Videos and Podcasts
For a full list of videos and podcasts at the School of Advanced Study click here
- Lord Goldsmith QC with Dr. Kate Quinn, co-convener of the Caribbean Seminar series
Decriminalising Homosexuality In The Caribbean: The Belize Case In Commonwealth Perspective And Beyond
03/02/2012
The criminalisation of homosexual acts is currently being challenged in the Central American and Caribbean nation of Belize. The United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) has mounted a legal challenge to Section 53 of the Belize Criminal Code which currently criminalises consensual intercourse between adult males. While UNIBAM argues that this provision represents a violation of constitutional rights, the Belize Action Movement (an alliance of churches) has joined the case to oppose any changes to the law. The implications of the Belize case are international in dimension. First it is being seen as a test case for the Commonwealth Caribbean where, with few exceptions, homosexual acts are still criminalised, and gays, lesbians and trans-sexuals face intense discrimination. Secondly the legal challenge mounted by UNIBAM in Belize has attracted support from international organisations including the Human Dignity Trust and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association – prompting accusations of ‘foreign intervention’ from opponents of the campaign. Thirdly, the Belize case is unfolding against a backdrop in which donor nations such as Britain and the United States have begun to press for changes in discriminatory legislation as a condition of aid. David Cameron’s recent suggestion that Commonwealth nations should decriminalise homosexuality as a condition of aid has been vigorously rejected by a number of African nations. This seminar will consider the Belize case in local, regional and international context and its implications for the decriminalisation debate.
This talk was given by Lord Goldsmith QC of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, former UK Attorney General, leads the legal team representing the Human Dignity Trust, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, and the International Commission of Jurists in the UNIBAM case.
View Lord Goldsmith's PowerPoint presentation.
Watch the video of the talk.
- Author Godfrey P. Smith, co-convener of the Caribbean Seminar Series Dr. Kate Quinn, and commentator Lord Michael Ashcroft
BOOK LAUNCH: George Price, A Life Revealed: The Authorised Biography, Ian Randle Press (2011) by Godfrey Smith
On the 1st of February 2012 the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, in conjunction with the Institute for the Study of the Americas, hosted the launch of Godfrey Smith's 'George Price, A Life Revealed: The Authorised Biography', a biography of the man who has been called the 'father of the nation' of Belize.
Read the paper upon which Godfrey Smith based his presentation
Diamond Jubilee Seminar Series: The Monarchy and the Commonwealth
Click here to watch the preview with Professor Philip Murphy and the opening of the Diamond Jubilee Seminar Series with Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy, Professor Philip Murphy, Professor Geoffrey Crossick and Professor Roger Kain
11th and 12th January 2012
New Challenges in Refugee Integration seminar series: "Authority and Inclusion: Reconsidering the Meaning of Integration in a Fragmented Age"
26 October 2011
Professor Loren B Landau, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations, and the End of Empire
This conference examined the role and legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld in relation to decolonisation in the 1950s-60s, in the context of global power shifts, the Cold War, and white supremacist movements. It looked at the experience of newly-independent countries joining the UN, and across the European powers, specifically France, Belgium and Britain.
2 September 2011
OSPA Witness Seminar: The ‘Westminster Model’ and representative government in the era of decolonization
25 May 2011
A transcript of the event is available on the OSPA website.
Inaugural Peter Lyon Lecture: The Commonwealth - A Global Network for the 21st Century
Speaker: Rt Hon Lord Howell of Guildford, Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office
09 March 2011
Britain and the Commonwealth: Confronting the Past - Imagining the Future
Speaker: Professor Philip Murphy, Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
23 February 2011
Serving the Next Generation - The Commonwealth in the 21st Century: Movement for Colonial Freedom
Speakers: The Rt Hon Tony Benn and Professor Stephen Howe (University of Bristol)
9th June 2010
The House of Windsor and the Modern Commonwealth
Speaker: Professor Philip Murphy, Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
27th January 2010
The Human Rights Situation in Iran
Speaker: Dr Shirin Ebadi (2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner)
8th December 2009
Recovering Stolen Generations, Land, and Culture: Indigenous Rights & Transitional Justice
Panel 1: Indigenous Rights
Speakers: Richard Bourne, Alexander Xanthaki, Brunel University; Jeremie Gilbert, Middlesex University; Corinne Lennox, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
1st May 2009
Recovering Stolen Generations, Land, and Culture: Indigenous Rights & Transitional Justice
Panel 2: Lessons from Truth Commissions
Speakers: Catherine Jenkins, School of Oriental and African Studies; Priscilla Hayner, International Centre for Transnational Justice; Rosalind Shaw, Tufts University; Paul Gready, University of York
1st May 2009
