Andrew Thompson

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science Global Governance Programs (MA and PhD) and Partnership Manager    

Andrew Thompson
Staff, BSIA Fellow
Staff, BSIA Fellow

RESEARCH CLUSTERS

RESEARCH CLUSTERS

Andrew Thompson

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science Global Governance Programs (MA and PhD) and Partnership Manager

asthompson@balsillieschool.ca

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Andrew S. Thompson is adjunct assistant professor of political science at the University of Waterloo, senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and the Global Governance Programs and Partnership Manager at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Waterloo, and is a specialist in the fields of international human rights, civil society movements and fragile states.

Andrew is the author and co-editor of five books, On the Side of the Angels: Canada and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UBCP, 2017),  Fixing Haiti: MINUSTAH and Beyond (UNUP, 2011), In Defence of Principles: NGOs and Human Rights in Canada (UBCP, 2010), Critical Mass: The Emergence of Global Civil Society (CIGI/WLUP 2008), and Haiti: Hope for a Fragile State (CIGI/WLUP 2006), along with numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Andrew has appeared as an expert witness before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, and the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights. In 2004, he was part of an Amnesty International human rights lobbying and fact-finding mission to Haiti. In 2016, he participated in a number of United Nations consultations on issues of reform of the global refugee protection system, and in 2017 was named Special Advisor to the World Refugee Council.

Andrew has served on the boards of a number of human rights organizations and post-secondary institutions. From 2011 to 2017, he served on the Board of Amnesty International Canada’s anglophone branch, taking on the role of Chair in 2015. Also in 2011, he was a member of the advisory editorial board of the Global Civil Society Report, the annual report of CIVICUS: The World Alliance for Citizen Participation.

He is currently writing a book on the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Awards

  • 2022 SSHRC Connections Grant for Next 100 – Reimagining Global Futures ($24,694)
  • 2019 SSHRC Insight Grant — The Defenders: A Short History of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ($70,390)
  • 2017 Aid to Scholarly Publications Grant — On the Side of the Angels: Canada and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights ($8000)
  • 2010 Aid to Scholarly Publications Grant — In Defence of Principles: NGOs and Human Rights in Canada ($8000)

Select Publications

  • Thompson, Andrew and Jennifer Kandjii. 2022. “Human Rights in an Illiberal World.” In Routledge Handbook of Statecraft and Diplomacy, edited by Brian McKercher. London: Routledge. 245-256.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2019. “The First World Conference on Human Rights and the Challenge of Enforcement.” Iran Namag 3 (4): 72-90.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2018. “Canada, Human Rights, and the Future of the Liberal International Order”. International Journal 73 (2): 299-307.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2018. “Keeping the Promise: Three Proposed Accountability Mechanisms for the Global Refugee Regime”. World Refugee Council Discussion Paper no. 1: 1-6.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2017. On the Side of the Angels: Canada and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
  • Thompson, Andrew and Jacqueline Lopour. 2016. “Preparing New Teachers to Work with Refugee Students: Proposal for a Bachelor of Humanitarian Education”. Global Leadership and Refugee Policy Series. no. 1: 1-16. Waterloo: Centre for International Governance Innovation.
  • Thompson, Andrew and Paul Heinbecker. 2016. “New Leadership on the Refugee Crisis and the Long Road to September”. Policy Magazine. July/August: 23-25.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2016. “Values, Enforcement and Evidence: Gross Human Rights Violations”. Statistics, Science and Public Policy: Volume XX Democracy, Change and Values. Edited by A.M. Herzberg. 57-60. Kingston: Queen’s University.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2016. “Entangled: Canadian Engagement in Haiti, 1968-2010”. From Kinshasa to Kandahar: Canada and Fragile States in Historical Perspective. Edited by Michael K. Carroll and Greg. 97-120. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2015. “Tehran 1968 and Reform of the UN Human Rights System”. The Journal of Human Rights. 14 Issue 1: 84-100.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2014. “The Slow ‘Evolution of Standards’: The Working Group on Indigenous Populations and UNDRIP,” “. The Internationalization of Indigenous Rights: UNDRIP in the Canadian Context. 29-36. Waterloo: Centre for International Governance Innovation.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2013. “Creeping Beyond Balance? Reconciling Security and Human Rights in Uncertain Times”. Targeted Transnationals: The State, the Media, and Arab Canadians. Edited by Bessma Momani and Jenna Hennebry. 54-67. Vancouver: University of British Columbia University Press.
  • Thompson, Andrew and Jorge Heine. 2011. “Fixing Haiti: MINUSTAH and Beyond”. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2010. “In Defence of Principles: NGOs and Human Rights in Canada”. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2008. “Beyond Expression: Amnesty International’s Decision to Oppose Capital Punishment, 1973”. The Journal of Human Rights. 7 no 4 (Winter): 327-40.
  • Thompson, Andrew and Stephanie Bangarth. 2008. “Transnational Christian Charity: The Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches and the Hungarian Refugee Crisis, 1956-1957”. The American Review of Canadian Studies. 38 no 3 (Autumn): 295-316.
  • Thompson, Andrew. 2008. “Uneasy Abolitionists: Canada, the Death Penalty, and the Importance of International Norms, 1963-2005”. The Journal of Canadian Studies. 42 no 3 (Autumn): 172-92.
  • Thompson, Andrew and James W StG Walker. 2008. “Critical Mass: The Emergence of Global Civil Society”. Waterloo: Centre for International Governance Innovation and Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
  • Thompson, Andrew and Yasmine Sahmsie. 2006. “Haiti: Hope for a Fragile State”. Waterloo Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation and Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

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