On 13 May 2026, the Centre of Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge hosted ‘Assemble! Protest Politics and Rights’, a public panel to mark the launch of the Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly (Oxford University Press, 2026), edited by Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Michael Hamilton, Thomas Probert, and Sharath Srinivasan. Held in the same room that had hosted an invitation-only scholarly symposium earlier that day, the event was designed not as a conventional book launch but as a convening – one might say, an assembly – intended to generate, in the words of the chair, Professor Sharath Srinivasan, ‘the friction of disagreement and discussion’ and ‘the electricity of people who have actually put their bodies, their consciences and their will on the line.’
Four outstanding panellists were invited to reflect on the theoretical and practical significance of assembling in our age: Agnès Callamard is Secretary General of Amnesty International and former UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, where she led the investigation into the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Gina Romero is a Colombian human rights lawyer and activist, currently serving as UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, who came to the role from years working with social movements and communities across Latin America. Martha Spurrier is a barrister and human rights practitioner and former Director of Liberty, who has fought for the rights of protesters both in the courtroom and in the public sphere. Roger Hallam is the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, and most recently Assemble. He was recently released from prison in after serving eighteen months of a five-year sentence (overturned to four on appeal) for blocking the M25 motorway to protest fossil fuel extraction in 2022. The evening moved through three thematic rounds: why assembly and protest matter personally and politically; the threats facing those rights and the forms of resistance to them; and a closing manifesto from each panellist. Questions from the audience followed.
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