Catherine Morris

Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Human & Social Development University of Victoria

  • Victoria BC

Catherine Morris is involved in education, research and advocacy on international human rights, peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

Contact

Social

Biography

Catherine Morris has been working in the field of international human rights for over a decade, and in the field of peace and conflict studies and practice since 1983, including founding, leadership, policy, research and teaching in academic institutions and civil society organizations in Canada. She is an Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Human & Social Development at the University of Victoria. Her teaching, research and advocacy has led her to work in nations around the world, including Thailand, Cambodia, Honduras, Austria, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Rwanda, Bolivia, and Bangladesh.

Industry Expertise

International Affairs
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Legal Services
Non-Profit/Charitable
Research
Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise

International Human Rights
Peace and Conflict
Cambodia
Thailand
Mediation
Dispute Resolution
Conflict Transformation
Religion conflict and peacemaking
Reconciliation
Conflict Resolution
Policy Analysis
Research
Higher Education

Accomplishments

Victoria Bar Association Volunteer Award

Catherine Morris received the Victoria Bar Association Volunteer Award in 2015 for her work on the rule of law through promotion of international human rights.

Education

University of British Columbia

LL.M.

Law

2001

University of Alberta

J.D.

Law

1978

Affiliations

  • Adjunct Professor Faculty of Law University of Victoria
  • UN Liaison, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada
  • Director Peacemakers Trust

Languages

  • English

Media Appearances

Democracy continues to be undermined in Cambodia

IAPS Dialogue, University of Nottingham,  online

2017-08-09

Cambodia’s elections are always a bell-weather of peace and human rights in the country.

In the 4 June 2017 local commune elections, seven million people, more than 85 per cent of registered voters, peacefully turned out to elect 12,000 representatives in 1,646 communities around the country. Observers found some noticeable irregularities, but in comparison with past elections, the polls went ‘smoothly.’ Yet the commune elections were no harbinger of peace. For months during the run up to the elections, long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) demonstrated a long-familiar pattern of violent threats and deployed another potent weapon – the law.

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Canada's Forgotten Child Hostages

The Toronto Star  online

2017-05-16

Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman were travelling in Central Asia when they were captured in Afghanistan in 2012. Their innocence, youth and citizenship in Canada and the U.S. made them ideal hostages. They — and their children — are innocent of wrongdoing or involvement in Afghanistan’s conflicts. This family is no less entitled to protection against human rights violations than diplomats, aid workers or journalists. Instead of inspiring public outrage at their captivity, they have been forgotten.

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Time for a New US-ASEAN Human Rights Dialogue

The Diplomat  

2016-02-12

Ahead of next week’s U.S.-ASEAN summit at California’s Sunnylands retreat, human rights groups and others are calling on President Barack Obama to use the occasion to publicly raise concerns about human rights and democratic regression in Southeast Asia ...

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Event Appearances

Canada’s International Human Rights Obligations and Bill C-51

Panel presentation sponsored by the Canadian International Council  Victoria, BC

2015-03-31

The Impact of Mediation on the Culture of Disputing in Canada

Event sponsored by the ADR section of the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association  Victoria, BC

2014-04-02

International Human Rights and Access to Justice: International Right to Legal Aid

Access to Justice: Community Conference  Victoria, BC

2014-03-07

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Articles

Justice Inverted: Law and human rights in Cambodia

Peacemakers

2016

Much has changed in Cambodia since the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, a series of peacebuilding initiatives by the United Nations (UN) and foreign donors that aimed to uproot violence and impunity in the country and implant human rights and the rule of law.

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The Impact of Mediation on the Culture of Disputing in Canada: Law Schools, Lawyers and Laws

Peacemakers

2013

Experiments with mediation began to take place in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s in response to widespread concern about access to justice and negative social impacts of adversarial disputing.

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