September 1996. The primary day of the Worldwide Regulation of Armed Battle course on the College of Essex. Professor Françoise Hampson was the title being talked about within the corridors within the brutalist constructing that housed the lecture theatre. One classmate informed me that Françoise was the only real purpose she got here to Essex to do the LLM in Worldwide Human Rights Regulation. One other one whispered that she was so good, that it was scary. I used to be curious. Who was this Professor Hampson and why was there an aura of nervous pleasure even days earlier than her class began?
A tall lady with deep blue eyes walked into the lecture theatre. Wearing an outdated saggy hoody, a pair of denims, and mountain climbing boots lined in mud. The place had she simply come from? However no, there was no time for questioning about any of those questions. As she walked into the classroom, she was already speaking. She was speaking a couple of case. Everybody was in a rush to take notes. I didn’t. I couldn’t. I simply sat there and listened. Time disappeared. After two hours hardly stopping to take a breath, she left. I might visually see the total construction of her lecture in my head. All of the circumstances she talked about completely sat below headings, which had caveats and subheadings and the subheadings had additional subheadings. I sat down and drew it. (I nonetheless have this drawing and have used it numerous instances over the past twenty odd years when to show the variations between human rights legislation and the legislation of armed battle). And I then understood that I simply had encountered one of many sharpest, quickest and most exact minds of worldwide legislation or, for that matter, any legislation or logical reasoning. From that day onwards, I thought-about myself one of many fortunate ones; capable of stroll into her workplace, get misplaced within the limitless piles of papers and let time disappear.
Françoise Jane Hampson died peacefully in her residence in Colchester within the night of Friday, 18 April 2025 following a long-term journey with most cancers. She taught on the College of Essex from 1983 till her retirement. She was a towering determine of the Essex Human Rights Centre. She had an unmatched experience within the worldwide legislation of armed battle, worldwide human rights legislation and public worldwide legislation. She formed the interpretation and the appliance of the European Conference of Human Rights within the context of armed battle. Her argumentation in Aksoy v. Turkey (ECtHR) is the primary recognition of rape as torture in worldwide legislation.
Throughout her tenure as an unbiased professional member of the previous UN Sub-Fee on the Promotion and Safety of Human Rights from 1998-2007 and a member of the Fee of Inquiry on Burundi between 2017-2021, each matter Françoise addressed made a long-lasting mark, starting from the interpretation of the prohibition of the dying penalty below customary worldwide legislation and the appliance of the Vienna Conference on the Regulation of Trearties to reservations to human rights treaties to accountability of members of UN peace assist operations and human rights fact-finding in judicial and non-judicial investigations. These are just some examples. Each query of legislation and truth she examined and litigated went via the ‘Françoise impact’. They turned clearer, sharper and, subsequently, mainstream data. If Françoise learn these strains right now, she would vehemently disagree with me. She would merely say these advances have been apparent; anybody searching for readability, rationality, consistency and integrity working with the legislation, would get there.
Françoise Hampson was probably the most modest genious I, and I’m positive many others, have ever met.
She touched the justice struggles and lives of numerous people as a trainer, scholar, authorized advocate, mentor, and buddy. She formed each area of worldwide legislation she labored with into its finest kind, and by no means gave up. And she or he did all of this making everybody round her consider that they might do it too. All of us misplaced an enormous piece of ourselves together with her dying and we’re additionally all of the extra richer as a result of a large with deep blue eyes walked into our lives and worldwide legislation.
Françoise Jane Hampson’s funeral will happen on 22 Might at 1.45 pm at Colchester Crematorium.
Those that want to provide their condolences to her household can accomplish that by emailing the College of Essex Human Rights Centre humanrightscentre {at} essex.ac(.)uk.
(Photograph credit score: UN Photograph / Violaine Martin)
