Professor Brad K. Blitz


Professor Brad K. Blitz
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment
Kingston University London
Penrhyn Road, 
Kingston upon Thames, 
Surrey KT1 2EE, United Kingdom
 

Tel:      ++ 44 (0)20 8547 2000
Fax:     ++ 44 (0)20 8547 7497
Mobile:  ++ 44 (0)7754881260
Email:   b.blitz@kingston.ac.uk

Projects

Current projects include:
 
International Observatory on Statelessness - Institutional Development
 
The International Observatory on Statelessness has developed over the past 18 months from an empirical investigation of four European states into a series of funded projects that now include both the European Union and other regions. It is a global initiative which has drawn support from a number of international partners including Refugees International, Plan International, the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, the Equal Rights Trust, Bard College’s Human Rights Project, UNHCR, the Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.  The website includes a global survey of statelessness and a searchable database containing ten years' worth of archived materials on birth registration from the Plan International/UNICEF global campaign.  A further database is being developed around materials on denial and deprivation of citizenship provided by Refugees International.
 

Leverhulme Project: Responding to Systemic Human Rights Violations: an Analysis of ‘Pilot Judgments’ of the European Court of Human Rights and their impact within national systems (Director: Prof. Philip Leach, London Metropolitan University).

  

This project evaluates the European Court’s “pilot judgment” procedure, as a response to systemic human rights violations. It examines the nature and context of the Court’s pilot judgments, and assess to what extent they lead to systemic changes at the national level within Council of Europe states. The research seeks to identify strengths and weaknesses of the pilot judgment process, and make recommendations for reform. A principal hypothesis of this proposal is that the effective implementation of pilot judgments is a critical element in ensuring access to justice and the adequacy of redress for victims of human rights violations within Europe. Case studies include: Slovenia, Poland and Italy.