Human Rights Colloquium: “Forced separation – do we need a new legal category?”

This FAU CHREN Human Rights Colloquium will be held on 10 December 2025 from 6:15 to 7:30 pm and will feature Rainer Huhle as speaker. Dr. Janina Heaphy will chair the event.

Description

‘Forced Separation’ is a relatively new concept, which seeks to grapple with many different socio-political contexts and legal approaches directed at the violent separation of family members. The presentation unfolds the complex map of contexts in which forced separations occur as well as the different legal approaches to tackle the specific harms that result from them. Its main focus will be on the forced separation of children from their parents and wider families.

Most of the causes of forced separations are addressed by a wide set of instruments of international law. So there seems no need for a juridic umbrella term for all the cases discussed. The value of the concept of forced separation, I propose, is that its starting point is not the act of separation as such or its legal sanction but the harm caused by the forceful separation of families. Without renouncing to the rights to justice and to the truth, the concept of forced separation can visualise the suffering of separated families even when they cannot rely on the protection of the law, but still merit remedies for the unvoluntary separation inflicted on them.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Rainer Huhle holds a PhD in political science from the FAU. He spent most of his life outside the university, but joined the faculty of the Master Programe to teach, together with Laura Clérico, the course on Transitional Justice. Beyond the topics related to Enforced Disappearance, Transitional Justice, and the UN system for the protection of Human Rights his main research interests are the history of human rights, memories and memorialization of human rights crimes, and political and legal strategies of combating impunity. In this context he was a curator of the permanent exhibition on the Nuremberg Trials in the Palace of Nuremberg.

Disclaimer/Media Notice

Photos and/or videos may be taken during this event for FAU CHREN’s documentation and public outreach (e.g., website, social media). By attending, you consent to this use — unless you inform us otherwise in advance or during the event. If you do not wish to appear in photos or videos, please let the organizing team know in advance or upon arrival.

☑️  RSVP If you are planning to attend, please reserve a place by email to nathalie.schneider@fau.de.