Remarks at the University of Middlesex, School of Law Graduation Ceremony
London, 17th July 2013
A dhaoine uaisle, a cháirde; Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniú.
Vice Chancellor, Deputy-Vice Chancellor, fellow graduates, ladies and gentlemen, it is truly an honour to join you here today.
I would like to thank Professor Joshua Castellino, Dean of the School of Law, for his warm and generous remarks. They mean all the more to me because I am personally aware and grateful for Professor Castellino’s valuable work on human rights at the Irish Centre for Human Rights and the National University of Ireland Galway, and particularly his work for minorities and migrants, including travellers.
I am delighted and honoured to receive the award of Doctor of the University of Middlesex at the graduation ceremony for the School of Law.
It is a privilege to join graduating students and their families on this very important day as we celebrate your achievements in various fields of Law and the Humanities.
It is a day for you and your family to acknowledge and take pride in the individual efforts, sacrifices and commitment that made this day and this celebration possible. I warmly congratulate you all on this special day, that recognises and honours your work and your sacrifices.
May I commend the University of Middlesex and the School of Law on its increased focus on international human rights, complementing the traditional strengths of the School of Law in employment and health and safety law.
It is a source of real pleasure to me that so many of the leading professors and academics at the School of Law, all experts in their field, are of Irish origin or associations. A well as Professor Castellino, these include my good friend and former colleague at the National University of Ireland in Galway Professor Bill Schabas, whose published work on the International Criminal Court, on the crime of Genocide and the Abolition of the Death Penalty is regarded as the seminal work in these fields. As a fellow sociologist myself, I am also delighted to acknowledge Professor Louise Ryan.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Michael Driscoll, has of course strong Irish lineage and over 150 students currently studying at the London campuses of the University are Irish born, with a great many more of Irish descent.
I am delighted that so many of the University’s faculty also enjoy strong academic links with Irish Universities, particularly with the Irish Centre for Human Rights.
I have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing many of these people during my own time at the National University of Ireland in Galway and in the course of our shared interest and work in the promotion of human rights.
The Irish people owe a great debt to Professors Shabas and Castellino and their staff for establishing Ireland as an activist in human rights advocacy and advancement and, most valuably, in areas and among people of the greatest vulnerability – such as the stateless people of the Rohinge in North Arakan State of Western Burma. In 2010, Joseph Powderly and Nancie Prud’homme, with Professor Shabas, published a valuable report on the Rohinge people that was funded by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.
I congratulate the University on the recent relocation of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, under the directorship of Professor Phillip Leach, to the University as part of the School of Law. This will further strengthen the University’s international standing in human rights research, scholarship and advocacy, and will act as a source of inspiration to your students.
Students here today have benefitted from the vibrant research culture at the School of Law, a culture that fosters intellectual activity and enquiry and the acquisition of critical capacity. This level of critical thinking will be crucial for your life in the field of law, where the protection and promotion of human rights and social justice, through the equitable application of the law, will I know be at the heart of your work.
As you prepare to embark on careers or further studies, you will have been reminded by your teachers that your academic formation here was not a preparation for a life of passivity or of unquestioning acceptance of so-called inevitabilities. It aims to prepare you for a life of creative and ethical thought; a life that seeks to be the arrow and not the target of social, economic and political change; and a life that will make a positive difference in the fragile and interdependent world we all share together.
You are graduating at a time when old paradigms of thought are perishing with great consequences of a social and personal kind. New connections between law, society, economy, diplomacy and international relations are emerging.
Putting the stamp of humanity on these will be your challenge and I hope your achievement. It is your generation that must bring us through the intellectual winter towards the promise of a worthy intellectual spring.
Once again, I renew my thanks to the Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and the University Executive for this great honour. I am delighted and proud to accept this honorary doctorate. Thank you all very much and enjoy your day.