Limor Yehuda presents 'Collective Equality: Human Rights and Democracy in Ethno-National Conflicts'

On April 3rd, The George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention, in collaboration with Professor Sharon Weill (AUP), will welcome Limor Yehuda to present her book Collective Equality: Human Rights and Democracy in Ethno-National Conflicts (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The book dives into how international and regional human rights norms have been increasingly applied to constitutional provisions, revealing significant tensions between primary political arrangements, such as power-sharing institutions, and human rights norms. This book argues that these tensions, generally framed as a peace versus justice dilemma, are built on an individualistic conception of justice that fails to account for the empirical reality in places characterized by ethnically based political exclusion and inequalities. By introducing the concept of 'Collective Equality' as a new theoretical basis for the law of peace, this timely book proposes a new approach for dealing with the tensions between peace-related arrangements and human rights norms.

Limor’s presentation will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Omar Dajani and Sharon Weill on collective equality in between Israelis and Palestinians.

Limor Yehuda is a senior research fellow and the founding director of the Shemesh Center for Partnership-Based Peace Research (forthcoming) at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. She is also a lecturer at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law, where she teaches courses on transitional justice, democracy and multiculturalism. Her research focuses on peace and international law.

Omar Dajani is the Carol Olson Professor of International Law at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. He served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with

Israel from 1999 to 2001, participating in the summits at Camp David and Taba. Subsequently, he was a political officer in the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) and consulted on a variety of legal infrastructure development and conflict resolution processes in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The roundtable will be moderated by Professor Philip Golub (AUP).