News and Events

20 January 2026

Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy

Contributing to the debate about public health emergencies and international human rights law

On 20 January 2026, Dr. Rossella De Falco presented a paper at the conference “Health Emergencies and Legal Preparedness: Global, Regional and National approaches”, co-organised by the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and the University of Bologna.

The presentation, focused on international human rights law and public health emergencies, included references to recent research about the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) and broader implications for human rights accountability in multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs).

19-21 November 2025

Flanders Research Foundation, Brussels, Belgium

GENESIS Team presents two draft papers at international conference Future Proofing Human Rights

Over 19-21 November 2025, the GENESIS team presented at the international conference “Future Proofing Human Rights: Developing Thicker Forms of Accountability” from the IBOF Project (19-21 November 2025) at the Flanders Research Centre (FWO), Brussels, Belgium.  On 20 November 2025, J. F. Oliveira Fernandes and Prof. Gamze Erdem Türkelli presented the paper: “Multistakeholder partnerships as human rights duty bearers”, and M. A. Bermúdez Bretón and Dr. Rossella De Falco presented the paper: “Accountability and Multistakeholder partnerships: Human Rights Accountability as a Process”.

10-11 November 2025

University of Padova, Italy

GENESIS Team co-organises and presents at the international conference of the Human Rights Centre, University of Padova, Italy

Over 10-11 November 2025, 2024, the GENESIS team contributed to the international conference “From the Right to Self-determination to the Right to Peace: Human and Peoples’ Rights in the Collapsing Multilateral Order” hosted by the Human Rights Centre of the University of Padova, Italy. Prof. Gamze Erdem Türkelli presented insights and findings from GENESIS in the plenary opening the confererence.

Dr. Rossella De Falco participated as a member of the scientific committee of the conference and chaired the panel: “The Right to Development and the Crisis of Global Governance: Contestations between Multilateralism and Multistakeholderism”.

We warmly thank the conference organizers for this excellent opportunity and look forward to building on this networking and exchange opportunity!

GENESIS team presents at the 7th General Conference of the Law and Development Research Network in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

 From 15–18 July, the GENESIS team took part in the 7th General Conference of the Law and Development Research Network, hosted by the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. In addition to connecting with colleagues from across the field, the team organized a two-hour panel to present the different work packages within GENESIS.

Taking inspiration from a recent FAO guideline for establishing multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) in the food domain (although not endorsing these guidelines), we designed an interactive session where participants engaged in collective brainstorming on the creation of an MSP for food and nutrition. This was based on a hypothetical case study that allowed them to identify essential components and key challenges of MSPs.

In addition, our three PhD researchers had the opportunity to join a two-day Early Career Workshop, which featured interactive sessions on socio-legal research in today’s geopolitical context as well as on research methodologies in Law and Development. A great opportunity to delve into the challenges and the methodological aspects of legal research!

We warmly thank the conference organizers for this excellent opportunity and look forward to building on the valuable feedback received!

News

We are delighted to have participated in this year’s Interdisciplinary Human Rights PhD Circle, hosted by the University of Cambridge on 21 May 2025. This workshop provided us with a platform to present the ongoing research of the GENESIS project on multistakeholder partnerships, human rights, and sustainable development. 

We are thankful for this valuable experience facilitated by the institutional network of the Human Rights Centres at the University of Antwerp, the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the University of Oslo (UiO), and the University of Essex.  

News

Multistakeholder Partnerships, Powerful Private Actors and Global Health 

Dr. Gamze Erdem Türkelli presented insights from the GENESIS project relevant to global health during the symposium entitled “Strengthening Global Health Governance: Defending the Public Interest and Holding Powerful Private Actors Accountable co-organized by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) and the Third World Network in Kuala Lumpur (22-24 April 2025). During her intervention at the plenary session on 22 April 2025, Dr. Gamze Erdem Türkelli drew attention to the increasing role of multistakeholderism in not only the delivery of public goods and goods and services but also public decision-making, including in global health and the accountability challenges that have arisen from the inclusion of powerful private actors at the frontline of these multistakeholder initiatives.

The press release by UNU-IIGH can be found here, and the recording of the first day of plenary is available on YouTube here (comments by Gamze Erdem Türkelli from 7:41:00 onwards)

News

Multistakeholder Partnerships and Human Rights Accountability  

On 17 April 2025, Gamze Erdem Türkelli gave a talk hosted by the University of Maastricht Globalisation & Law Research Network, presenting the GENESIS project. She spoke about the challenge of human rights accountability to rights-holders and the public, as the ever-expanding network of multistakeholder-led partnerships increasingly plays important roles in decision-making as well as the delivery of essential public services.  

The blog post of the event by the Globalisation & Law Research Network may be found here. 

News

On 17 June 2024, prof. Gamze Erdem Türkelli presented the GENESIS project at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights in the context of Current Issues in Human Rights Research – NCHR Lecture Series with a lecture entitled ‘Governing public goods through multistakeholder partnerships: human rights accountability and beyond‘.

The ‘Current Issues in Human Rights Research’ Lecture Series

The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights invites leading academics from across the globe to give presentations on their cutting edge research within the field of human rights. The aim of the lecture series is to explore human rights research from several viewpoints and disciplines.