Human Rights and the Crisis of World Order
2026 Annual Conference
Image Credit: Broken Spaces, Sandy Snowden, Textile/Quilt
Friday, January 23, 2026
In-Person Only at UCLA School of Law
The world today is on an accelerated path toward rising authoritarianism, widening inequality and unsustainable growth. This time of crisis has strained peaceful relations between people and nations and has caused the decline of human rights.
Scholars have noted changes to global governance, the vulnerability of international institutions, the apparent rise of nationalism and geopolitical spheres of influence, and social conflict generated by global inequality and climate change as some of the phenomena associated with this crisis of world order.
Featuring a keynote from Dr. Albert Barume, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this conference seeks to engage the structural forces shaping our world in this moment and explore critically the role and relevance of human rights as a moral, political and legal force for social action and transformative justice.
Where does the human rights project stand in relation to the struggle for human dignity, equality, repair of our relationship to the Earth, and the creation of alternative models of social life and organization? What is the role of legal frameworks and international institutions in ordering the world toward these values? What gives us reason for hope in this moment?
This conference will consist of a conversation around these questions and others provoked by the current crisis of world order for human rights and the human rights project writ large. We will engage a community of scholars and practitioners of human rights from various fields of expertise and institutional positions, from both the global south and north. We hope the conversations will inspire a new way of thinking or imagining human rights for the future, informing our practice and collaborative efforts to build a world of human dignity in line with an ethos of care for each other and the planet.
We are excited to share that because our Conference registration list is at capacity, we are no longer accepting new registrants. For related or further inquiries, please email us at promiseinstitute@law.ucla.edu
Broken Spaces, Sandy Snowden, Textile/Quilt
Tents of Displacement, Sandy Snowden, Textile/Quilt
About the Artwork
Artist Sandy Snowden (1960 – 2020) often expressed ideas of justice and drew attention to those suffering oppression and persecution through her quilts. Her work has been widely shown internationally.
Broken Spaces and Tents of Displacement were displayed in the exhibit “OURstory Quilts: Human Rights Stories in Fabric” in 2018 at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, followed by a nationwide tour and publication in the book of the same name by artist, author, and curator Susanne Miller Jones.
More of Snowden’s work can be seen on her website. We are grateful to Jim Snowden for permission to use the images.
Image Credit: Top of Tents of Displacement, Sandy Snowden, Textile/Quilt
Conference Program
Registration, Coffee & Pastries
8:30 – 9:00am
Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:00 – 9:20am
- Cathy Sweetser, Interim Executive Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Los Angeles)
- Michael Waterstone, Dean, UCLA School of Law
- Dr. Eric Esrailian, Board Member, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA (with locations at UCLA School of Law and in Europe), Chief, Vatche & Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases; Director, Melvin and Bren Simon Digestive Diseases Center; Lincy Foundation Chair in Clinical Gastroenterology; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Conference Introduction
9:20 – 9:30am
- Joseph Berra, Director, Human Rights in the Americas Project, The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Los Angeles)
Break
10:45 – 11:00am
Keynote
11:00am – 12:15pm
Featuring
- Dr. Albert Barume, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- With introduction and moderation by Anna Spain Bradley, MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights, Professor of Law and Faculty Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA (with locations at UCLA School of Law and in Europe)
Lunch
12:15 – 1:30pm
Challenges to Democracy and International Institutions
1:30 – 3:00pm
The current crisis in world order is straining the foundations of democracy and international institutions in various ways. Our panel will address these challenges, assess the future of these institutions, and the struggles to preserve, transform, or make them relevant.
Panelists will present critical perspectives on international law and institutions, focusing on transnational networks attacking the rule of law; the shortcomings of rights frameworks in international law; the ability to realize self-determination rights within a non-state collective, and the state vs non-state distinction in international law; and whether international institutions can function as spaces to defend human rights and the rule of law in the face of erosion of domestic institutions.
Panelists
- Scott Cummings, Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics, Professor of Law, UCLA Law
- Saira Mohamed, Agnes Roddy Robb Chair in Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Social Responsibility, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley Law
- Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Sheller Family Professor in Public Interest Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
- Lauren van Schilfgaarde, Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA Law
Moderator
- Cesare P.R. Romano, Professor of Law, W. Joseph Ford Fellow, Loyola Law School
Break
3:00 – 3:15pm
Future World Order(s) and the Meaning of Human Rights
3:15 – 4:30pm
This panel closes the conference with a dynamic, thought-provoking, and forward-looking dialogue about the future world order(s) and the role of human rights therein. Panelists will discuss how frameworks like the United Nations Charter might evolve for our future world, addressing rising authoritarianism, generational value shifts, technological advancements, and ecological survival. Drawing upon the conference’s theme, this panel will grapple with a central question offering critique and inspiration along the way — is there a role for human rights in our collective future?
Panelists
- Cheryl Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, UCLA Law
- Obiora Okafor, Edward B. Burling Chair in International Law, Faculty Co-Lead, Governance, Politics, and Society Focus Area, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
- Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director, Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders
Moderator
- Anna Spain Bradley, MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights, Professor of Law and Faculty Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA (with locations at UCLA School of Law and in Europe)
Closing Remarks
4:30 – 4:45pm
- Anna Spain Bradley, MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights, Professor of Law and Faculty Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA (with locations at UCLA School of Law and in Europe)
Poetry Reading
4:45 – 5:00pm
Poet
- Momo Alvarado, Poet
Introduction By
- Kate Mackintosh, Executive Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Europe)
Closing Reception
5:00 – 6:30pm
Image Credit: Bottom of Tents of Displacement, Sandy Snowden, Textile/Quilt
Social Movements and Human Rights
9:30 – 10:45am
Social movement actors have helped define human rights through their struggles and demands upon national and international systems. This panel will explore the impact of social movements on the human rights project and their challenges and priorities going forward.
What do social movements have to say to the human rights movement and how do they define human rights at a grassroots level? Are social movements relying on human rights discourse, or are they building alternative or complementary vocabularies of justice?
Panelists
Moderator