Hi, my name is Patricia Wierter. I'm a tenured direct professor of public law with a special

focus on basic and human rights protection at FAU Erlangen Nürnberg. I am pleased that

you are interested in the FAU human rights talks. What are the human rights talks? The

talks are an example of an innovative teaching concept. They enable students to familiarize

themselves intensively with current topics of human rights protection in a first step

and to discuss them with human rights practitioners in a second step. My teaching goal is that

you, as a participant, experience as many perspectives on human rights issues as possible

in order to form your own critical opinion. In the summer term of 2019, we dealt with the

topic freedom of press in Africa, Europe and the Americas. We addressed current societal and

political challenges the free press is facing in the three regions and analyzed leading cases of

the regional human rights courts. The participants presented their results in short films which are

available online. Both the leading decisions of the courts and a summary of our comparative law

research are online. So have a look. This intensive research served us as a basis to discuss with

representatives of the three courts, amongst others with the president of the African Court

of Human Rights and the British judge of the European Court of Human Rights. We discussed

divergent and comparable judicial methods as well as general possibilities and limitations of human

rights protection with a special focus on the freedom of press which is essential for the

protection of democratic societies. In the winter term 2019 and 20, our topic is the human rights

responsibility of corporations in global supply chains. Can and should German companies be held

responsible for violations of human rights that occur abroad? How should such entrepreneurial

responsibility be designed for the protection of human rights? This is an important and timely topic

and we will talk to a diverse range of petitioners who open up various perspectives. We talked to

representatives of the Bavarian textile and automotive industry. With a major international

law firm representing companies with human rights NGOs and finally with members of the

the German Bundestag.

Would you like to gain insights into human rights practice and need high-ranked practitioners

from courts, civil society, politics and from industry?

Then join us and apply for one of the next Human Rights Talks.