Lecture Archive 

Second IHSA Annual Lecture | Rapid Changes Ahead | May 2025

The second lecture ‘Rapid Changes Ahead: Technology and Evidence Gathering relating to Allegations of International Crimes in times of War’ took place on Wednesday 21 May 2025, at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague, Netherlands. The lecture was introduced by Antonio De Lauri (President, IHSA), and given by Judge Fergal M. Gaynor, renowned international jurist who is a Judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague and is the Reserve International Co-Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The lecture was followed by a roundtable with:

• Roundtable moderator: Dr Jeff Handmaker (Legal Mobilization Platform, ISS)
• Professor Thea Hilhorst (The Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre, ISS)
• Tessa Terpstra (Save the Children, Director of Advocacy)
• Eva Khair (Sudan Transnational Consortium, Director)
• Professor Oscar Bernal Acevedo (Universidad de los Andes & MSF)

First IHSA Annual Lecture | War and Humanity | May 2024

The first lecture took place on Thursday 23 May 2024, at the Literature House in Bergen. The inaugural lecture was introduced by Antonio De Lauri (President, IHSA), and given by Khaled Quzmar, (General Director of Defense of Children Palestine).

It was followed by a reflection by Francesca Albanese (UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories), and a roundtable featuring:

• Munzoul Assal (Chr. Michelsen Institute)
• Susanne Jaspars (SOAS/IHSA)
• Carla Vitantonio (Care International/IHSA)
• Andrew Cunningham (IHSA)

There are a series of five blogs resulting from the first IHSA Annual Lecture:

1. ‘War between successive peoples is considered a moral evil, and indicates an increasing collapse of the values of human rights and law‘ by Thomas Ansell (IHSA Coordinator) and Khaled Quzmar (General Director of the Defense for Children International Palestine)
2.  ‘“The principle of humanity in war’’: a reflection on the IHSA Annual Lecture 2024’ by Andrew Cunningham (IHSA Treasurer)
3. ‘IHSA Annual Lecture Reflection: Starvation crimes, network shutdowns, and obstacles to humanitarian action in Gaza and Sudan’ by Susanne Jaspars (IHSA Vice-President)
4. IHSA Annual Lecture Reflection: Reconsidering ‘humanitarian values’, shifting the power, and who’s knowledge matters by Carla Vitantonio (IHSA Board Member)
5. Munzoul Assal (Professor at the universities of Khartoum and Bergen and Scholar at Risk at the Chr Michelsen Institute) provides an in-depth discussion of the long-term crisis and instability facing Sudan in the blog Counting the dead won’t save lives: looking beyond humanitarian disaster in Sudan.