CPICL Congratulates Professor Nicholas Aroney on Major International Human Rights Research Grant

CPICL warmly congratulates its Director, Professor Nicholas Aroney, on receiving a major grant from the John Templeton Foundation for an ambitious international research project examining how human rights agencies balance competing rights. The project, Benchmarking Human Rights Agencies: How Should They Balance Competing Rights?, will run from 17 August 2026 to 17 May 2029. It has received $1,203,445 AUD from the John Templeton Foundation, with additional co-funding support from The University of Queensland and international partner institutions.

Human rights agencies play a critical role in resolving disputes, advising governments, influencing law reform, and promoting the protection of human rights. Yet they increasingly face difficult questions about how to balance competing rights claims, particularly tensions between freedom of speech, association and religion, and rights to equal treatment and non-discrimination. This project will undertake the first comprehensive international benchmarking study of how human rights agencies navigate these challenges.

Led by Professor Aroney and Dr Joel Harrison from the University of Sydney, the project brings together an international team of 17 researchers from leading universities across Australia, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The project will examine human rights agencies operating at international, regional, national and subnational levels across all inhabited continents. It will culminate in a major comparative report, training resources, scholarly publications and international engagement activities designed to support reform and improve human rights governance worldwide.

The project’s international and comparative approach closely reflects CPICL’s commitment to addressing complex public-law challenges through rigorous comparative research and engagement with institutions and policymakers across jurisdictions.