Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights

From Unravelling Commitments to Reinforcing Universality: Reaffirming International Human Rights Law amid Withdrawal and Backsliding"

📅 Tuesday 26 May 2026
📍 “Alkis Argyriades” Amphitheatre of the NKUA

We are pleased to continue our panel presentation series for MFHR’s upcoming conference with the introduction of the second of our three panels — “International Human Rights Bodies under Pressure” — featuring keynote speaker Judge Ivana Jelic, moderator Photini Pazartzis, and distinguished speakers Maria Daniella Marouda, Natasa Mavronicola, and Aikaterini [Katerina] Tsampi.

Panel 2 will examine how political contestation over human rights and sovereignty claims affects the functioning, interpretative authority, and institutional standing of international human rights bodies. It will focus on contexts in which states, while remaining formally committed to international human rights frameworks, exert political and legal pressure that risk constraining the scope and authority of international courts and monitoring bodies, and reshaping their role within multilateral human rights frameworks.

In this regard, the panel will explore practices such as calls to reinterpret Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the context of migration, including proposals to deploy evolutive interpretation in ways that would narrow, rather than expand, the level of protection afforded. Panel 2 will also address the increasingly expansive invocation of restriction and limitation clauses for purposes extending beyond those for which they were originally designed. It will thus examine how international human rights bodies have responded to such pressures, including the European Court of Human Rights’ evolving jurisprudence under Article 18 of the Convention, and assess the implications of these dynamics for the authority, coherence, and resilience of multilateral human rights adjudication.

We’re excited for what promises to be an insightful and highly relevant conversation.

📌 Join us in person or online. Livestream links will be made available in due time.

🔗 The full conference program is available here:https://www.mfhr.gr/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Conference-program-1.pdf