Transitional Justice Institute

Dr Anne Smith

Lecturer, Transitional Justice Institute

Room ME204

Magee campus

BT48 7JL

Ph: +44 (0)28 7137 5154

Anne is has been a Lecturer in the Transitional Justice Institute since 2004 and is currently Course Director for the LLM Human Rights Law and Transitional Justice programme. In 1998 Anne graduated first in her year with a BA Hons in Law and Government from the University of Ulster. In 1999 at the same university, she was awarded the degree of LLM in European Law. Having lectured part-time at the University of Ulster from February to June 2000, she began her PhD in the field of human rights and equality law before moving to Queen’s University Belfast in April 2001. There she occupied posts as Human Rights Training Officer and as a Research Associate. As the Human Rights Training Officer, Anne provided and delivered training sessions to the public sector on the Human Rights Act and continues to provide consultancy work in this area. As a Research Associate, she was involved in a major research project entitled ‘Evaluating the Effectiveness of National Human Rights Institutions: The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, With Comparisons from South Africa’, January 2005. In 2004 she moved to the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, where she was appointed lecturer. She teaches and is the module co-ordinator for Human Rights Law at undergraduate level, Foundations of International Human Rights Law and Equality Law at postgraduate level.

Research Interests

Anne’s main research interests are in human rights and equality law, especially constitutional and institutional mechanisms designed to promote and protect human rights and equality. Her PhD thesis examined how Bills of Rights can be used to guarantee meaningful equality and drew upon the experience of Canada and South Africa to identify a number of lessons that other countries who are who are adopting a Bill of Rights can learn about Bills of Rights as a vehicle for protecting equality. As part of her fieldwork for her PhD, as a recipient of the MOLSON and UK Postgraduate Students Canadian Studies Travel Awards, she spent some time in Canada in August 2004 interviewing a number of people and organizations on the role the Canadian Charter has played in protecting equality. She is also interested in the role played by National Human Rights Institutions in the promotion and protection of human rights. This interest arose from her involvement whilst she was a Research Associate at Queen’s University Belfast. Alongside Professor Stephen Livingstone and Dr Rachel Murray, she contributed to a study resulting in a final report which examined the effectiveness of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. Anne is a member of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, the British Association for Canadian Studies and Associate Member of the Equality and Social Inclusion in Ireland project.