Current projects

Our current projects fall into four main themes:

  1. Dealing with the Past
  2. Gender
  3. International Law and International Justice
  4. Social and Economic Rights in Transition

View our past projects


In this section

Past Projects

Browse past research projects at TJI.

Accountability for British War Crimes in Iraq

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

Advocacy Services Research Project

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

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.

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).

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.

Commemoration and Law

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.

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Port-au-Prince-Rio Connection

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Standardisation of Transitional Justice: Consolidation, Innovation and Politics

The project investigates the international standardisation of Transitional Justice politically and legally by analysing and comparing it across 4 cases.

Impact of Brexit on Section 75 equality groups in Northern Ireland: EU Funding

The project will review existing primary and secondary documentation on EU funding in NI.

Critical epistemologies Across Borders: Gendering visions of constitutional futures on the island of Ireland (CEAB)

CEAB includes women with a range of cross-cutting identities in discussions about a shared island.