20th December 2007

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Sian Fisher

Sian Fisher, graduating today with an LLM in Human Rights Law from the Transitional Justice Institute, has won the prestigious Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Dissertation prize for her work on child soldiers in Africa.

A graduate of the LLB in Law and Government, Sian, (22), from Ballyclare, is now studying to be a barrister at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies in Belfast.
 
Her award winning dissertation on child soldering was also the first legal anthropological thesis submitted in the history of the university’s LLM course.
Sian said that while child soldiering is an issue in many areas of conflict around the world, she focussed on African countries and, in particular, Sierra Leone.

“Not only are child soldiers denied a childhood, but they are often directly involved in the conflict, subjected to horrific violence themselves and forced to carry out acts of violence on others, sometimes even to members of their own community. The dissertation looked at some of the many difficulties former child soldiers continue to face even if the conflict they are involved in is resolved.”

The prize is awarded annually for the Best Dissertation submitted for the LLM in Human Rights Law at Ulster's Transitional Justice Institute (TJI). The programme is taught at the Jordanstown and Magee campuses and hosts international and domestic students.

Sian’s supervisor, Dr Kirk Simpson of the TJI, said: “Sian has produced a tremendous and award-winning legal anthropological piece of work. This shows the inter-disciplinarity that we really stress at the TJI and builds on the successes we have had in attracting research funding for this sort of work. Sian showed enormous dedication and character during the course of writing her dissertation.”

Dr Michael Hamilton, LLM Course Director added: “The LLM in Human Rights Law at the Transitional Justice Institute has, in its first three years, attracted a number of extremely talented and high calibre students.

“Today’s graduation ceremony highlights the fact that the programme thrives on its diverse student body, bringing together local and international students. This year we have students graduating from all over the world including Zimbabwe and Tunisia.

“We also have a mixture of students who have recently graduated and students who are returning to education after many years. We also have students with both law and non-law backgrounds. This diversity significantly enriches students’ learning experience. We warmly congratulate all our graduates today, and wish them every continued success in the future.”  

For further information, please contact:

Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter