Professor Colleen Murphy is part of the organizing committee for the inaugural workshop on Paradigms and Transformations in Transitional Justice and Human Rights. Hosted at the University of Birmingham in May 2025, the conference seeks to bring together leading experts in transitional justice and human rights. The aim of this initial workshop is to explore dominant visions of accountability within transitional justice and human rights, as well as to develop ideas for future collaborations by exploring key aspects of the relationship between transitional justice and human rights—synergies, tensions, and other patterns and divergences. 

The organizers are seeking abstracts considering questions including:

• How are the transitional justice and human rights fields related and how are they distinct?
• What has shaped the anti-impunity paradigm in these fields?
• What visions of accountability and prevention in each field have been displaced by, or could displace, penality?
• How might human rights be mobilised to critically examine problematic (racial/colonial/carceral) paradigms within transitional justice, and vice versa?

Both academics and practitioners working in the fields of transitional justice and human rights are invited to submit abstracts (max. 300 words) on these topics by November 15, 2024, by email to Kate Webster: klw564@student.bham.ac.uk. Participants selected will be asked to share draft papers or paper outlines (minimum 2,000 words – maximum 8,000 words) prior to the workshop to facilitate discussion.