This panel event is held as part of the event series for the Library and Fortify Rights’ exhibition A Chance to Breathe – Photographs by Rohingya Refugees in Cox’s Bazar Camp.

We will hear from leading international and human rights lawyers Schona Jolly KC and Philippe Sands KC, alongside Matt Smith, Co-Chair of Fortify Rights.

They will be reflecting upon the exhibition, the photograph project it documents, and the background and context of efforts to secure justice for Rohingya under international law.

About the Speakers

Schona Jolly KC is a leading barrister and Head of Cloisters Chambers Human Rights Practice Group and International Practice Group. She was Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales from 2019- 2021, after being Vice Chair and an Executive Committee member. She is also a Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths University, London. She was appointed King’s Counsel (then Queen’s Counsel) in 2017. Her legal practice covers a broad range of international law, and she advises and litigates in matters relating to public international law, including on state immunities and extraterritorial jurisdiction, violations of fundamental human rights (including on genocide and crimes against humanity), business and human rights, employment rights, forced labour, minority rights and international sports disputes.

Philippe Sands KC FRSL FBA is Professor of the Public Understanding of Law at University College London Faculty of Laws and Samuel and Judith Pisar Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is a practicing barrister at 11 King’s Bench Walk (11KBW) and appears as counsel before the International Court of Justice and other international courts and tribunals. He sits as an arbitrator in international investment disputes and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He is the author of Lawless World (2005) and Torture Team (2008) and numerous academic books on international law, and has contributed to the New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, the Financial Times, The Guardian and the New York Times.

His most recent books are East West Street: On the Origins of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide (2016) (awarded the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize, the 2017 British Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and the 2018 Prix Montaigne) and The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive (2020), also available as BBC and France Culture podcasts. His latest book is The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy (2022). Philippe was President of English PEN for five years until April 2023.

Matt Smith is a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. Matthew previously worked with Human Rights Watch, EarthRights International, Kerry Kennedy of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and as a community organizer and emergencies social worker in the United States. In 2019, he received a Fellowship at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and he was a 2014 Echoing Green Global Fellow. Matthew’s work has exposed genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, multi-billion-dollar corruption, and other human rights violations. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, TIME, the Guardian, and other outlets.