Democratizing Human Rights Workshop: Towards an Inclusive & Participatory Human Rights Agenda
Exploring how participatory processes can address critical tensions in democratic practice and human rights protection, this collaborative workshop will delve into contemporary debates in democracy and human rights as well as examine deliberative democratic innovations from a plurality of perspectives. Together, we aim to create a space for knowledge sharing; explore the current state of universal human rights and participatory governance, emphasizing grassroots activism, democratic innovations, and digital participation; and examine paths forward to overcome the limitations inherent in traditional democratic and human rights advocacy models. Raising questions about the concerns that emerge at the intersection of democracy and human rights, the Democratizing Human Rights Workshop will investigate whether participatory governance and collective decision-making can facilitate the democratization of human rights, and whether universal human rights can uphold democratic principles, and in turn, protect vulnerable populations.
The workshop will take place October 23-24, 2025, in hybrid format. Though the workshop is only for registered participants, the keynote address is open to the public.
Keynote Address
Date: October 24, 2025
Time: 3pm EDT
“An Imperative of Accountability for Gross Human Rights Violations”
Presented by Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji,
Former President of the International Criminal Court, The Hague
Keynote Speaker Biography
Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji was the 4th President of the International Criminal Court. He is the Distinguished International Jurist at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at the Toronto Metropolitan University. From 2012 to 2021, he served as a judge at the ICC, first as a trial judge and eventually as an appellate judge. Prior to joining the ICC, Dr Eboe-Osuji served as the Legal Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. Earlier in his career, he worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as a senior prosecution counsel. He has authored several books on international law, including “End of Immunity: Holding World Leaders Accountable for Aggression, Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity” (2024); “International Law and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts” (2013); and “Protecting Humanity” (2010).
Workshop Agenda
Day 1 – Thursday, October 23, 2025
8:30-9:00am: Tea and coffee
9:00-9:10am: Land acknowledgement & Welcome - Bonny Ibhawoh & Melissa Levin
9:10-9:20am: Opening remarks by the Dean, Faculty of Humanities - Stephen Heathorn
9:20-9:30am: Opening remarks the Head of Department, History - Megan Armstrong
9:30-11:00am: First panel: Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights – I
– Ron Levy (The Australian National University), “The Deliberative Democratic Turn in Human Rights.”
– Abhiruchi Ojha and Leslie Keerthi Kumar (Jamia Millia Islamia and University of Delhi), “Reconceptualizing Human Rights for the age of Artificial Intelligence: A Global South Perspective.”
– Ross Ryan (McMaster University), “Realistic Idealism: Jacques Maritain, Democracy, and Human Rights.”
11:00-11:15am: Brief break
11:15-12:45pm: Second panel: Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights – II
– Oyinade Adekunle (McMaster University), “The Death Penalty in a Democratic Age: Exploring Innovations in Retentionist and Abolitionist Contexts.”
– Salvador Santino Regilme (Leiden University), “Decolonizing Human Rights and Global Development.”
– Chika Aniekwe and Lawrence Emehel (IOM-Somalia and Nasarawa State University), “Re(Imagining) Religious Extremism in Nigeria: Expanding, Articulating and Correcting a Global Held Misnomer.”
12:45-1:45pm: Lunch break
1:45-3:15pm: Third Panel: Majority Rule, Minority Rights and Democracy
– Ernest Ako & Julia Selman-Ayetey (University of Cape Coast), “Universal human rights versus majoritarian rule: Legal perspectives from Ghana on democratizing human rights.”
– Josiah Bagayas (Mariano Marcos State University), “Participatory Governance and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights: Progress and Pitfalls in the Philippine Legal Framework.”
– Nnamdi Nnake (McMaster University), “Digital Participation and the Protection of Civil and Political Rights.”
3:15-3:30pm: Brief break
3:30-5:00pm: Fourth Panel: Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights: Innovations from Below
– Kate Ogg (The Australian National University), “Mini-Public Adjudication of Human Rights Disputes: An Empirical Evaluation.”
– Summer Lollie, Robert Richards and Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm (University of Arkansas), “Dialogue and Memory: The Participatory, Local, Transitional Justice Work of the Arkansas Peace and Justice Memorial Movement.”
– Lin Sun (Shanghai International Studies University), “Innovation in Democracy and the Advancement of Human Rights: The Role of Chinese Folk Songs in the Democratization of Human Rights and Its Implications”
5:00-5:30pm: Day One Wrap-up and Reflection – Melissa Levin
6:00-9:00pm: Welcome Dinner at The Buttery
Day 2 – Friday, October 24, 2025
8:30-9:00am: Tea and coffee
9:00-10:40am: Fifth Panel: Universal Rights and Democracy in International Politics: Experiences from Below
– Omri Grinberg (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “Achieving Human Rights Failure: NGO Archives in Israel/Palestine Between Democratization and Decolonization.”
– Erika Jimenez (Queen's University Belfast), “‘Just ink on paper?’ A comparison of youth’s perspectives on international law and the universality of human rights from the occupied Golan and West Bank.”
– Augusto Leao (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), “Brazil's Dual Role as LGBTQ + Refugees.”
– Shannonbrooke Murphy (St. Thomas University), “Human Rights Enforcement ‘From Below’: The Human Right to Resist in International and Constitutional Law.”
10:40-10:45am: Brief break
10:45-12:15pm: Sixth Panel: Children’s Rights/Human Rights and Democratic Praxis
– Dustin Ciufo (King’s University College at Western), “A Childist Approach to Advancing an Inclusive and Participatory Human Rights Agenda: The Sociopolitical Implications of a Child-Centred Form of Deliberative Democracy.”
– Robert Richards and Ali Dunbar (University of Arkansas and Syracuse University), “Centering Adoptees’ Voices: Protecting the Human Rights of Adopted Persons Through Participatory-Democratic Practices,”
– Julia Rodriguez (University of New Hampshire), “The UNICEF Child-Friendly Cities Initiative at 30: Assessing Child and Youth Participation in Global Perspective,”
12:15-1:15pm: Lunch break
1:15-2:45pm: Seventh Panel: Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Governance and Human Rights
– Jesi Carson (Participedia), “Participatory Design for Human Rights: Local Change, Global Insights.”
– Lydia Chibwe and Sindiso Nkomo (Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria) “Democratizing Women's Rights in Zimbabwe: Addressing Gender-Based Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights through Legal and Participatory Reforms”
– Johannah Keikelame and Mfalatsane Motsuenyane (Independent Researchers), “Exploring Deliberative Democracy and Mechanisms for Inclusive Governance: Lessons from a South African Case Study”
2:45-3:00pm: Brief break
3:00-3:30pm: Keynote Address by Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, “Towards an Inclusive and Participatory Human Rights Agenda.”
3:30-4:00pm: Keynote Q&A
4:15-4:45pm: Wrap-up and Reflection - Melissa Levin
4:45-5:00pm: Ways Forward and Closing Remarks - Bonny Ibhawoh
5:15-8:00pm: Dinner at The Phoenix
Participant Bios
Panel 1: Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights – I
Ron Levy is an interdisciplinary researcher writing on public law and political theory - especially deliberative democratic theory. His recent projects explore referendums in deeply divided societies, Indigenous constitutional reform, environmental constitutionalism and the deliberative dimensions of rights practice. He has published numerous works on law and political theory, in several countries, and is the winner of several research awards including grants from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Australian Research Council.
Abhiruchi Ojha is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India, and holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Abhiruchi is interested in gender and technology, women in IR, and global political thought, and will co-present a paper in our first panel on Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights. This paper is important as it considers how recent developments in our information technology-dependent world influences human rights practices. It examines how AI may affect Global South futures and provokes questions about the risks it poses for issues like privacy and equality.
Leslie Keerthi Kumar is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lady Shri Ram College of University of Delhi and completed a PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He focuses on the ethics of AI and developing Non-Western IR perspectives and will co-present a paper in our first panel on Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights. This paper is important as it considers how recent developments in our information technology-dependent world influences human rights practices. It examines how AI may affect Global South futures and provokes questions about the risks it poses for issues like privacy and equality.
Ross Ryan is a PhD candidate at McMaster University, where he is researching the history of Costa Rica's armed forces, and is affiliated with the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice – CHRRJ. Ross will be presenting a paper in our first panel on Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights, which interrogates the philosophical foundations of universal human rights. This important paper underscores the contemporary relevance of long-lasting debates over the tensions between the universality and the particularities of human rights theory and practice.
Panel 2: Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights – II
Oyinade Adekunle is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of History at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, and an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of History and Strategic Studies at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Oyinade examines the complexities of capital punishment in colonial Nigeria and will present a paper in our second panel on Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights. This paper brings fresh views to global debates on capital punishment and examines the potential of democratic innovations and participatory governance to shape policymaking and defend the rights of the condemned.
Salvador Santino Regilme is a tenured Associate Professor and Chair of International Relations Program at the Institute for History at Leiden University, Netherlands. Born in the Philippines and educated in Germany and the United States, he is a Dutch scholar specializing in international human rights, North-South relations, global security, and U.S. foreign policy. His acclaimed works include Aid Imperium (University of Michigan Press, 2021) and Children’s Rights in Crisis (Manchester University Press, 2024). A recipient of prestigious fellowships and multiple book and research awards, his scholarship bridges academic inquiry with global policy challenges, emphasizing the impact of power and militarism on human rights.
Chika Charles Aniekwe is a senior leader in governance, peace, stabilisation, and development. He has over 20 years of experience, including 12 years in multilateral systems across various countries and contexts, in senior advisory roles in Ethiopia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Somalia, and the Lake Chad Basin region, where he led the UNDP Lake Chad Basin regional stabilisation programme to great success. He has also served with the African Union Commission, and over the years, has contributed to shaping democratic governance reforms, conflict prevention, and regional strategies.
Emehel Lawrence Chukwunweike is a Catholic priest of Sokoto Diocese, Nigeria and a PhD student at Nasarawa State University, researching Peace Education and Conflict Management Studies. He will co-present a paper in our second panel on Contemporary Debates in Democracy and Human Rights, where he challenges the global stereotyping of religious extremism as an Islamic phenomenon. Emehel uses examples of non-Islamic religious extremism in Nigeria to make a case for a global reconceptualization of the problem in dominant discourses.
Panel 3: Majority Rule, Minority Rights and Democracy
Ernest Ako is Head of the Department of Legal Studies at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and holds a Doctor of Laws degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Pretoria. He will present a paper in our panel on Majority Rule, Minority Rights and Democracy, where he will examine the use of legal frameworks by cultural minorities to challenge Ghana’s same-sex criminalization bill. The paper provokes a reassessment of human rights and engages debates such as the contradictions inherent to democratic practices like majority rule and constitutionalism.
Julia Selman-Ayetey is the Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Cape Coast. She previously held academic positions at several universities, including King’s College London and the University of Oxford. She is a Solicitor & Barrister of the Supreme Court of Ghana and called to the Bar in England and Wales (Middle Temple). Julia is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a practising lawyer. She has advocated, researched, and advised pro bono in public interest cases involving citizens on death row, human rights violations, and international law in Africa, the Caribbean and Europe. In particular, she has assisted in cases before the European Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Josiah Patrick Bagayas is a lawyer and law faculty at the Mariano Marcos State University, Ilocos Norte, Philippines where he teaches constitutional and human rights law, philosophy of law, and clinical legal education. His paper is part of our panel on Majority Rule, Minority Rights and Democracy, where he provides a unique, Global South perspective on the rights of Indigenous peoples. This examination of the Philippines’ legal framework for the protection of Indigenous rights highlights the tensions between democratic practices and the universality of human rights.
Nnamdi Nnake is a PhD candidate at McMaster University researching the history of communications technology in Africa. His interests are the intersections of communications technology with material culture and the political economy, and he will be presenting a paper in our panel on Majority Rule, Minority Rights and Democracy. This paper adopts both historical and contemporary lenses to examine how digital technologies and institutional frameworks have shaped or been shaped by both democratic participation and the evolution of communication rights.
Panel 4: Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights: Innovations from Below
Kate Ogg is the Associate Dean Higher Degree Research for the Australian National University College of Law. She undertakes interdisciplinary research in the areas of refugee law, human rights, litigation, access to justice and feminist legal theory and method. She is the author of 'Protection from Refuge: From Refugee Rights to Migration Management', which was published with Cambridge University Press in 2022. The monograph is the first global and comparative examination of the role courts play in refugee journeys.
Summer Lollie is the Director of Field Services at the Arkansas Education Association, bringing expertise in public policy and community engagement, supported by a Master's degree from the Clinton School of Public Service. With a background in advocacy and grassroots mobilization, Summer has contributed to various organizations focused on policy development and community empowerment. Their experience includes serving as a Public Policy Voices Fellow at Globally, where they engaged with diverse communities. Summer also worked as a Clinton School of Public Service Graduate Consultant at the Arkansas Association of Asian Businesses, supporting business synergy between Arkansas and Asia.
Robert C. Richards, Jr., Ph.D., J.D. is a co-investigator on Participedia Phase II. He is an associate professor at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, where he teaches a course in communication and civic engagement—which incorporates training in interracial communication—and a course in legal and ethical aspects of public service. His research focuses on how ordinary people deliberate about public issues and participate in governing their communities. He regularly co-organizes interracial dialogues in his community, with the Arkansas chapter of Coming to the Table.
Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs. He joined the faculty at UA Little Rock in 2013 after completing his Ph.D in political science at the University of Colorado at Boulder and teaching at Florida State University and the University of Nevada – Las Vegas. His work focuses on International Relations and Comparative Politics, with a focus on Human Rights, Transitional Justice, and Peace & Conflict Studies.
Lin Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Center for American Studies, School of English Studies, Shanghai International Studies University, China. She was a visiting scholar at McMaster University, Canada from February 2023 to February 2024. Her research focus on the translation and study of Chinese music, African American literature, motherhood studies, intersectionality. Her recent work has appeared in The Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities (2023).
Panel 5: Universal Rights and Democracy in International Politics: Experiences from Below
Omri Grinberg is a postdoctoral fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows (2022-2026) with a PhD from the University of Toronto (2019). Grinberg’s presentation will be part of our panel on Universal Rights and Democracy in International Politics, examining subaltern experiences from global perspectives. Focusing on NGO Archives in Israel/Palestine, his paper revisits persisting concerns on the socio-cultural roles of archives and raises new questions about silent contestations that may represent new opportunities for democratic participation and human rights.
Erika Jiménez is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Law, Queen's University Belfast, where she strives to conduct research that centres marginalised voices and ways of knowing. Erika’s paper will be part of the panel on Universal Rights and Democracy in International Politics and will centre Golani and Palestinian youth’s perspectives on international law and the universality of human rights. This paper is important, as it conducts transnational comparisons of youth perceptions and reactions to violations of their human rights and calls for new ways of giving voice to the voiceless and their struggles.
Augusto Veloso Leão is a resident post-doctoral researcher at Grupo de Pesquisa em Mídia e Esfera Pública, in Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, and holds a PhD in International Relations from Universidade de São Paulo (IRI/USP). Augusto will present his paper in our panel on Universal Rights and Democracy in International Politics, focused on the subaltern experiences of persons who are both refugees and LGBTQ+ people in Brazil. As these minorities are increasingly persecuted, the paper highlights the impact on their lives of exclusionary practices that are institutionalized at local and global levels.
Shannonbrooke Murphy is an Associate Professor and Endowed Chair in Human Rights at St. Thomas University. She has been a legislative, political, and policy advisor to Irish parliamentarians on matters of human rights and related provisions of the Good Friday Agreement (the 1998 Irish Peace Agreement). She was appointed to the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission in 2023. She was appointed Director of the Atlantic Human Rights Centre in 2024.
Panel 6: Children’s Rights/Human Rights and Democratic Praxis
Dustin Ciufo is an Assistant Professor at King’s University College at Western University. His teaching and research focus is on children’s rights, participation, and activism. These areas of study are contextually explored across peace and conflict, migration, and global development issues that includes transnational youth activists in mine action, unaccompanied minors in Canada, and child domestic labourers in Haiti. His academic focus is intent on critiquing adult-centric norms, values, and institutions as a means by which to facilitate child and youth-adaptable practices.
Robert C. Richards, Jr. (Ph.D., Communication Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania State University; J.D., University of Virginia) is a co-investigator on Participedia Phase II, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, an interdisciplinary affiliate at the University of Arkansas Center for Communication Research, and a co-organizer of interracial dialogues with the Arkansas chapter of Coming to the Table. His most recent publication, with John Rountree and Chul Hyun Park, is “The Washington Climate Assembly: Note-taking Modalities as Deliberative Guidance in an Online Citizens’ Assembly,” published in Journal of Applied Communication Research in 2024.
Ali Dunbar is a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service. She is a social impact strategist working at the intersection of design, research, and community engagement. With experience across Central Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Dubar specializes in cross-cultural program development, human-centered research, and digital strategies that advance environmental sustainability, cultural preservation, and children's rights.
Julia Rodriguez is a Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. She is the author of Civilizing Argentina: Science, Medicine, and the Modern State (University of North Carolina Press, 2006) and Editor of the open-source teaching website HOSLAC: History of Science in Latin America and the Caribbean (www.hoslac.org). With Adam Warren and Stephen T. Casper, she co-edited the volume Ethics, Colonialism, and the Human Sciences: Troubling Encounters in the Americas and Pacific (Cambridge UP, 2004). She is currently working on two research projects: the first on nineteenth-century Americanist anthropology in transnational perspective; and the other on children’s rights across Europe and the Americas in the twentieth century
Panel: 7: Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Governance and Human Rights
Jesi Carson is a design researcher and interaction designer specializing in community engagement. She is Design Director of Participedia, Board President of the Vancouver Design Nerds Society and Co-founder of the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation. Rooted in design justice, Jesi's work bridges research, education and public practice across global and local contexts.
Lydia Tambudzai Chibwe is a Project Officer and Research Fellow in the Women’s Rights Unit at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, with a PhD in Development Studies and expertise in women’s rights, migration and sustainable development. Chibwe will co-present a paper in our panel on Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Governance and Human Rights, which makes the case that rural women in Zimbabwe, who often lack a voice, can overcome cultural barriers to the protection of their sexual and reproductive rights and influence policymaking through practices of deliberative democracy.
Sindiso Nozitha Nkomo is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, where she focuses on advancing sexual and reproductive rights, women’s empowerment, and the international protection of human rights across the African continent. Nkomo will co-present a paper in our panel on Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Governance and Human Rights, which makes the case that rural women in Zimbabwe, who often lack a voice, can overcome cultural barriers to the protection of their sexual and reproductive rights and influence policymaking through practices of deliberative democracy.
Johannah Keikelame is an independent researcher with a PhD from Stellenbosch University, focused on collaborative research in democracy, social accountability, and human rights. She will co-present this paper in our panel on Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Governance and Human Rights, which shares findings from a case study of citizen-led engagement from a local South African community. This important paper brings the democratization of human rights practices to life and introduces an innovative scorecard for promoting human rights via active and inclusive citizen participation in local governance processes.
Mfalatsane Priscillah Motsuenyane is a social scientist and PhD candidate experienced in Asset-Based Citizen-led Development and participatory citizen-centered research. She will co-present this paper in our panel on Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Governance and Human Rights, which will share findings from a case study of citizen-led engagement from a local South African community. This paper is important as it brings the democratization of human rights practices to life and introduces an innovative scorecard for promoting human rights via active and inclusive citizen participation in local governance processes.
Workshop Co-Sponsors
Workshop Organizing Committee
Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh, Co-convenor, Professor, McMaster University
Dr. Melissa Levin, Co-convenor, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Melike Yilmaz, Research Coordinator, McMaster University
Nnamdi Nnake, Graduate Research Assistant, McMaster University
Maia Lepingwell-Tardieu, Graduate Research Assistant, McMaster University
Adham Assaad, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Toronto