Declarations

In a digital age, where content creators are booming, shaping culture, influencing politics, and building entire livelihoods online, we find ourselves in a world governed by algorithms we didn’t design, and often can’t even see. So what does it mean to resist? From viral content that defies the odds, to artists and activists who quietly tweak the system to stay visible, today we explore the subtle and strategic ways resistance unfolds in online spaces.This final episode of the series cultivates a compelling discussion from a team of student researchers at the Centre for Governance and Human Rights. They are currently pursuing a project titled: ‘How are content creators employing everyday practices to resist and adapt to algorithmic governance?’ Rosie Freeman is a finalist reading Human, Social, and Political Sciences- specialising in Sociology. Eunbin Bang, an MPhil Politics and International Studies Candidate at Cambridge University, further holds an Honours in Political Science from McGill University. Muham

In this episode, we explore the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) — often hailed as the “conscience of Europe” and one of the most successful human rights institutions in the world. But in an era of democratic backsliding, populist politics, and eroding faith in institutions, what does “justice” look like today?Drawing on eight years of fieldwork with advocates, lawyers, and judges at the ECHR, Professor Jessica Greenberg’s Justice in the Balance examines how the Court functions both as a bureaucratic machine and as a moral ideal. Through her ethnographic lens, she reveals the tensions between law’s promise and its practice — between the aspiration of human rights and the limits of the institutions meant to protect them.This conversation probes the contradictions at the heart of the European project: Can legal institutions still serve as engines of democracy and hope, or have they become hollow symbols of a fading order?About the Guest: Jessica Greenberg is an associate professor of Anthropology at the Un

What does it mean to imagine another humanity in a century marked by war, displacement, and deep inequality? In this episode, we sit down with Benjamin P. Davis, author of Another Humanity: Decolonial Ethics from Du Bois to Arendt. Davis traces shifting ideas of “the human” through the works of W. E. B. Du Bois, Édouard Glissant, Sylvia Wynter and Edward Said—thinkers who redefined human rights and humanism in the face of empire and exclusion. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s post-war correspondence with Karl Jaspers, Davis invites us to reflect on what a decolonial ethics of humanity might look like today. Together, we ask: how might we live into Glissant’s question of whether we have the right, and the means, to imagine another dimension of humanity?About the Guest Benjamin Davis is a scholar of political theory, decolonial ethics, and the global histories of human rights. He previously held fellowships with the Department of African American Studies at Saint Louis University and the Centre for Ethics at the Univ

Welcome back to Declarations!In this episode, we’re joined by renowned journalist Kalpana Jain to explore how the media landscape has evolved and how press freedom is shifting across the globe. From the West to South Asia, we unpack the complex forces shaping what gets reported, whose voices are amplified, and how journalism is being redefined today. The media has undergone a seismic shift over the past two decades, technologically, politically, and economically. Today, journalism faces mounting constraints: declining independence, a shrinking space for investigative work, all amid escalating risks for journalists worldwide. At the same time, newsrooms are evolving rapidly to combat the rise of misinformation in an increasingly complex digital environment. About the guest:Kalpana Jain is a senior journalist and currently senior ethics and religion editor at The Conversation US, a global news and commentary-based website.She has covered a wide range of issues both in the U.S. and internationally. She was senio

Welcome back to the second episode of Season 9 of Declarations!We are often informed to the terrorising, oppressive and distressing effects of Human Rights abuses across the continent of Africa. However, what happens in the rare cases that citizens don't know they're being abused? By exploring the implicitly powerful weapon of censorship, misinformation and mass propaganda, we can observe how patriotic, anti-western narratives succeed in instilling hope and nationalistic pride, rather than terror, to these inhabitants. Farooq Adamu Kperogi is a Nigerian-American professor, author, media scholar, newspaper columnist, blogger and activist. Professor Kperogi's research broadly explores the intersection between communication in a global context and the singularities of the communicative practices of marginal groups within it. He is interested in the transnational, mass-mediated, online discourses of marginalised diasporas in the West, which he studies by examining the alternative and citizen online jo

Welcome back to Season 9 of Declarations!This season we are looking at the notion of Human Rights and The Polycrisis.In our first episode, Co-host Ed Parker sits down with Andrew Preston, an acclaimed historianof American foreign relations post 1890, to trace the role of human rights in American protest movements and foreign policy debates, asking whether humanitarian ideals have ever truly guided U.S. decision-making. From campus protests against the Vietnam War to campaigns like Save Darfur, American activists have long invoked the language of human rights topress for change at home and abroad. But has this discourse meaningfully shaped U.S. foreign policy—or has it always taken a backseat to strategic interests?Together, they explore key moments when human rights language surged, examine its retreat in recent years, and consider how American power has influenced—and at times undermined—thebroader global human rights regime. Looking ahead, they ask whether we are witnessing a lasting shift in U.S. foreign p

Join our host, Iman, in conversation with Lucy Amis from the University of Cambridge's Centre for Sport & Human Rights (CSHR), alongside our panellist and podcast lead Shubham Jain, as they discuss the need for mainstreaming human rights in sports, and how the CSHR's innovative initiative, the 'Human Rights Volunteer Programme', can help promote human rights during sports events and offer a means for remedy for violations.

Join guest host, Dounia, in conversation with Omar Alshogre as they discuss the relationship between activism and human rights in the context of the Syrian revolution.  What is the future of the Syrian revolution? Has it fallen into oblivion? Will Syrians ever succeed in getting rid of a regime which has been plaguing the country for more than 50 years?

Join our guest host, Maryam, in conversation with special guest Salman Sufi, founder of the Salman Sufi Foundation, as they discuss gender-based violence in Pakistan. How can the systemic infrastructure perpetuate such violence, and what can human rights activists do to mitigate these harms and close some of these systemic gaps?

Join our host, Iman, in conversation with special guests, Uma Chakravarti and Suchitra Vijayan, and our panellist Jigisha Bhattacharya, as they discuss incarceration and its politics in contemporary India, focusing on addressing concerns such as human rights violations, democratic oversight and the silencing of dissident voices.

In the 100th Episode of the Declarations Podcast, Iman is joined by special guest Lucia de los Angeles Diaz Genao and panellist Matias Volonterio to discuss: what can we do about violence against activists? How do we protect the marginalised who raise their voices?

In this episode of Declarations, our host Iman is joined by special guest Siri Gloppen and panellist Charlotte Abercrombie to discuss global democratic backsliding and its impact on human rights. They evaluate the role of courts in safeguarding human rights and the risks of politicising fundamental freedoms. This episode comes at a crucial period, where democracies appear to be in peril worldwide.

In this episode, our host Iman is joined by special guest Tarah Demant and panellist Tess Hargarten to discuss the impact of Western hegemony on modern human rights and the development of human rights organizations worldwide. This topic is especially relevant at the current moment, when multiple contentious wars are raging with more and more human rights violations coming to light.

Who are human rights for? Where is the 'human' in 'human rights'? What have we learned about human rights conceptually, as well as in practice, over the last 75 years? In this brief first episode, our host Iman introduces our theme for this season, and gives an overview of the questions we seek to probe while reflecting on the 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In episode 9 Declarations host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by panellist Aimee Hobley and guest speaker Kristin Hughes. Their discussion explores the potential human rights challenges raised by the ongoing green transition. Kristin offers insight and expertise on how the multistakeholder green transition can mitigate against the potential threats created by rare earth mining and resource insecurity, and how upscaling a circular economy can be part of the solution. In order to avoid repeating the ecological and humanitarian injustices of the fossil fuel revolution, human rights need to be at the forefront of a just renewable energy transition and global climate change response.

In this episode of Declarations, Neema Jayasinghe and panellist Isabella Todini sit down with Dr. Lorena Gazzotti, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and Vice President of the Cambridge branch of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) to discuss the right to strike, why lectures across the UK have been striking this year, and why urgent action is needed. We focus on lecture strikes and the marking boycott taking place at present and discuss what the implications of continued industrial action will be for students and for teaching staff. Dr. Gazzotti offers inspiring words on why workers should join unions, and together we envision what the future of higher education could look like – if the right action is taken as soon as possible.

In our seventh episode, host Neema Jayasinghe joins panellist Yasmin Homer to discuss the work of women peacebuilders with guests Eva Tabbasam (GAPS UK) and Andrea Filippi (PeaceWomen Across the Globe). We discuss the importance of fostering and protecting civil society networks in peacetime and wartime, the challenges of political will, and how the Women, Peace, Security Agenda needs to expand its feminist focus through a more inclusive intersectionality. With insights from GAPS UK's work in Afghanistan and PeaceWomen Across the Globe’s networks between Columbia, Nepal and the Philippines, this episode crosses local, national, and international borders in a timely conversation about conflict resolution and representation.  

In our sixth episode, host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by previous podcast host and panellist, Dr Maryam Tanwir. With special guest, Professor Sam Vaknin, the episode unpacks discourses related to the psychology of personal border violations in mental abuse. The conversation questions how borders and boundaries are not only demarcated, violated, or transgressed in global politics, but also at the level of the personal. Here, physical or mental abuse is a form of structured aggression, and can be surreptitious, coercive, or disguised in a myriad of ways. Invariably, it involves the violation of our borders and boundaries - both personal and societal. In this episode, we explore these various levels of abuse and their psychological implications.

In this episode, panellist Clare Francis discusses the interplay of poetry and protest in the Iranian state with Dr. Fatemeh Shams, an activist, award-winning poet, and Persian literary scholar. They explore the boundaries of art and activism in Iran, where successive regimes have historically sought to enforce strict limitations around acceptable versus unacceptable forms of activism. Protest movements challenge these boundaries in myriad creative ways, but they are at constant risk of co-option by the state. By examining the intersection of poetry and protest in Iran’s women-led uprising – known globally by the catch cry ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ – Dr. Shams gives voice to both the challenges and the revolutionary potential of women’s activism in Iran.

In this episode, host Neema Jayasinghe is joined by panelist Vanessa Dib to discuss developments of lawfare, the power of law being used as a weapon of conflict, with guest Mr. Jason McCue. In this day and age, wars can take place within and outside the traditional confines of borders and boundaries as wars are increasingly started, fought, and ended through lawfare. To better situate the discussion, Mr. Jason McCue will help us explore what lawfare is, how is lawfare is used today, and future developments of it by using the Libyan civil war as a case study.