President´s Welcoming Address

Welcome to the Ius Gentium Conimbrigae / Human Rights Centre (IGC/HRC) website. Here, you can find all the information about the institute’s history, statutes, governing bodies, as well as on its diverse activities.

The IGC/HRC was created more than two decades ago, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, at the initiative of Professor Gomes Canotilho. It became the first university centre, in Portugal, dedicated to the research, education and advanced training in human rights, both through the regular organisation of courses (namely, a post-graduation course which had its first edition in 1998) and the development of many other projects in all of these three areas, based on a multi-disciplinary and theoretical-practical approach, from initiatory to the most advanced post-doctoral levels.

The IGC/HRC is hosted at the Faculty of Law of the University Coimbra and is associated with the Faculty through an institutional cooperation agreement. Thus, the IGC/HRC is an autonomous legal entity, self-governed with its own funds which result from its activity. Under the referred agreement, the IGC/HRC manages, on behalf of the University of Coimbra, the Portuguese participation in the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights (E.MA) hosted in Venice (of which I am the national director), as well as other academic programmes that are included in the Faculty’s official academic offer, despite being of the exclusive responsibility of the institute, such as the successful post-doctoral programme.

As its name suggests and human rights entail, the IGC/HRC has an universalistic vocation, hence, it does not limit its activity to Portugal, encompassing several programmes jointly developed with foreign universities and other institutions, namely at the European Union level (as already mentioned E.MA and “I Have Rights” project) and at the national level, in the Portuguese speaking countries, from Brazil to Timor-Leste.  

Thank you for visiting.

Coimbra, October 2017.

Vital Moreira (IGC/HRC Board President)