They existed and were important, but for too long they have remained invisible in historiography: women. Ariadne Schmidt, the Magdalena Moons endowed professor, researches the history of urban culture in Leiden. Women take pride of place in her research. Inaugural lecture on 28 February.

On Wednesday 13 December, Melanie Fink defended her doctoral thesis ‘Frontex and Human Rights: Responsibility in “Multi-Actor Situations” under the ECHR and EU Public Liability Law’. The supervisors are Rick Lawson and Jorrit Rijpma from Leiden, as well as Manfred Nowak, and Stephan Wittich from the…

The research project addresses the question how complaints in the voluntary youth care system are dealt with on the municipal level and what role (municipal) Children’s Ombudspersons play in this context, through qualitative research methods.

This research explores how international organisations responded to the humanitarian and human rights challenges brought about by COVID-19.

Today, 8 March, marks International Women's Day. Leiden University fosters her female, talented staff members, and continues to strive towards more women on leading scientific positions.

Among Leiden’s Firsts was Hajjah Maria Ulfah Soebadio Sastrosatomo. In 1933, she was the first Indonesian woman student to earn a law degree.

An anatomical model of a heart, a mechanical digger or photos of mother and grandmother. Research interests and personal motivations have been given a place in the thirteen new portraits of women now on display in the Senate Chamber. ‘That cat isn't just a cute lap cat.'

Women behind the front play an important role in a large proportion of Iranian novels, written on the Iran and Iraq-war (1980-1988). But their martyrdom is an uncommon theme. Saeedeh Shahnahpur will give a lecture on this subject on 16 February.

‘It was not always accepted, but I just wanted to be a researcher. Now, I am as happy as can be.’ It is one of the quotes from the International Women’s Day presentation for Biology students. Seven women, working as researchers and teachers at the CML, IBL, and Naturalis, shared their experiences with…

In this article, Tom Buitelaar proposes a systematic framework for analyzing the impact of individual characteristics of peacekeeping leaders on the behaviour of field-level personnel in UN peacekeeping operations.

Joe Finnerty has co-edited the 2026 Symposium in the Human Rights Law Review entitled Legitimate Aims and Ulterior Purposes in International Human Rights Law: Comparative Perspectives.

Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies, and Professor Clare McGlynn of Durham University have co-authored a new article in the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, titled 'Online and technology-facilitated violence against women: The EDVAW platform's…

This research paper seeks to examine the nature of the nexus between right-wing extremism and the military by surveying five potential consequences (i.e., problem areas) arising from the presence of right-wing extremists within the armed forces of twelve Western countries.

This is the 2017 paperback release of William Michael Schmidli's The Fate of Freedom Elsewhere, which won the 2013 Foreign Affairs Magazine Best Book of the Year.

As children learn, develop and acquire more skills, their legal position also changes. Professor of Children’s Rights Ton Liefaard works closely together with Leiden social sciences researchers to shed light on these growing capacities and their implications for our legal system. ‘Our ideas about children’s…

Taking Mozambique as a case study, the aim of this research is to develop a methodology for improving flood risk assessments by extending hydrological records using paleo hydrologic evidence of past floods, combined with a socio-legal assessment of the land rights of those impacted by climate change…

Industrialised countries extract natural resources in the territories of indigenous peoples, and appropriate the knowledge and culture of these peoples. Leiden anthropologists work to protect the rights of indigenous peoples. Their knowledge and advice enable governments to source sustainable produc…

On 16 January 2024, Professor Obiora Okafor from Johns Hopkins University opened the third cycle of the Owada Chair with the lecture Global Diversity and the Living International Human Rights Law.

It was not until 1878 that the first female students enrolled at Leiden University, but the discussion on whether women were suited to study was by no means over. 8 March is International Women's Day. BBC correspondente Kim Ghattas will deliver a lecture on 6 March on the struggle by Arabic women for…

On 25 November, the global 16-day campaign 'Orange the World' against violence against women and girls started. Leiden University will also be paying attention to this campaign. On Friday 9 December, Renate van der Zee and Marieke Liem will give a lecture at the Campus The Hague (Spanish Steps, Wijnhaven)…

Subproject of

The heritage of Indigenous Peoples has long been researched and commented upon from the outside. This book adopts an innovative approach by engaging with the heritage of Indigenous Peoples from the ‘inside’.

-

This socio-legal research focuses on the impacts of environmental displacement on land rights and land-related conflict in Mozambique in the aftermath of cyclone Idai, and on the role of the legal framework in addressing these problems.

On Monday 9 May 2022, GTGC Visiting Researcher Derin Atiskan presented her work to the GTGC Global Justice and Human Rights and the GTGC Identity and Inequalities groups. The presentation was titled: "The Puzzle of International Norm Transfer: Exploration of Women’s Rights Recommendations Made through…

Choosing a study programme is fun and exciting, but it’s not always easy. Your choice of study is a major decision; after all, it is about your future. At the same time, it’s good to remember that this choice will not determine the rest of your life.

Valentina Carraro explores the relationship between overlapping UN human rights institutions, specifically the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Systematic investigations into religious precepts, worldly rules of law and legal practices in the Muslim world show clearly how these societies deal with justice and injustice. Sharia, the Islamic ‘legal system’, plays an important role in this context.

On 18 March 2020, Hoko Horii defended her thesis ‘Child Marriage as a Choice. Rethinking agency in international human rights’. The doctoral research was supervised by prof. A.W. Bedner and prof. G.A. van Klinken.

Veel vrouwen in een opvanghuis kampen met een posttraumatische stressstoornis (PTSS). Deze PTSS-klachten herkennen en direct behandelen biedt volgens het Leids Universitair Behandel en Expertise Centrum (LUBEC) de meeste kans op succes. Daarom werkt LUBEC per 1 september samen met vrouwenopvangorganisatie…

On 7 September, Francesc Claret Traid defended the thesis 'On the nature of the right to resist: a rights-based theory of the ius resistendi in liberal democracies'. The doctoral research was supervised by Afshin Ellian and Gelijn Molier.

This paper written by Alexandre Afonso, Assistant Professor and Researcher at Leiden University, argues that gender norms and the political strength of the left were important structuring factors regarding why European countries choose migrant labour to expand their labour force in the decades that…

The project 'EmbRace: The Embodiment of Racialization: Running Muslim Women and the Sense of Non-Belonging' investigates the embodied and sensorial dimension of the racialization of Muslims and its intersections with gender, class and religion.

Explore the captivating world of women's football in Morocco through Trouw's insightful report, examining the intersection of Islam, popularity, money, and role models, as emphasized by cultural anthropologist Jasmijn Rana.

The ECtHR needs to provide effective rights protection, but it also needs to set clear standards while showing deference to decisions made at the national level. Especially when socio-economic issues are concerned, meeting these different demands is a challenging task.

Human Rights at Risk brings together social scientists, legal scholars, and humanities scholars to analyze the policy challenges of human rights protection in the twenty-first century.

Nadine Akkerman, University Lecturer and researcher at the LUCAS institute, is nominated for a VIVA400 award in the category 'inspiring women in science'. The Dutch magazine, VIVA, selects 400 inspiring women who excel in their field every year for different categories.

Women are are on the agenda again at Leiden University. That was clear on 8 March in the Academy Building. First there was an informal get-together with women professors and talented researchers, followed by the 27th Annie Romein-Verschoor lecture, on happy and angry women.

How can child participation be defined, what is the importance of child participation and how can it be promoted?

Four famous alumni introduced their favourite films at Leiden International Film Festival.