Humboldt Law Clinic Grund- und Menschenrechte and
Chair of Public Law and Gender Studies

Tuesday February 6th, 2018, 6 pm, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Faculty of Law, UdL 9, Room 213

Prof. Dr. José Manuel Barreto Soler (Universidad Católica de Colombia, Universidad Externado de Colombia)

Introduction and Chair: PD Dr. Anna Katharina Mangold, LL.M. (Cambridge), Chair of Public Law and Gender Studies, Faculty of Law, HU Berlin

The talk will explore the question: What does it mean to think decolonially – or how to decolonise thinking? Mainstream Eurocentric histories of human rights will be examined in contrast to a history of rights linked to modern imperialism. The lecture will end with some considerations on the practical consequences of such a critical dialogue between Eurocentric and Third-World perspectives on human rights.

José Manuel Barreto works on the decolonisation of human rights and international law, and explores their history and theory in the context of modern imperialism. He edited ‚Human Rights from a Third World Perspective: Critique, History and International Law‘ (2013). He studied Philosophy and Law at the National University and the University Externado of Colombia, respectively. He holds an MA in Human Rights at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, he obtained a PhD in Law from Birkbeck College, both at the University of London. He was a Rechtskulturen Postdoctoral Fellow at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at the Kate Hamburger Kolleg, University of Bonn. He is currently a lecturer at the Universidad Católica de Colombia and Universidad Externado de Colombia.