Human Rights have been a source of both hope and disappointment for LGBTQI+ people; queer scholarly responses have veered between utopian attempts at radical transformation of the discipline and appeals to ignore the siren-call of rights. This lecture reflects on the failures and futures of queer engagements with human rights.

Loveday Hodson is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Leicester. She joined Leicester University in 2004 after completing her PhD in International Human Rights Law at the University of Warwick. Her primary research interest lies in the intersection of international human rights law, gender, and sexuality. She has published widely on conceptions of LGBTQI+ family rights in international law. She co-edited Feminist Judgments in International Law (Hart), which was the winner of the American Society of International Law’s 2020 Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship. Additionally, she has an interest in social movements and has worked with a number of NGOs on the rights of LGBTQI+ families. She co-founded, and for a number of years convened, the European Society of International Law’s interest group on Feminism and International Law. She currently sits on the editorial board of Feminist Legal Studies.