Personal statement
My research interests lie in the field of European and international human rights law interpetation by judicial and non-judicial actors, including at local levels.
I lead the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law, which is a focal point for staff and student engagement in human rights law research and teaching. I am Programme Leader for the PgCert/PgDip/LLM Human Rights Law.
I am the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
I am currently the Executive Secretary of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (since 2017).
I have been a member of the British Medical Association's Human Rights Working Group, and the Scottish Human Rights Commission's Research Advisory Group. I was a member of the Academic Advisory Panel to the National Taskforce on Human Rights Leadership in Scotland.
I have been an Erasmus visiting teacher at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, and have spent time at the Institute for Human Rights and Critical Studies at KU Leuven in Belgium, as a Royal Society of Edinburgh/Caledonian Research Foundation European Visiting Fellow.
I have a particular interest in participatory research, public engagement, and assessment and feedback practices.
I speak fluent French.
Expertise
Has expertise in:
- Interpretation of human rights, including by civil society actors
- Interpetation of the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment
- Human rights interpretation and interactions in the environmental governance context
- European human rights law
- Regime interaction in international public law
- Human dignity in human rights law
- Human rights-based approaches, including in healthcare
- Human dignity and human rights education
- Human rights protection in Scotland and the UK.
Qualifications
I studied Law and French Language (LLB Hons) at the University of Glasgow, International Politics (MA) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and Human Rights and Democratisation (MA) at the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights, Venice, Italy/Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2010, I was awarded a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where I held an Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award.
Teaching
I have taught human rights law and public law across undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. I am the module leader for Human Rights Law in Theory and Practice at Honours level, and for European Human Rights Law on the LLM in Human Rights Law.
Research interests
My research focuses on human rights law interpretation and implementation by a range of actors, at international and local levels.
A key strand of my research focuses on interpretation of the right not to be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment by judicial bodies and other actors. I am interested in all aspects of this right, including its understanding and implementation in diverse fields of application, such as in the socio-economic sphere, and in other areas of international law, such as in international humanitarian law. I have written a monograph entitled Dignity, Degrading Treatment and Torture in Human Rights Law: The Ends of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
A second strand of my research focuses on human rights interpretation by a range of actors in the environmental governance context. I am currently a co-investigator on the UKRI funded One Ocean Hub. I am also intersted in the relationship between the right to a healthy environment and the concept of human dignity.
A cross-cutting theme relates to the meaning and interpretive impact of the principle of respect for human dignity, at the level of theory but also practice. This includes an interest in the connection between respect for dignity and interpetation of economic, social and cultural rights; I have undertaken research on the rights to health, water, housing, and participation in cultural life. Past and on-going projects also consider human rights and human dignity as understood by student teachers and student nurses.
Other cross-cutting themes relate to creative pedagogies in human rights, human digntiy, and legal education, and in methodologies of human rights research.
Professional activities
- Åbo Akademi University
- Visiting researcher
- 24/4/2023
- Welsh Government’s Human Rights Legislative Options Working Group
- Participant
- 2023
- The Right to Take Part in Cultural Life: Briefing Paper presentation
- Speaker
- 12/2022
- Being Human Lecture: Dignity in care, the human rights-based approach, and human rights culture in Scotland
- Speaker
- 12/2022
- Annual Kilbrandon Lecture
- Chair
- 12/2022
- Internal PhD examiner
- Examiner
- 11/2022
More professional activities
Projects
- 'Human Dignity' and Local Engagement with International Human Rights Law
- Webster, Elaine (Principal Investigator)
- 15-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2021
- Accountability and the Implementation of Self-Directed Support: Complaints, redress, and human rights principles in practice
- Jack, Douglas (Academic) Webster, Elaine (Academic) Gittens, Charmaine (Research Co-investigator)
- 16-Jan-2019 - 29-Jan-2021
- Dignity Engagement Space for Nurse Education using a Human Rights based Approach - DESNEHRA
- Webster, Elaine (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2022
- GCRF One Ocean Hub
- Morgera, Elisa (Principal Investigator) Baum, Thomas (Co-investigator) Cathcart, Alison (Co-investigator) Clark, Bryan (Co-investigator) Da Lomba, Sylvie (Co-investigator) Heath, Mike (Co-investigator) Revie, Matthew (Co-investigator) Sindico, Francesco (Co-investigator) Switzer, Stephanie (Co-investigator) Vermeylen, Saskia (Co-investigator) Webster, Elaine (Co-investigator) Laverick, Jack (Researcher)
- 13-Jan-2019 - 12-Jan-2024
- Putting it into action together extension
- Quinn, Neil (Principal Investigator) Webster, Elaine (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2018 - 30-Jan-2023
- Legislative Study on the Right to Water for Food and Agriculture
- Morgera, Elisa (Principal Investigator) Sindico, Francesco (Co-investigator) Vermeylen, Saskia (Co-investigator) Webster, Elaine (Co-investigator)
- 10-Jan-2017 - 31-Jan-2018
More projects