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Professor René Provost receives research fellowship from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation

Published: 17 September 2015

The Faculty of Law is proud to announce that Professor René Provost has been awarded a research fellowship by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. This prestigious prize, which is valued at $225,000, recognizes public intellectuals in the humanities and social sciences who venture beyond the boundaries of their disciplines to find new solutions to complex issues of major importance to Canadians. René Provost is the fourth Trudeau Fellow from McGill’s Faculty of Law.

Professor Provost’s project will explore the possibility of convincing armed, non-state groups to apply justice by respecting minimum standards of international humanitarian law in conflict zones. The ultimate goal of this project is to promote a public intellectual dialogue that will support innovative policy with regard to insurgent justice.

“René Provost’s leadership in humanitarian law and the protection of human rights on a global level has been growing for two decades,” said Dean Daniel Jutras. “We are immensely proud of this extraordinary recognition of his contribution as a scholar and member of civil society. This award underlines yet again the key role played by universities, and by the Faculty of Law of McGill University in the search for solutions to the most pressing contemporary problems.”

René Provost specializes in international human rights, humanitarian law, and legal theory. He joined the Faculty of Law in 1994, serving as Associate Dean from 2001 to 2003. Between 2005 and 2010, he was the founding director of the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. He recently edited Mapping the Legal Boundaries of Belonging: Religion and Multiculturalism from Israel to Canada (Oxford University Press, 2015).

About the Trudeau Fellowships

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation fellowships were established in 2003 to encourage original initiatives and innovative projects that would not necessarily receive support through traditional funding mechanisms. Nominated by their peers and selected by an independent panel, Trudeau fellows come from all disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, and their research deals with one or more of the Foundation’s four key themes.

For more information, visit www.trudeaufoundation.ca/en/programs/fellowships

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