Our Research

Advocacy Services Research Project

This is a project designed to study and examine the effectiveness of advocacy services for victims, survivors and their families.

Commemoration and Law: Narratives of Political Violence in Transitional Societies UURCF

Politically transitional societies are not havens of new peace, but arenas of transformed conflict; violence has greatly declined but cultural brushfire wars combust and groups create identity and memory in new spheres.

Commemoration and Law: Narratives of Political Violence in Transitional and Conflicted Societies

This partnership project facilitates the development of relationships between researchers addressing commemoration practices in Northern Ireland and amongst Palestinians.

Disappearance and state responses in Latin America

Professor Cath Collins has been working on different aspects of this theme since 2015, drawing on her ongoing engagement in Latin America.

Picturing Peace: Murals, Conflict and Transition in Colombia

Colombia is in the middle of peace negotiations. It is far from being a fully fledged cease-fire, and is rather a tentative and gradualist process that may or may not be leading to a solution to the protracted violent conflict.

Policing and Forensic Issues in the Search for Truth and/or Justice for Forced Disappearance

The exploratory study ‘Policing and Forensic Issues in the Search for Truth and/ or Justice for Forced Disappearances’ investigates how truth, justice and reparations (“transitional justice”) for past crimes.

Screening Violence: A transnational study of Post-conflict Imaginaries

Screening Violence is an innovative engagement with communities that have experienced prolonged and entrenched violence of different kinds from guerrilla warfare, to state sponsored persecution of particular groups, to mass murder, to sectarian conflict.

Building Capacity in Northern Ireland Women’s Sector to Utilise International Human Rights and Gender Equality Instruments

This research, evidence-gathering and information-sharing project is designed to build capacity and be a resource to support local women's organisations in Northern Ireland to use international human rights and gender equality instruments to add value to their work.

The TJI will use its research and expertise to identify and share timely international developments on a broad swathe of women’s rights issues (health, violence, poverty, peacebuilding, political participation, rural women, etc) with the local women’s sector and to build capacity in using international instruments to hold local policymakers to account.

GCRF Research Hub on Gender, Justice and Security

QUB (Law) and Ulster (TJI) are partners in an LSE-led GCRF Research Hub on Gender, Justice and Security.

Gender Principles for Dealing with the Legacy of the Past

The absence of a gendered lens and the sustained exclusion of women from dealing with the past

Women’s Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law

The impact of conflict on the lives and rights of women is an issue of growing international importance.

Gendering Constitutional Debates in Northern Ireland: The Case of Irish Unification

Brexit has deepened deliberations on Irish unification.

Accountability for British War Crimes in Iraq? Examining the Nexus between International and National Justice Responses

The project has led to a number of academic and other outputs, including paper presentations at international conference and workshop.

An Investigation of Use of Force by UN Peacekeeping Operations

Viewed collectively the Rules of Engagement (ROE) of current UN missions suggest that the UN may be developing its own sui generis rules governing intentional use of deadly force.

Developing the “Nairobi Principles on Accountability”

The project is based on close collaboration between the principal investigator, Thomas Obel Hansen, and key stakeholders in Kenya, including researchers and civil society activists within the framework of ‘Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice’.

Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Innovation Grant

Prof Wills and co-investigator Prof McLaughlin (QUB) will research and make a documentary film on the legacy impact of the use of lethal force by UN peacekeepers in Cité Soleil in the period 2005-2007.

The Port-au-Prince-Rio Connection: 'Collateral Damage' by UN Troops in Haiti and Brazilian Troops in Rio

The purpose of the Impact and Engagement for Development Project is to expand the impact of the GCRF AHRC funded research on use of deadly force by the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), to engage similarly affected communities in Brazil.

The accountability deficits of major western powers: A pilot project on UK military accountability for international crimes in Iraq

The project presents a follow up to Hansen’s previous research on accountability issues in the context of alleged UK war crimes in Iraq.

Using Participatory Film Practices to Investigate the November 2018 Lasalin Massacre in Haiti

The film will provide a platform for survivors to express their views to the UN and international audiences and for these to be taken into account in planning responses.

Brexit and Northern Ireland: The constitutional, conflict transformation, human rights and equality consequences

This is a collaborative ESRC-funded research project between the Law Schools of Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University and the region’s leading human rights organisation, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ).

Democracy and the European Court of Human Rights

This project analyses the European Court of Human Rights’ understanding of democracy, taking a detailed look at the jurisprudence and placing it in a theoretical context.

GCRF – Low cost technologies for safe drinking water in developing regions (SAFEWATER)

The SAFEWATER research programme seeks to tackle a global challenge by looking at clean water solutions and the development of smart devices to quickly tell if water is safe to drink.

Social citizenship transformed: (de)constructing the 21st century welfare state

This project examines the perspectives of elite policymakers at devolved level within the UK.

Universal credit in Northern Ireland: sharing experiences, suggesting changes

This research is being conducted by Ulster University and University of York, in partnership with Universal Credit claimants in Northern Ireland and stakeholders including Law Centre NI.

Where next for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland?

The overall goal of the project is to progress the enforcement and implementation of a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights.