Piergiuseppe Parisi
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Piergiuseppe is a lecturer at the Centre for Applied Human Rights and the York Law School and the co-convener of the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice.

Prior to his current role, Piergiuseppe worked as a research associate for the Generating Respect Project and the Human Rights Defender Hub, both hosted by the Centre for Applied Human Rights, as well as an associate lecturer at the York Law School teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. 

Prior to joining the Centre, Piergiuseppe worked as a research assistant for the HERA-funded MELA (Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspective) Project. He was a visiting scholar at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University College London. His doctoral research focused on the impact and effectiveness of Human Rights Council-mandated human rights inquiries in Israel and Palestine.

Piergiuseppe has extensive field experience in Israel/Palestine, Colombia and Mali.

Piergiuseppe is legally trained in Italy and has worked as a Protection Strategies Intern at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He has also interned at REDRESS, assisting in the preparation of ground-breaking torture cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. 

Piergiuseppe holds a PhD in International Studies from the School of International Studies of the University of Trento (Italy), an LLM in Legal Studies from the London South Bank University (UK) and a combined MA and BA in Law from the University of Trento (Italy).

Publications

Selected publications

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES:

1. ‘The Arrest and Continuous Detention of Egyptian Researcher Patrick Zaki’ (2021) 30(1) The Italian Yearbook of International Law 522-528.
2. ‘The Opening of an Investigation into the Situation in Palestine by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: The Road Uphill’ (2021) Ordine Internazionale e Diritti Umani 772-779.
3. ‘Fact-Finding in Situations of Atrocities: In Search of Legitimacy’ (2021) 12(1) Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies 141-154.
4. (With second author, Laize Gabriela Benevides Pinheiro), ‘Negação (2016) e negações: liberdade de expressão e agressão à democracia’ (tr ‘Denialism (2016) and denialisms: freedom of expression and the assault on democracy’) (January 2021) 7(2) Fronteiras & Debates 233-236.
5. ‘International Fact-Finding Missions’ in Manish Thapa and Scott Nicholas Romaniuk (eds), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2019) [online].
6. ‘Introduction: Law and Historical Injustice’ (2018) 13(1) The Journal of Comparative Law 20-25.
7. ‘Sulle immunità e gli obblighi di cooperazione con la Corte Penale Internazionale: la vicenda del Sudafrica e Al Bashir’ (tr ‘On immunities and duties of cooperation with the International Criminal Court: South Africa and Al Bashir’) (May-August 2017) III(2) Indice Penale - Novissima Serie 16-21.
8. ‘Il processo italiano al Plan Condor: la sentenza della Corte di Assise di Roma del 17 gennaio 2017’ (tr ‘The Italian ‘Plan Condor’ trial: a commentary on the Court of Assizes decision of 17 January 2017’) (May-August 2017) III(2) Indice Penale - Novissima Serie 69-71.

EDITED SPECIAL ISSUE

1. (With first guest co-editor, Nanor Kebranian) ‘Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspective’ (2018) 13(1) The Journal of Comparative Law: Special Issue.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDITED BOOKS OR COLLECTIONS

1. (With first author, Irene Wieczorek), ‘Research Question’ in Jean-Frédéric Morin, Christian Olsson and Ece Ozlem Atikcan (eds), Research Methods in the Social Sciences (Oxford University Press, 2021) 242-246.
2. ‘The Obligation to Criminalise Historical Denialism in a Multilevel Human Rights System’ in Patrycja Grzebyk (ed), Responsibility for negation of international crimes (IWS – Instytutu Wymiaru Sprawiedliwości 2020) 41-53.
3. ‘Vicisitudes en el proceso de creación del Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex Yugoslavia y su función en el desarrollo del Derecho internacional penal’ (tr ‘The circumstances surrounding the establishment of the ICTY and its function in the development of international criminal law’) in Héctor Olasolo and Pilar Eirene de Prada (eds), La Evolución de la Definición y la Aplicación del Delito de Genocidio: La Contribución Iberoamericana y el Legado del Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex Yugoslavia (Tirant lo Blanch, el Instituto Iberoamericano de La Haya para la Paz, los Derechos Humanos y la Justicia Transicional & el Instituto Joaquín Herrera Flores, 2020) 337-363.
4. (With second author, Gareth Sims), ‘Hindrances to Access to a Remedy in Business-related Cases in Colombia: The Case of Gilberto Torres’ in Jena Martin, Karen E Bravo and Tara L Van Ho (eds), Dying to Be Heard (Anthem Press, 2020) 31-44.
5. ‘Le politiche della memoria dell’Unione europea: la Shoah e la legislazione anti-negazionista’ (tr ‘Memory politics in the European Union: the Shoah and anti-denialism legislation’) in Francesco Berti, Filippo Focardi and Joanna Sondel (eds), Una memoria comune europea? Italia e Polonia di fronte alla Shoah (Viella, 2019).

NON-PEER REVIEWED SCHOLARLY CONTRIBUTIONS:

1. ‘Finding the Crime: the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict through the lenses of International Criminal Justice’ (2013) Diritto Penale Contemporaneo [online].

BLOG POSTS AND OP-EDS:

1. ‘Trial Observation in Turkey’ (February 2019) Central London Lawyer 18.
2. ‘A “creeping annexation” of identity, culture, history and memory’ (5 June 2018) openDemocracy.
3. ‘Colombia: fine del conflitto con le FARC? Prospettive dal sud-ovest colombiano’ (tr ‘Colombia: an end to the armed conflict with the FARC? Perspectives from the South-West of Colombia’) (13 September 2016) ISPI Commentary.

BOOK REVIEWS:

1. Review of Philip Alston and Sarah Knuckey (eds), The Transformation of Human Rights Fact-Finding (2017) 15(2) Journal of International Criminal Justice 400–401.

OTHER OUTPUTS:

1. (With others), ‘Supporting a Human Rights-based Approach to Co-production in York after the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (Centre for Applied Human Rights, November 2021) Shaping a Human Rights-Based Approach to COVID-19 in the City of York: Policy Brief No. 2.
2. ‘Embedding Human Rights in Equalities Impact Assessments’ (Centre for Applied Human Rights, May 2021) Shaping a Human Rights-Based Approach to COVID-19 in the City of York: Policy Brief No. 1.
3. (With others), On the human rights frontline: How the UK Government can defend the defenders (Amnesty International UK and Centre for Applied Human Rights, January 2021).
4. (With others), Righting Corporate Wrongs? Extractivism, corporate impunity and strategic use of law (War on Want, September 2019).
5. (With others), Amicus curiae in the case: I/A Court H.R. The institution of asylum, and its recognition as a human right under the inter-American system of protection (interpretation and scope of Articles 5, 22(7) and 22(8) in relation to Article 1(1) of the American Convention on Human Rights). Advisory Opinion OC-25/18 of May 30, 2018. Series A No. 25.

Research

Overview

Piergiuseppe’s research interests span the broad areas of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal justice, and transitional justice, with a specific focus on human rights fact-finding, indigenous rights and human rights defending.

He has been awarded funding by the AHRC-funded Creating Safer Space research network to conduct the project: ‘Ritualising’ protection in conflict: a collaborative visual ethnography of the cultural and spiritual protection practices of the Nasa people in Colombia. This project seeks to understand how Nasa ancestral spiritual and cultural practices protect indigenous communities in the midst of the Colombian armed conflict and what coordination mechanisms could be put in place to ensure that these practices are effectively supported by the state. The project will start in October 2022 and end in September 2023.

Previously, Piergiuseppe co-led a project titled Shaping a Human Rights-Based Approach to COVID-19 in the City of York, a collaboration with the City of York Council and York Human Rights City aimed at researching co-production practices between the Council and the charitable sector in decision-making and policy development across the city, as well as on existing framework for assessing the human rights impacts of the Council’s policies and decisions. Building on this, Piergiuseppe secured CPD funding to design, pilot and conduct a Human Rights Training for City of York Council staff and Civil Society Organisations in York.

Piergiuseppe also worked as a research consultant for the Amnesty International UK-led Brave Indicators Project, which sought to develop a set of recommendations addressed to the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) advocating for the adoption of a coherent and consistent strategy for the support and protection of human rights defenders abroad.

Piergiuseppe’s research employs doctrinal, interdisciplinary, socio-legal, empirical and arts-based research methodologies.

Teaching

Postgraduate

Applying International Human Rights Law (module convenor)

Human Rights Placement (module co-convenor)

Dissertation (supervisor)

External activities

Overview

Piergiuseppe serves on the Board of Trustees and Directors of the Colombian Caravana, a London-based charity that supports human rights lawyers and defenders in Colombia.