Our Research
Browse current research projects at TJI. Our research falls into four main themes - Dealing with the Past, Gender, International Law and International Justice and Social and Economic Rights in Transition.
Current projects
Our current projects fall into four main themes:
- Dealing with the Past
- Gender
- International Law and International Justice
- Social and Economic Rights in Transition
Dealing with the Past
Advocacy Services Research Project
This is a project designed to study and examine the effectiveness of advocacy services for victims, survivors and their families.
Funding Amount
£69,975
Project Funders
Commission for Victims and Survivors Northern Ireland
People
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.
Project Funders
Ulster University Research Challenge Fund
People
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.
People
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.
People
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.
People
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.
People
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.
People
The Standardisation of Transitional Justice: Consolidation, Innovation and Politics
Research Project
Project Duration
4 years
Funding Amount
£690,000
People
Gender
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.
Project Funders
Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform (NIWEP)
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.
Critical epistemologies Across Borders: Gendering visions of constitutional futures on the island of Ireland (CEAB)
Research Project
Funding Amount
€197,000
International Law and International Justice
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.
People
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.
People
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’.
People
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.
People
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.
People
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.
People
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.
People
Social and Economic Rights in Transition
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).
People
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.
People
Social citizenship transformed: (de)constructing the 21st century welfare state
This project examines the perspectives of elite policymakers at devolved level within the UK.
People
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.
People
Impact of Brexit on Section 75 equality groups in Northern Ireland: EU Funding
Research Project
People