Oct212025
Global Human Rights in a Multipolar World
Join us for lunch and a discussion with Professor George Katrougalos, UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.
Event Overview
The world is becoming more multipolar and less multilateral. The North-South divide is deepening. The international order is upended. Unsanctioned lawlessness is undermining the United Nations rules system. In this context, what role can global human rights still play? Do they remain an emancipatory force, or have they become, in practice, a form of “freedom in a fishbowl”? And beyond that, is there still space to imagine a revitalization of multilateralism, one capable of addressing global inequalities and ensuring that international norms retain their binding force in a fragmented world?
Join us for a conversation with George Katrougalos, UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, professor of public law at Democritus University of Thrace, and former Foreign Minister of Greece. Katrougalos will address these questions through the lenses of international law, institutional practice, and global political dynamics. He will examine the limits and potential of human rights regimes, the future of UN-centered multilateralism, and the possibilities for reimagining a more equitable and democratic international order in an era of fragmentation. The discussion will be moderated by Salma Waheedi, Lecturer on Law and Executive Director of the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School.
Lunch will be provided.
This event is sponsored by the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School.
About the speaker
George Katrougalos is the United Nations Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order and professor of public law at Democritus University of Thrace. He is Vice-President of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL), with expertise on Human Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law, Democracy, Social Rights and Social Policy.
Katrougalos completed his law degree in Athens Law Faculty and his master’s degree and Ph.D. in Paris I, Pantheon Sorbonne. He has taught at many universities in Europe, USA and Asia. He has been Emil Noel Fellow and Senior Emile Noel at New York University (2007 and 2012) and visiting professor at Roskilde University (1994-1995), as a fellow of the Danish Academy of Science. He has practiced in international tribunals, advised governments and the Council of Europe and worked on institution building in many countries in Europe and Asia. He has published extensively in Greek, American and European legal reviews.
Katrougalos served as member of the European and the Greek Parliament, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, State Minister for European Affairs, Minister of Labor and Social Solidarity and State Minister for Administrative Reforms. He was President of the Unified European Left at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and President of the Sub-Committee on the Arab World and the Middle East of PACE.