Alex Neve to Deliver Lodhi Lecture in Human Rights

7:00 PM
Kinsella Auditorium
McCain Hall

Alex Neve will deliver the 2026 Lodhi Lecture in Human Rights on February 17, 2026 in the Kinsella Auditorium. Following the lecture, there will be a book signing for his new Massey Lectures book UNIVERSAL: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World.

Alex Neve is a leading Canadian human rights advocate, Former Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada, and Massey Lecturer for 2025.

Alex is presently a Visiting and Adjunct Professor in International Human Rights Law at the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University, and a Senior Fellow with the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He previously served as Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada from 2000 – 2020, and took part in over forty human rights research and advocacy delegations throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, Guantánamo Bay and, closer to home, First Nations communities in Canada. He also served as a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, taught at Osgoode Hall Law School and was affiliated with York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies, and worked as a refugee lawyer in private practice and in a community legal aid clinic.

He earned an LLB from Dalhousie University, a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, received three honorary Doctorate of Laws degrees from St. Thomas University, the University of Waterloo, and the University of New Brunswick, was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, served as a Trudeau Foundation Mentor, and is a recipient of a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is also a Fellow of the Atlantic Human Rights Centre. Most recently he was named Massey Lecturer for 2025, delivering and publishing a lecture series and book entitled ‘UNIVERSAL: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World’.

“Universality is the core promise of the human rights order born out of the devastation of World War II and the Holocaust; these rights extend to everyone, everywhere, at all times, without exception,” he says.

“But the cruel reality is that the word universal also screams of our profound failure to keep the promise. Too often, human rights are applied selectively, withdrawn on the whims of political leaders, or ignored altogether, and the broken promise is palpable in humanity’s darkest moments, not only in violent conflict, but also in the economic, political, and social structures of our fractured world. This is not universality’s finest hour. At a time of immense global challenges, including the climate crisis, mass atrocities, and the rise of hate, the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is deeply contested and frayed, even as people demand and embrace their rights as never before. Weaving together law, history, and stories from decades on the front lines of the struggle for human rights, I investigate where we went wrong, how we have progressed, and what we can do to fulfill the promise that human rights are inherent, inalienable, and applicable to all people.”