitan University, as editor of book review section.

In our capacity as editors we are most thankful to members of our newly constituted Editorial Committee as well as to Editorial Board and to the International Advisory Board for their generous and consistent support in producing volume 3 of AYBHRHL. We also remain thankful to our associated student faculty who were instrumental in organisational aspects of the International Conference at BIICL and also provided valuable editorial assistance to various sections of the Yearbook.

Acknowledgement of Student Participation and Support

The editors would like to express their gratitude and thanks to several graduate students at Brunel University. A number of these students supported in the organisation of the Conference at BIICL whilst others actively participated in this event. These students are:

Muhammad Danyal Khan

Bandar Al-Shahrani

Heba Yehya

Mahmoud Alhamad

Serkan Kaya

Meltem Kaya

Muhammad Danyal Khan most generously acted as part of the organising committee for the third annual conference (26 October, 2018) and we remain grateful to him for his excellent support in organising the conference and for this continuing interest and commitment for the Yearbook.

Dedicated Website for AYBHRHL

The editors are pleased to announce that the AYBHRHL now has a dedicated website. This web-page contains the relevant information on the Yearbook including submissions and review procedure. <https://asianyearbookofhumanrights.com>.

There are also photographs and materials related to volume 2 of the Yearbook.

Notes

1. Please see ‘Focused Theme: ISIS and the Implications for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’ (2017) 1 AYBHRHL 3–136.

2. Please see ‘Focused Theme: Islamic Law and Its Implementation in Asia and the Middle East’ (2017) 2 AYBHRHL 3–173.

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