Inadmissibility of torture-tainted evidence: the role of the legal profession

Baroness Kennedy is one of the country’s most distinguished lawyers. Born and brought up in Glasgow, she is a member of the Bar, a King’s Counsel, a Bencher of Gray’s Inn, an Honorary Writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 Honorary Degrees from many universities including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education. She has also been honoured by the Governments of France and Italy for her considerable work on women’s rights. She was created a life peer in 1997 and has been a strong advocate for social justice and the rule of law in the House of Lords. She has recently been awarded the Order of the Thistle, the highest honour in Scotland. Over the last thirty years she has been at different times Chancellor of Oxford Brooke’s University, Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, President of the School of Oriental and African Studies and Principal of Mansfield College Oxford. She was also Founder of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford in 2018. Helena Kennedy’s public service has covered many fields. She was a Commissioner on the Education Commission from 1992-4 and led a government inquiry in Further Education from 1994 – 1997, producing the seminal report, Learning Works.  She was Chair of the British Council from 1998 – 2004, Chair of the Human Genetics Commission from 1998- 2008. She has chaired many public inquiries including in 2004 the Inquiry into Sudden Infant Death for the Royal Colleges of Pathology and of Paediatrics and in 20012 an Equality and Human Rights Commission Inquiry in Scotland addressing Human Trafficking. She also led the recent Scottish Parliamentary Inquiry into Misogyny. She is President of Justice; the law reform think tank and currently is director of the International Bar Association’s Institute of Human Rights. Helena Kennedy has authored a number of groundbreaking books on women and the law. She is President of the Helena Kennedy Foundation which gives bursaries to disadvantaged students. In 2021, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Baroness Kennedy evacuated 102 women judges and prosecutors who were on death lists (with their families so the total number was 508) by raising the funds, securing safe houses,  chartering planes, and resettling the women around the world. She is currently working for the President of Ukraine on war crimes and trying to recover the thousands of children who have been abducted from Ukraine by Russian forces. 

Judge Myjer served as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights from 2004 to 2012 and is currently serving his second term as a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists, following his election in 2013. He is an Emeritus Professor of Human Rights at the Free University of Amsterdam. Previously, Judge Myjer held the distinguished positions of Deputy Prosecutor-General/Chief Advocate General at the Court of Appeal, Amsterdam (1996-2004); Advocate-General of the Court of Appeal, The Hague (1991-1995); Vice-President of the District Court of Zutphen (1986-1991); and Judge of the District Court of Zutphen (1981-1986). Judge Myjer holds a Masters degree in Law from the University of Utrecht and has also served as Associate Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Leiden. He has written and contributed to over forty books, conference papers and commentaries; has co-edited several books including the Human Rights Manual for Prosecutors (2003) and was a founding member of the editorial board for the Netherlands Humans Rights Law Review (NJCM-bulletin – 1976-2004). He is also a member of the board of Amnesty International the Netherlands, the UAF (Foundation for Refugee Students) and the International Service for Human Rights. In 2000, Judge Myjer was honoured as Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau, for work undertaken in the Netherlands in the field of human rights, and in 2012 he was promoted to Commander. In 2001 he received the Medal of Merit of the Council of Europe, for his contribution to the human rights education for members of the Dutch Judiciary. In 2004 he was awarded with the Certificate of Merit of the International Association of Prosecutors. In 2012, he was made an honorary bencher of the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inn, United Kingdom.

Gitau Mwangi is a Legal Advisor on National, Regional and International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Mwangi is an innovative, dedicated, diligent legal professional, with over five years' global experience, working on human rights and governance. His practice focuses on legal analysis, legislative drafting, and public interest litigation among other disciplines. He has amassed expertise in law reform, democratic governance and constitutionalism at the national and regional level.

Ilvija Pūce is a lawyer (LL.M. in International and European Law) with more than twenty years of experience in the areas of international human rights and solid work experience at national and international levels, with in-depth knowledge of international human rights law and of international and regional human rights systems and practices. She is a Member of the United Nations Committee against Torture (elected for the period of 2020-2023) and Legal Adviser at the Department of Administrative Law, Supreme Court of Latvia. She was previously a Member of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in respect of Latvia (2007-2019).

Patricia del Arenal Urueta holds a bachelor’s degree in Law by Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, where she graduated with highest honours. She attended Harvard Law School to study an LL.M and later enrolled in a Visiting Researcher program. In 2014, she was awarded with the “Romulo Gallegos” Fellowship at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, where she spent a year focusing on admissibility issues of individual cases and petitions. She currently works as a clerk to Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena at the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice. Her work has been focused on human rights and criminal due process.