Strickland Foundation to hold seminar on human rights, journalism

The Strickland Foundation is to hold a seminar on human rights and journalism at the Erin Serracino Inglott Hall at the university on November 28 at 6 p.m.

The seminar, 'Do human rights protect journalists?', is being organised with the cooperation of the Centre for Communication Technology of the university.

It will be chaired by Dr Giovanni Bonello, a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

The speakers will be Sir Nicholas Bratza, also a judge at the ECHR and Anna Austin, a solicitor at the registry of the same court.

They will field questions from the floor.

Entrance to the seminar is free and it will be open to the public. Further information may be obtained from Ms Marie Clare Sammut on 21 435890 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Dr Giovanni Bonello graduated LLD in 1958 from the university of Malta. Specialising in constitutional law, he has defended 170 human rights cases in the Maltese courts, the European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights.

Dr Bonello was elected to the post of judge at the ECHR in Strasbourg by the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe.

He is a committee member and former vice-chairman of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and a Cavalliere della Repubblica on the initiative of the president of the Italian republic.

Dr Bonello is a prolific author on Maltese history. He co-authored Maltese Postcards 1898-1960 (1985) and edited Girolamo Gianni in Malta (1994).

Sir Nicholas Bratza was educated at Wimbledon College and Brasenose College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar in 1969. He practised as a barrister from Chambers at 1 Hare Court specialising in commercial, public and international law.

Sir Nicholas appeared as counsel in numerous cases before the former European Commission and the ECHR. He was appointed junior counsel to the Crown in 1978 and became Queen's Counsel in 1988.

In 1993, he was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court and became a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn. In the same year, he was elected as the UK member of the European Commission of Human Rights, becoming vice president of the First Chamber in 1997.

In 1998, he was appointed a High Court judge and elected as the first UK judge of the new, permanent ECHR, in which he is one of the four section presidents.

Sir Nicholas is governor and former vice-chairman of the British Institute of Human Rights, a member of the Council of the British Institute of Human Rights, a member of the Council of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and a member of the editorial board of the European Human Rights Law Review.

Anna Austin graduated in law firm at the University College, Dublin, in 1987 and qualified as a solicitor in 1991, working until 1994 in commercial litigation.

In that year, she was appointed to the secretariat of the European Commission of Human Rights. She lectured in the Law of International Institutions at Syracuse University in Strasbourg in 1997 and was also appointed that year as deputy ombudsman for Bosnia and Herzogovina.

In 1998, Ms Austin was appointed to the registry of the new ECHR and has lectured extensively on the Convention. She is one of the founding contributors to 'Human Rights Practice' published in 2000 in the UK and remains its consultant on Article 10 of the Convention.