On 2nd December, ILGSPD was proud to welcome Mark Muller Stuart KC to the University of Glasgow, to present the programme’s Annual Lecture 2025 entitled ‘Peace in a Changing World: Armed Conflicts and Peace-Making in the 21st Century’.

Mark Muller Stuart KC is founder and executive director of Beyond Borders, a Scottish organization dedicated to fostering peace and international exchange, and director of the Scottish Peace Platform. He is also a senior advocate associated with Doughty Street Chambers in London, where he specialises in public international law, criminal, terrorism and human rights related litigation.

Mark regularly advises numerous international bodies on humanitarian and conflict resolution related issues. He was Senior Mediation Advisor to the UN Department of Political Affairs and the UN Special Envoy to Syria in the Syrian peace talks. He has also acted as a Senior Advisor to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (Geneva), Beyond Conflict (Boston) and previously for Inter Mediate (London).

As an advocate and mediator he has appeared before various UN, OSCE, EU, and Council of Europe bodies including the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. He has also written a number of books and reports on human rights and conflict related issues areas, having conducted international missions to Afghanistan, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, India, Cuba, Columbia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Afghanistan.

Mark has been twice recognized and praised for his international work in defence of human rights and vulnerable communities by LIBERTY and JUSTICE in 2006 and 2007. In 2008 he won the Bar Council’s Sydney Elland Goldsmith Award for his work in promoting the rule of law in Afghanistan for the BHRC.

Moderated by Dr Asli Ozcelik Olcay and Prof Christian J. Tams, ‘Peace in a Changing World: Armed Conflicts and Peace-Making in the 21st Century’ explored the pressing challenges of peace-making in today’s global conflict environment, followed by a lively Q&A and reception.