Research from Birmingham City University’s School of Law is applied worldwide to promote human dignity.
Research Summary
Research produced in the School of Law on capital punishment and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems has been applied to promote human dignity worldwide. Our work has:
- Informed a recommendation to the Myanmar Government that it adopt a moratorium on capital punishment;
- Aided the Sudanese Human Rights Initiative to prevent wrongful punishments and inspired UN Member States and leaders to report human rights violations in the Sudan; and
- Influenced the development of the UN Guiding Principles of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, and standards and certifications for emerging technologies produced by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Research Background
Yorke, Nazir and Storey’s research presents multidisciplinary arguments that capital punishment is a violation of human rights, including the concept of human dignity. Yorke's research demonstrates that capital punishment is gradually being relinquished as an independent sovereign decision. Yorke and Storey provide a worldwide lens of this phenomenon, emphasising the importance of history in assessing the global perspective on capital punishment, including the development of specific mechanisms, such as the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review. Yorke and Storey argue that contributions of civil society are best achieved through promoting understanding of "the force of human rights." Yorke and Nazir's research places the political rejection of capital punishment in the context of religious perspectives on monotheistic religions. They argue that capital punishment is incompatible with God's attributes of mercy grace and love, and recommend a multi-faith statement in favour of abolition, which would serve as “a monotheistic platform for the realisation of human dignity…”
Ulgen’s research develops a cosmopolitan theory to regulate lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) arguing for a “world community interest” approach. Ulgen contends that Kantian ethics provides a "human-centric" framework for governance AI and robotics whereby human existence and rational capacity are central to norm creation. Ulgen combines law and Kantian ethics to develop a secular, legal-philosophical notion of human dignity based on status, entailing rights and duties, and respectful treatment.
Impact and Outcomes
In 2017, Yorke advised the high-level Myanmar government workshop on the Moratorium of the Death Penalty and led attendees in drafting an Outcome Statement recommending that the Myanmar government adopt an official moratorium on the death penalty. The UPR Project at BCU’s stakeholder report — authored by Yorke, Nazir and Storey — to Myanmar’s 2020 Universal Periodic Review recommended the Outcome Statement be implemented, a suggestion expressly noted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In 2014, Nazir and Yorke used their expertise in human rights and Islamic law to aid the Sudanese Human Rights Initiative (SHRI) to promote human rights standards and save lives, including that of Meriam Ibrahim — a pregnant women sentenced to death and 100 lashes for apostasy after marrying a Christian man. Meriam Ibrahim’s case “triggered outrage and condemnation around the world.” Due to “their expertise”, the SHRI’s Director “sought advice from … Yorke and … Nazir on the application of international human rights law and Islamic law in the case…” which “helped …[the] legal team to prevent both …punishments” and to free Meriam. Subsequently, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Human Rights and Democracy Programme awarded Yorke and the SHRI £244K+ (across three grants) to promote freedom of religion and access to justice, build capacities, and safeguard human rights in Sudan.
In 2016, Nazir, Storey and Yorke engaged in international alliance building to alert the United Nations to travel restrictions placed on members of the Sudanese Human Rights Initiative by Sudan’s National Intelligence Security Services, which resulted in SHRI members being unable to travel to Geneva to participate in the Sudan’s UPR Pre-session. The BCU team’s work to co-prepare a regional statement and lobby NGOs in Geneva, led to UN Member State delegations raising human rights concerns at the Sudan’s 2016 UPR, and the UN Secretary General welcoming efforts to assist groups subject to such restrictions.
Since 2016, Ulgen has been an Academic Legal Expert at the drafting committees and meetings of the UN Guiding Principles of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (UN GGE on LAWS), under the auspices of the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Ulgen was involved in the drafting committees of the UN Fifth Review Conference in December, 2016, which led to the historic decision by High Contracting Parties to formalize LAWS discussions and establish the UN GGE on LAWS. Ulgen’s work has been instrumental in steering the UN GGE on LAWS deliberations and influenced the drafting of legal and ethical rules on emerging technologies in the area of LAWS in the context of the objectives and purposes of the CCW. Her work has also influenced the development of ethics, principles and values in international standards formulated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s largest technical professional association for electrical and electronic engineering, which produces technical standards for products, services, and systems.
