International Environmental and Human Rights Law Research Cluster

The International Environmental and Human Rights Law Research Cluster is the intellectual home for research into the theory, practice, and development of all areas of public international law. The cluster is committed to the better use of the tools of international law in situations around the world, but also to how those tools need to be reformed or changed when they fall short.

The research cluster advocates that researchers have a responsibility to make ‘international law’ truly ‘international’, by reflecting the state practice and plurality of legal traditions.

Our aims

The aims of this research cluster are as follows:

Produce high-quality research and publications in International, Environmental, and Human Rights Law.
Provide an intellectual home for researchers both inside and outside the University of Derby conducting research in these fields.
Critically engage with and support the work of the international legal profession, governments, civil servants working in foreign affairs, international organisations, treaty bodies, international and regional courts, tribunals, and civil society.
Provide a forum for the debate and discussion of recent developments in international law and human rights through seminars.

Research Cluster Leads

Dr Eghosa Ekhator

Dr Eghosa Ekhator is a Senior Lecturer in Law. He joined the University of Derby in September 2019 from the University of Chester, where he taught on both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His pr...

Dr Muin Boase

Muin Boase is a Lecturer in International Law at the University of Derby.

Research Cluster Team

Cluster Members

Our Research

Explore the research contributions of our cluster members:

Joshua Castellino

Author: Vaccine Inequity Deepens Structural Discrimination, Open Global Rights, April, 2022
Author: The Roots of the Global Water Crisis, Project Syndicate, September 2023, reproduced in print Khaleej Times, Oman Daily, Gulf News, La Nacion.
Opening Speaker: Disasters & Minorities, Official Side Event at the Warsaw Dimension Meeting OSCE, 11th October, 2023.
Expert: ‘Exploring power Sharing Models in Pursuit of Sustainable Peace’ 2-day workshop, EU Inclusive Peace Building in Thailand Project, with political leaders of the Muslim and Buddhist communities in the Southern Border Provinces, Thailand, Pattani, 29-30 August, 2023.
Expert & Head of Delegation: Comparative Jurisprudence on Minority Rights and the African Court, Extraordinary Session of the African Court of Human & Peoples Rights, organised by the Secretariat ACHPR & MRG, Arusha, Tanzania, 8th September 2023.
Moderator: Invisible No Longer: UN Side Event, co-sponsored by Brazil, Norway, UNPFA, OHCHR & Others, (September 2023) as part of UN Climate Week 2023.
Expert Speaker: Anti-Racism in United Nations Programming, hosted by UN Women, with UNDP, OHCHR, UNPFA & Others, (September 2023) as part of UN Climate Week 2023.
Expert Speaker: Expert Panel on Mainstreaming Women’s Rights: Minorities Intersectionality, Panel of Experts convened to speak to Member States of the OSCE by the Office of the High Commissioner for National Minorities (March 2023).
Provided testimony: to US Congress Official Inquiry conducted by the General Accountability Office on events in the Congo Basin, based on an MRG report Purged from the Forest (2021), March 2023, Washington DC, which has already resulted in changes to US funding for conservation.

Hakeem Yusuf

Invited lecture: ‘The Power to Disallow Legislation,’ 4 October, at the 66th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference holding in Accra Ghana, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
Co-organised a Conference: 27-29 September 2023, with Nauman Reayat and Rhona Smith as part of the Global South Network in collaboration with the University of Ilorin Nigeria.
Lecture: ‘The Past, Present and Future of the Veto Power in Comparative Perspective’ at the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research, University of St Andrews, Leuchars, Scotland, October 2023.

Eghosa Ekhator

Invited expert: Nigerian workshop for the corporate climate litigation project on draft report of climate litigation in Nigeria, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 21st April 2023.
Written evidence: with Dr Doyin Babajide to the United Kingdom Parliament's International Trade Committee's inquiry. It was copiously cited in a public letter sent to Kemi Badenoch, the Secretary of State for International Trade of United Kingdom by the Chair of the Committee.
Invited expert: ‘Accountability for Environmental Damage: Building a Nexus between Climate Change Law, Corporate Responsibility, & Human Rights’ at the African Union Commission on International Law (AUCIL) “Forum”, which took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 15-16 May 2023.
Invited speaker: ‘Recent developments in Energy Transition Litigation’ Africa Climate Forum Abuja, Nigeria 10 October 2023.

Muin Boase

Written evidence: ‘House of Lords Inquiry on the UK-Rwanda Memorandum of Understanding’, International Agreements Committee, 26 August 2022.
Advisory opinion: International Court of Justice, preparatory work, 3 July 2023.
Complaint: to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, 15 October 2023.

Bolanle Erinosho

Contribution: to the Global Network on Human Rights Education/ UNEP Summer Winter School 2023, panel on Transforming ocean conservation: rethinking blue economies in terms of environmental justice.
Workshops: Organised four workshops in Voltal, Central, Greater Accra and Western Regions of Ghana to support small-scale fisher women's rights and to strengthen their capacity to engage with oceans governance.
Contribution: to COP27 Virtual Ocean Pavilion Fostering Cooperation Among Relevant UN Bodies to Advance Small-scale Fishers’ Human Rights in the Face of Climate Change 14th November 2022,
Contribution: to a high-level event during the UN World Ocean Week, sharing key research insights and supporting small-scale fisheries representatives and advocates to voice their human rights concerns.

Join us

If you are interested in our research and would like to find out more, would like to join our research cluster or are applying for a PhD in this research area, please contact Professor Hakeem Yusuf, Dr Eghosa Ekhator and Dr Muin Boase.

Publications

Published works

Forthcoming publications

Hakeem Yusuf, ‘Post-Authoritarianism, Truth-Seeking and the Judicial Accountability-Gap: Lessons from Nigeria’ in Bonny Ibhawoh, Jasper Ayelazuno and Sylvia Bawa (eds) Truth Commissions and State Building in Africa (McGill-Queens University Press, Kingston 2023) (forthcoming).
Muin Boase, ‘Indigenous Groups as Non-Disputing Parties in Investor-State ICSID Arbitration: Can the Subaltern Speak?’ Journal of Minority and Group Rights (forthcoming).
Muin Boase, International Human Rights Law, Westlaw Insights (forthcoming).
Eghosa O. Ekhator, ‘Strengthening the implementation of biodiversity treaties through environmental law education’ in Damilola S. Olawuyi (ed) Law on Biodiversity, Nature Conservation and the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and North African Region (Cambridge University Press 2024) (forthcoming).
Eghosa O. Ekhator and Newman U. Richards, ‘The Continuing relevance of Customary Law Arbitration in Nigeria: Implications of the recent Supreme Court Judgment in Umeadi v Chibunze’ (2024) African Journal of International and Comparative Law (forthcoming).
Joshua Castellino, Calibrating Colonial Crime (manuscript submitted, Bristol University Press, 2024 forthcoming) 160pp.