Hard Law Versus Soft Law

Does "Law" Matter in Preventing Conflict?

A John Packer Seminar

John Packer is a Former Director in the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the OSCE

Time:
Monday, 23 August 2004 13:15 – 15:00
Venue:
NCHR Seminar Room

John Packer is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Until February 2004, he was Director in the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), located in The Hague. Between September 1995 and March 2000, Mr. Packer was Senior Legal Advisor to the HCNM. He was previously a Human Rights Officer at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva where he held responsibilities for the Commission on Human Rights investigative mandates on, inter alia, Iraq, Myanmar (Burma) and the Independence of the Judiciary. Prior to his employment with the UN, Mr. Packer was a consultant for the International Labour Organisation and for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He holds degrees in Political Studies and Law and has lectured at a number of universities and professional institutions around the world.

In a pro bono capacity, Mr. Packer is Associate Editor of the Human Rights Law Journal and a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Minority and Group Rights and the European Yearbook of Minority Issues, and of the editorial advisory boards of the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe and of The Global Review of Ethno-Politics. Mr. Packer also serves on the boards of Minority Rights Group (International), the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), and the World Federalist Movement (Canada).

For more information:
Richard Hustad Miller, room 364, NCHR
Tel: 22 84 20 27