As faculty and students return to campus, ISHR welcomes the 2013 Advocates to the Human Rights Advocates Program, the 2013 Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellows, the Visiting Scholars, incoming HRSMA students, and all others engaged in its programs, with a wine and hors d'oeuvre reception. Please join us!

Learn about ISHR at hrcolumbia.org

The event is free and open to the public; no RSVP is required.

President Joensen will discuss the remaining work of the UNICTR and the closing transition to the residual mechanism for the UNICTR that began functioning on July 1, 2012. He will also review the successes of the UNICTR as well as criticisms directed against the Tribunal. The discussion will be followed by a period for questions from the attendees.

Screening of “The Generals and the Democrat: Burma In Transition” followed by a panel discussion featuring:
Maureen Aung-Thwin, Director Burma Project/Southeast Asia Initiative, Open Society Foundations
W. Patrick Murphy, Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma, U.S. State Department
Frances Zwenig, President, US-ASEAN Business Council Institute
Moderated by Barbara Crossette, United Nations correspondent for The Nation and Author of the Burma chapter in the Great Decisions 2013 briefing book.

Michael Posner will speak on “Teaching Human Rights in a Business School: A View from the Inside.” After more than 30 years at Human Rights First (formerly Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) as founding Executive Director and then President, in 2009 Posner was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the U.S. Department of State. In March this year he stepped down from this post to lead the new Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU Stern School of Business.

Posner’s talk, open to all faculty, staff and students, is part of the third annual workshop of the Columbia Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, an initiative cosponsored by Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights and the Human Rights Institute of Columbia Law School.

Speaker: David L. Phillips (Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights)

Phillips will present a peace plan for resolving conflict between Turkey and the PKK, encompassing (i) disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, (ii) amnesty arrangements, and (iii) truth-telling and reconciliation.

Speaker: David L. Phillips (Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights)

Topic: Phillips will present a peace plan for resolving conflict between Turkey and the PKK, encompassing (i) disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, (ii) amnesty arrangements, and (iii) truth-telling and reconciliation.

This talk will be based on a report by Mr. Colby and his colleague Abraham Denmark for the Center for Strategic & International Studies. This report addresses the increasingly important set of issues surrounding the nuclear forces of the United States and China. It focuses on a series of policy and posture recommendations for the United States, but it does so with an eye toward U.S. allies in the region and Chinese audiences. The report also includes two appendixes: one detailing the Working Groups assessment of China's nuclear strategy, policy, decisionmaking, posture, and capabilities, and one summarizing the Working Groups discussions in Beijing in September 2012.

Elbridge Colby is a principal analyst and division lead for global strategic affairs at CNA, where he focuses on strategic, deterrence, nuclear weapons, and related issues and advises a number of U.S. Government entities.

ANCoRS (The Association of Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Students) is pleased to invite you to a screening of the 2011 documentary film "The Interrupters", which follows the brave work of several "violence interrupters" working to curb gun violence on the streets of Chicago - by inserting themselves directly into harm's way.

Reception with food and drinks begins at 6:00. The screening will be at 6:30, followed by a Q & A session with several real-life violence interrupters currently for the NYC Mission Society in Harlem. These interrupters are people with with the courage and credibility on the streets to interrupt a situation where gun violence seems imminent. They will be available to tell you their personal stories and answer your questions.

Free food and drinks will be provided.

At this annual event, ISHR celebrates the end of another successful academic year and congratulates 2012-2013 graduates. This year’s reception will feature the presentation of student theses, followed by a reception for ISHR returning and graduating students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Refreshments will be served.

Thesis Presentations:
Katrine Bregengaard, “The Making of a Visual Declaration of Human Rights: UNESCO's Human Rights Exhibition, 1949-1953”

Christina Dawkins, “The Sexual is Political: Sexual Relationship Power, HIV/AIDS, and Public Policy in South Africa”

Jawar Mohammed, “The Muslim ‘Other’ in the Formation of the Ethiopian State: Its Impact on the Contemporary Struggle for Religious Freedom”

Allison Tamer, “Inter-organizational Influence: Charter 77 and Helsinki Watch”

A parachute from the Vietnam War, transformed by Cambodian artist Leang Seckon into an emblem of reconciliation, will be the centerpiece of a public peace gathering involving Vietnamese and Cambodian survivors of that war as well as U.S. veterans at Columbia University on May 1 at 5 p.m. The event is open to the public.

Rithy Panh is a critically acclaimed Cambodian documentary film director and screenwriter. His films focus on the aftermath of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. His family was expelled from Phnom Penh in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge, and many of them died in remote labor camps in rural Cambodia.

In this documentary, Vann Nath and Chum Mey, two survivors of the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng Prison, are reunited and revisit the former prison, now a museum in Phnom Penh. They meet their former captors guards, interrogators, a doctor and a photographer in a chilling, confrontational review of Cambodia's violent history.

Screening is followed by a moderated discussion in French. Attendance is free for members and CUID holders, $7 for non-members. Unless indicated otherwise, films are in French with English subtitles.

The 16th Annual David N. Dinkins Forum will examine proposed federal legislation aimed at increasing requirements and restrictions for gun purchase, and will review other strategies for reducing gun violence in urban settings. Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League and 59th Mayor of the City of New Orleans, will deliver the keynote address following opening remarks by SIPA Interim Dean Robert Lieberman and former New York City Mayor and SIPA Professor David Dinkins.

Following the keynote, SIPA Professor Ester Fuchs will moderate a Roundtable Commentary by Richard Aborn, President, Citizens Crime Commission of New York City; John Feinblatt, Chief Advisor to the Mayor for Policy and Strategic Planning, Criminal Justice Coordinator, City of New York; and the Hon. Raymond Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department. SIPA Professors Kristina Ford and Dorian Warren will also participate.

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism present, "China's Environmental Movement and the Role of Investigative Journalism" with Liu Jianqiang, one of China's leading investigative journalists.

Liu Jianqiang is Beijing Editor of Chinadialogue.net, an online, bilingual forum on environmental issues in China. Formerly a senior investigative reporter with Southern Weekend, China's most influential investigative newspaper, he is known for his exposes of the controversial Tiger Leaping Gorge dams in southern Yunnan, genetically modified rice, and the Summer Palace Lake Reconstruction Project, all of which led to shifts in government policy. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journals study of investigative journalism in China as well as in China Ink, the Changing Face of Chinese Journalism, and his books include Heavenly Gems - a Tibetan Legend (2009) and The Last Raft on the Jinsha River (2012).

The New York City Bar's Council on International Affairs and Subcommittee on Islamic Law present the conference, "Women's Rights in the Islamic World After the Arab Spring." There has been a great deal of hope, and some very real progress, in the enhancement of gender equality and women’s rights in many of the Muslim majority nations following the surge of freedom and democracy of the Arab Spring. This program will try to put those advancements in historic context and explain and explore both those changes and the likelihood of their becoming permanent or becoming negated, or even reversed, by fundamentalist forces. Free and open to the public.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day, on May 3, Amnesty International, Global and Joint Studies at NYU Journalism, Reporters Without Borders, The Committee to Protect Journalists, UNESCO, The Overseas Press Club, NYU Center for Religion and Media will celebrate Press Freedom with a day-long symposium “Information on Trial: Reportage, Repression and Redress.”

The event will bring together noted journalists, activists and academics to discuss press freedoms and individual journalists at risk, both at home and abroad. With Keynote speaker George Packer in conversation with Ann Cooper and featuring REPORTERO, a documentary film by Bernardo Ruiz, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.

Thesis in your future? We've got you covered. Please join us for the History Senior Thesis Forum.

This forum, structured as a panel discussion, will feature several senior thesis writers talking about their research process. This is a great opportunity for juniors, faculty and others on campus to hear how senior thesis writers:

-Formulate their interest and questions
-Seek help from the library, museums & special collections, faculty and other support units
-Find resources to support their argument
-Carry out the research process to complete the thesis

No RSVP is required. Please join us for valuable discussion and refreshments!

Please join us for a talk with Ifeanyi Orazulike, Executive Director of the International Centre for Advocacy on Rights to Health in Nigeria and 2011 Human Rights Advocates Program Participant.

Ifeanyi has been the Executive Director of ICARH since 2007. ICARH is an independent research initiative that promotes the rights of sexual minorities in Nigeria. ICARH monitors their situation, conducts research into the causes of and solutions to the problems facing sexual minorities, engages with policymakers to advocate for judicial reform, trains health service providers and organizes conferences, awareness campaigns, workshops and open debates to alter societal attitudes towards sexual minorities.

Since 2007, Ifeanyi has also been serving as the National Coordinator of Sexual Minorities Against AIDS in Nigeria. He is currently a member of the Communities Delegation to the Board of the Global Fund (2011-13). Ifeanyi earned his bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka and the Certificate in Management from the Nigerian Institute of Management in Kaduna State.

The Program on Peace-building and Rights
Invites you to a discussion on the ALBANIAN NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVE

Facilitated by:
DAVID L. PHILLIPS and DANIELLE GOLDBERG
Program on Peace-building and Rights

Commentary:
H.E. FERIT HOXHA
Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations

Remarks:
BESA SHAHINI
Senior Analyst, European Stability Initiative

Rapporteur:
VENERA KUSARI
MA Candidate of Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Columbia University

The Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights Invites you to a discussion with

RICHARD ENGEL, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News on ENDING THE CIVIL WAR IN SYRIA

Engel will also reveal a diary of his Syrian kidnapping—and how his captors terrorized their victims

Moderated by:
David L. Phillips
Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights

David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, has worked on Turkish and Armenian issues for fifteen years. He served as Chairman of the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (1999-2003). He led the Swedish-sponsored Civil Society Task Force on Regional Cooperation (2009-2011). He is author of Diplomatic History: The Turkey-Armenian Protocols (2010). He has also served a Senior Adviser to the United Nations Secretariat and as a Foreign Affairs Expert and Senior Adviser to the U.S. Department of State.

Join us for our next Alumni Speaker Series with HRSMA alum Matthew Kennis, who is currently working as a Research Consultant at the American University of Central Asia. He'll speak about his career trajectory and discuss the issues that he currently works on. This is a great opportunity to learn more about life after the HRSMA!

Christodoulos Kaoutzanis, PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science, will speak on his research on the interaction between international law and international relations. In particular, his thesis analyzes the reasons for which the UN Security Council creates international criminal tribunals.

The Human Rights Research Series provides MA and undergraduate students with the opportunity to learn about different types of human rights research topics, methodologies and disciplinary perspectives. Students who are currently working on their own human rights-related research and/or are interested in pursuing a PhD are encouraged to attend.

The presentation will be followed by a Q&A. Pizza will be served!

RSVP to humanrightsed@columbia.edu (not required but much appreciated!)

David Ondracka is head of Transparency International in the Czech Republic, adjunct lecturer at Czech universities and currently visiting scholar at Columbia. David is experienced anti-corruption and human rights activist with deep expertise on good governance, government contracting and party finance. Regurarly advices governments and companies in the region on good governance reforms and policies. He' s got his education in politics and economics at Central European University Budapest and Charles University Prague.

Transparency International is leading global anti-corruption NGO with its chapter in over 100 countries - more on www.transparency.org

SIPA's Defense and Security Student Organization and the Human Rights Working Group have assembled a panel of students, experts and professors from a variety of backgrounds to discuss the implications of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles by the United States. We have panelists focusing in human rights as well as panelists with a background in security studies. We hope that the event will be more of an open discussion than a typical panel, with cross-talk and dialogue between panelists highly encouraged.

This World Leaders Forum program features an address by Laurent Lamothe, Prime Minister of the Republic of Haiti, titled Balancing Foreign Direct Investments: Disaster Risks and Development in Haiti, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

Opening Remarks by:
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute; Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, Columbia University

Moderated by:
Glenn L. Denning, Director, Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development, The Earth Institute; Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

The Columbia Center for Oral History [CCOH], of the Columbia Libraries, and the Oral History Master of Arts program [OHMA] are hosting a two-dayconference exploring the role of oral history in documenting, disseminating and educating students and the public about the central events and concerns of our times — featuring the Rule of Law Oral History Project and impact of U.S. detention and rendition policies over the last decade. The conference will also survey the impact of Columbia’s path-breaking Oral History Master of Arts program [OHMA], the first program of its kind in the U.S., now in its fifth year. The conference gathers leading experts in the fields of oral history, law, human rights, and the arts.

The Columbia Center for Oral History [CCOH], of the Columbia Libraries, and the Oral History Master of Arts program [OHMA] are hosting a two-dayconference exploring the role of oral history in documenting, disseminating and educating students and the public about the central events and concerns of our times — featuring the Rule of Law Oral History Project and impact of U.S. detention and rendition policies over the last decade. The conference will also survey the impact of Columbia’s path-breaking Oral History Master of Arts program [OHMA], the first program of its kind in the U.S., now in its fifth year. The conference gathers leading experts in the fields of oral history, law, human rights, and the arts.

As Islamic states struggle to modernize and, in some cases, democratize, the issue of women's rights continues to elicit strong feelings and controversy and there are many paradoxes surrounding the idea of Islamic Feminism. Why are conservative Islamists winning elections? Why are educated and professional Muslim women still choosing to wear the veil? Many of the populist revolutions we are witnessing in the Middle East focus on the legitimate grievances of marginalized groups and populations. This book highlights the voices of cultural elites in the oilrich State of Kuwait, where we have been witness to a modern suffrage movement since women were given their political rights in 2005. The result is a new brand of feminism, one born out of a traditional and culturally conservative climate, which gives Islamic Feminists in Kuwait the edge they need to soar to new heights.

The event will feature panelists working on and living with issues of gender and sexuality in the NY justice system. Our discussion will focusing on how gendered or sexual identities can result in violence, health complications, and other challenges, and how these identities can also serve as sites of resistance in the struggle against mass incarceration and in bettering conditions and opportunities for all justice involved people.

With respondent Alondra Nelson, Associate Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies.

Nitza Berkovitch, Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology, received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford University and is currently a senior lecturer at the Departments of Sociology & Anthropology at Ben Gurion University in Israel. She writes and teaches on gender, globalization, state and civil society, human rights, and organizations. She is the author of From Motherhood to Citizenship: Women's Rights and International Organization (1999, Johns Hopkins) and co-editor of Women of the South: Space, Periphery and Gender (2005, Hebrew) and In/Equality (2006, Hebrew).

Join us for our Professor Speaker Series! Professor Elazar Barkan will lead an informal discussion about his research on the connections between history, transitional justice, and conflict resolution. Professor Barkan is Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights and Professor of International and Public Affairs and the Director of the Human Rights Concentration at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has written extensively on human rights and on the role of history in contemporary society and politics in the response to gross historical crimes and injustices. There will be pizza!

H.E. U Aung Min is the Senior Minister, Office of the President and Chief Negotiator with Non-State Armed Groups in Myanmar.

With David L. Phillips, Director, Program on Peace-Building and Rights.

The Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) and the International Conflict Resolution (ICR) specialization invite ICR and SIPA students to a faculty career panel. At this event, ICR professors Francesco Mancini, Zachary Metz, Dipali Mukhopadhyay and Scott Smith will discuss the conflict resolution field and offer advice to current SIPA students. The director of the CICR, Jean-Marie Guehenno, will moderate the event. A wine and cheese reception will follow.

Join us for our Alumni Speaker Series featuring HRSMA Alum Tanya Domi.

Ms. Domi currently serves as the chief of external relations at CUNY Graduate Center. Before this appointment, she was the Senior Public Affairs Officer for International Affairs, Economics and Politics at Columbia University's Office of Communications and Public Affairs.

*If you are an alum and no longer have a Columbia ID, please RSVP to humanrightsed@columbia.edu so we can arrange for guest passes to enter Lerner Hall.

Every 13 seconds, a child is abused in the United States. 80% percent of those abusers are parents. There has been a 100% increase in the number of reported cases since 1980. Child abuse affects thousands of children and their friends and family every day. Join Columbia Child Rights for our annual spring conference this Friday. to discuss this continually growing issue with speakers from Sanctuary for Families, City Bar Justice Center, the Human Rights department at Barnard College and Columbia Intervarsity. Join the conversation and speak up against child abuse. This is a great networking opportunity for people looking to work with non-profits, humanitarian initiatives, and issues relating to the social justice for women and children. The event is free and complimentary dinner will be served.

A CUID is required for entry into Lerner Hall.

Come join us as the Alternative Break Program will come together to celebrate the work being carried out around the world and in our very own backyard!

ABP trip leaders will be sharing how they made a difference and were part of the solution to issues in our society. Dinner will be provided.

The ABP is a student-led, and administrator-managed, program that provides programmatic and financial support for students’ independent development and leadership of domestic or international service experiences over fall, spring or summer breaks. The ABP uses the CAE’s Civic Competencies as its goals and the 5 Pathways to Service as its tools to strengthen the various communities of which the program participates are a part. ABP-supported trips challenge participants to reflect critically upon their role in addressing challenges in their various campus, local, national, and global communities and what types of service will best address those challenges.

This year, the ABP will have supported dozen trips from Brooklyn to Bangladesh, helping almost 100 students pursue their public service efforts.

Please RSVP (https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?vt=detail&br=default&id=65042) so we can get an accurate count for dinner. For further information regarding this event, please contact Walter Rodriguez, 212-854-1196.

Every 13 seconds, a child is abused in the United States. 80% percent of those abusers are parents. There has been a 100% increase in the number of reported cases since 1980. Child abuse affects thousands of children and their friends and family every day. Join Columbia Child Rights for our annual spring conference this Friday to discuss this continually growing issue with speakers from Sanctuary for Families, City Bar Justice Center, the Human Rights department at Barnard College and Columbia Intervarsity. Join the conversation and speak up against child abuse. This is a great networking opportunity for people looking to work with non-profits, humanitarian initiatives, and issues relating to the social justice for women and children. The event is free and complimentary dinner will be served.

Dr. Penelopa Gjurchilova, Visiting Scholar with the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, will discuss UN Security Council Resolution 1325 with regard to women’s roles in promoting peace and security in South Eastern Europe. In the 13 years since UNSCR 1325’s adoption, few states have taken active roles in implementing the resolution on the ground. However, in the past few years, some 40 governments, including those of South Eastern Europe, have begun to show their commitments by adopting National Action Plans. The talk will explore women’s participation, one of the four pillars of UNSCR 1325, focusing on recent developments in these countries and future challenges that they face in translating state commitments into reality.

Yasmine Ergas, Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, will give introductory remarks.

Screening and panel discussion of the documentary, A Kiss for Gabriela

Gabriela Leite was the first sex worker to run for federal office in Brazil. Please join us for a screening of the 29-minute documentary about Gabriela's long career of advocacy and organizing for sex workers' rights, as well as her electoral campaign, followed by a discussion with:

Laura Murray, Director and PhD Candidate, Sociomedical Sciences;
Flavio Lenz, journalist and co-founder with Gabriela of Davida, a Brazilian sex workers' rights organization;
Carole S. Vance, PhD, Associate Professor, Sociomedical Sciences; and
Penelope Saunders, PhD, NYC sex worker activist and filmmaker

For more information on the film, go to akissforgabriela.com

Led by Professor George Lopez, Chair in Peace Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at University of Notre Dame.

Professor Lopez will discuss career paths in peace-building on the local and global levels, offer resources for students and community members seeking jobs in the conflict resolution and peacemaking fields, and answer the age-old question, "What Do I Do With My Peace Studies Degree?"

Free and open to the public.

Join the Human Rights Working Group for our first Professor Brownbag of the year with Yasmine Ergas to chat in an informal conversation about careers, human rights, gender, and anything else that comes up.

U.S. lawyers are increasingly engaging international human rights law and strategies in their
domestic social justice advocacy efforts. A strength of the human rights framework is its ability
to address the intersection of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. Yet pursuit of
economic and social rights presents special challenges in the U.S. legal context. This
symposium explores strategies for advancing economic and social rights advocacy in the U.S.
focusing in particular on the right to housing. Participants will examine legal developments
pertaining to the right to housing and related rights, both internationally and in the U.S. And,
drawing on international human rights, participants will explore promising approaches to
establishing the right to housing in U.S. courts and through other advocacy efforts.

Hosted by:
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

Come and hear from Barnard alumnae about their journeys in breaking into the Human Rights field! The panelists include:

Jorie Dugan (’11), CoNGO, BRAC USA, Ikamva Labantu, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Heddy Nam (’04), Open Society Foundations, Amnesty International USA
Brittany Pavon Suriel (’09), Teacher’s College International Education Development Program

Please join us in honoring the 2013 Morton Deutsch Scholar-Practitioner Award Recipient
Gretchen Buchenholz
Co-founder of the Association to Benefit Children (ABC)

- Her talk is titled A Child’s Tale: Marginalization to Power
- Introduction by Teachers College President, Dr. Susan Fuhrman
- Anna Gaarde will be awarded the 2013 Morton Deutsch Award for an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper on Social Justice
Wine and Hors d’Oeuvres Reception to Follow

Join us for our Graduate Student Speaker Series with Human Rights Studies MA student Nahal Zamani, who also currently serves as Advocacy Program Manager with the Center for Constitutional Rights. She will discuss her recent work focusing on the NYPD's use of stop and frisk practices and the Center's response efforts, which include campaigns with community based organizations, litigation, documentation and advocacy with the UN, including the Human Rights Committee.

Students who are interested in learning more about the practice of human rights and/or are considering graduate studies in human rights are encouraged to attend.

The presentation will be followed by a Q&A.

David L. Phillips,
Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights
Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia Unviersity

Wafaa El-Sadr
Director, MSPH Global Health Initiative (GHI)
Director, ICAP
Professor Epidemiology and Medicine

Joan Kaufman, Sc.D., MA, MS
Director, Columbia Global Centers, East Asia

Light Refreshments will be served.

Israeli and Palestinian activists from OneVoice will speak at Columbia University about how they mobilize grassroots movements in Israel and Palestine, calling for a two-state solution to end the conflict, violence and occupation.

Kirsten Roberts, Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School and Acting Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Research, Policy and Promotion of the Irish Human Rights Commission, Ireland’s National Human Rights Institution

Improving the domestic implementation of international human rights standards is considered crucial to ensuring the viability of the international human rights framework in protecting the rights of all. One relatively recent mechanism for improving this implementation are National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs). Over the past two decades, NHRIs have been created in over 100 countries around the world. While there is a growing push from the UN for all countries to establish NHRIs, there is little understanding of their actual effectiveness and where (or whether) they can add value. This talk will present NHRIs; their role, functions and mandate, and consider their contribution to the promotion and protection of international human rights standards at the domestic level. It will examine case studies of 5 NHRIs, those of Afghanistan, Ireland, Mexico, Sierra Leone and South Korea to illustrate the work NHRIs are doing at the national level, the challenges they face, and the role they can play in promoting and protecting international human rights at the domestic level.

Prior to joining the IHRC, Ms Roberts worked as a legal officer in the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Her previous experience has included the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the Council of Europe, European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice, and Amnesty International. Ms Roberts has spoken widely and written on the topic of NHRIs and has acted as a resource person on NHRIs for the OHCHR and UNDP. She has also undertaken a number of missions as an independent expert on fundamental rights under the European Commission’s TAIEX programme.

Che Bella Pizza lunch will be served!

The Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies invites you to a talk by Albert Gerard Koenders, Special Representative to the Secretary General for Cte dIvoire. Mr. Koenders will be introduced by Jean-Marie Guhenno, Director of CICR and Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs. The talk will focus on peace building in Cte dIvoire.

12-1pm, JG 103
Lunch Discussion: Dr. Shirin Ebadi, with Professor Lori Damrosch. Sandwiches will be served.

1:10-2:30pm, JG Annex
Human Rights at Home: Implementing Human Rights through Domestic Legal Systems
- Katrina Anderson, Human Rights Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights
- Yasmine Ergas, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs and Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights
- Maria Foscarinis, Founder and Executive Director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
- Katie Gallagher, Human Rights Litigator at the Center for Constitutional Rights
Moderated by Risa Kaufman, Executive Director of the Human Rights Institute and Lecturer in Law

2:40-4:00pm, JG Annex
Security, Sanctions, and Human Rights: The Iran Dilemma
- David Mortlock, Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy at U.S. Department of State
- Trita Parsi, Founder and President of the National Iranian American Council
- Carla Robbins, Adjunct Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations
Moderated by Professor Sarah Cleveland
**Refreshments will be served at both panels.

A Season of Cambodia Festival Event.
This exhibit, curated by Pierre Bayard and Soko Phay-Vakalis, will feature works of visual arts made by the great contemporary artists Vann Nath and Sera (survivors of the Cambodian genocide), as well as works by emerging Cambodian artists. Works examine the crucial role of artistic expression in collective memory and highlight the dynamism and strength of three generations of Cambodian artists.
Performance by Sera in the East Gallery, Buell Hall at 6:30 pm April 10. RSVP required; visit Maison Francaise website.
Wednesday, April 10 through Saturday, May 4.

This international symposium on the relationship between creation and postmemory will examine how the arts and other creative forms harness indirect memory and ensure its transmission through a variety of archives and traces. Focus on the Cambodian genocide.
Keynote speakers: Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer.
Wednesday April 10 - Friday April 12.
Registration required: visit maisonfrancaise.org for more info.

What professional opportunities are available to human rights students? What skills, credentials, and experiences are valuable? What are the benefits and challenges of various types of human rights work?

Human rights professionals will discuss their current work and previous professional experiences, and offer insights and advice to students who are interested in pursuing and developing a career in human rights.

Panelists:
- Sheree Bennett, Research and Evaluation Advisor, International Rescue Committee
- Mona Chun, Deputy Director, International Human Rights Funders Group
- Nicholas Lusiani, Senior Researcher, Center for Economic and Social Rights
- Elsa Stamatopoulou, Director, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Program, Institute for the Study of Human Rights; Former Chief of the Secretariat, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
- Jackie Zammuto, Engagement Associate, WITNESS

Presentations to be followed by Q&A session. Refreshments will be served.

The Earth Institute's presents the 2012-2013 Sustainable Development Seminar Series. The fifth seminar in the series will offer various perspectives and discussion on "The Millennium Village Project." Speakers include: Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute, Columbia University.

Free and open to the public.

RSVP required.

The condition of deportability has elicited considerable interest as a legal predicament facing migrant workers and an outcome of flexible labor regimes. Less attention has been given to the lived experience of vulnerability to forced removal, or to the way in which this condition of temporal uncertainty shapes migrants' encounters with state agents. This paper draws on ethnography in Moscow among undocumented and fictively documented migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan to inquire about the affective resonance of state law (zakon) in a condition of formal illegality. Madeleine Reeves is a University Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. She is the co-editor of Movement Power and Place in Central Asia: Contested Trajectories (Routledge 2012) and, with Johan Rasanayagam and Judith Beyer, of Ethnographies of the State in Central Asia: Performing Politics (forthcoming with Indiana University Press).

William Dalrymple, historian & writer of many important books to raise public awareness of South Asian colonial history, modern-day Byzantium, and more, discusses his newest book with an audiovisual presentation.

Discussant: Joseph Slaughter, Department of English

There will be a book signing by the author following the event.

RSVP required for attendance.

YAAPD cordially invites you to the second annual Sankofa54: African Youth Empowerment Conference. The theme for this year’s conference is Re-imagining Africa: a closer look at Autonomy, Identity and Perspective.

We will ask what it means to be African or part of its diaspora, and how the re-imagination of Africa from an authentic, autonomous, and intellectual perspective can inform efforts to address issues of hunger, political and military unrest, and economic underdevelopment.

Registration closes on March 31st.

Book Presentation with Author Carlos Terrones

A talk by Martin Briens. An optional dinner will precede the talk. We will dine in Columbia's Faculty House at 6:30 pm. Meals, buffet style, cost $25 (payment by check only), and wine comes compliments of the seminar.

If you sign up, please provide two days' notice if you cannot attend.

Film viewing will be followed by a discussion among experts.

Moderator: Prof. George Andreopoulos, Director, CIHR
Panelists:
Selena Blake, Director and Producer
Graeme Reid, Director, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights program
Maurice A. Tomlinson, Legal Advisor, Marginalized Groups, AIDS-Free World
Stephen Silva, Immigration Equality

Refreshments will be served.

Please join us for dessert, conversation, and Q&A with Li Lu (CC, CLS, CBS ’96). Born in China in 1966, Li Lu fled to the U.S. after serving as one of the principal student leaders of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989. In 1996, he became one of the first students ever to be awarded three Columbia University degrees simultaneously--a B.A. in Economics from Columbia College, a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. In 1997, he founded Himalaya Capital Management. Mr. Lu is the author of the memoir Moving the Mountain: My Life in China, which recounts his experiences and the events that led to Tiananmen and served as a source for Michael Apted’s documentary of the same title. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Raoul Wallenberg Human Rights Award from the Congressional Human Rights Foundation, the Reebok Human Rights Award and, in 2012, Columbia’s own John Jay award.

Join us to learn more about important details regarding general requirements and the IRB approval process for the HRSMA thesis. Kristina Eberbach will discuss requirements for the thesis proposal, course options, advice for finding an adviser, and other general information regarding the thesis writing process.

Dr. Seyed Masoud Noori, Former Faculty Member at the Center for Human Rights Studies at Mofid University in Qom, Iran and currently a Visiting Scholar at Emory Law, will explain the relation between Shariah and state law in Muslim-majority countries’ constitutions approved since 2000, as well as the role of Shariah in basic and fundamental codes in those countries. He will focus on Iraq’s and Egypt’s constitutions, as these two models balance Shariah and state law, and he will examine how these models affect human rights issues.

A documentary on the legends of Taiwan's Amis Aboriginal People. The event will begin with opening remarks from Myron Cohen, Director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and a musical performance by violinist Joseph Lin.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director,
Hu Tai-Li, and the composer, Shih-Hui Chen.

Please join us for food and beverages at the post-screening reception.

Join us for a Resume Swap as part our Human Rights Students Networking Series.

This is an opportunity to exchange perspectives with your fellow students on how to effectively articulate your educational and professional experiences. Students will review each other's resumes and provide feedback.

In the process, you’ll also learn more about the professional and academic human rights work that your fellow students have done.

Please bring 3 copies of your resume. RSVP to humanrightsed@columbia.edu is appreciated, but not required.

Snacks will be provided!

A Special Evening of Dialogue with Exhibit & Reception. The National Peace Academy, in partnership with Pasos Peace Museum, is hosting a special evening event in conjunction with the exhibit, "A Peace of My Mind." Corresponding with NPA's 4-year anniversary, the event will feature the stories of everyday peacebuilders and their journeys in becoming agents of change.

A panel discussion with three professionals working in peace-related careers.

Join us for an exciting Teachers College premiere of the Academy Award nominated film Mondays at Racine. A discussion will follow with the director, the producer, and individuals profiled in the film, including TC alumnus, Dr. Cambria Russell.
Mondays at Racine is a powerful documentary about a Long Island hair salon that closes its doors to the public and offers free beauty services once a month for women battling breast cancer. The salon offers them a chance to feel beautiful as they undergo chemotherapy, and also gain strength and a chance to reflect in this safe space. The film reveals the beauty born of the love and support found in community in times of personal pain and fear.

Elizabeth Dolan, of Lehigh University, will be speaking about an essay forthcoming in the Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies on a slave woman named Fibbah that addresses the difficulty of hearing the stories of people who are erased from the archive. Marina Budhos, an English professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey, and Marc Aronson, award-winning non-fiction author and member of the graduate faculty of Rutgers School for Information Science, are a wife-and-husband team who co-authored the book Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science.

Dinner begins at 6:15 pm and costs $25 check (made payable to Columbia University, memo "Seminar Dinner").

Join us for a panel on human rights research! Come listen to researchers from the Human Rights Watch organization talk about their experiences in the field. Among the researchers present will be Anna Neistat and Ole Solvang, who are both researchers in the Emergencies Department at HRW. They will recount their experiences as researchers in Syria and explain the methodology behind collecting information about human rights abuses in a country closed to the media and undergoing civil war. For more information about our panelists, please see the bios printed below.

Documentary film by Jeffrey Gould and Carlos Henriquez Consalvi. During the early 1970s, hundreds of peasants in a remote region of El Salvador began to emulate the early Christians, working the land together and building communities based on solidarity. By 1980, the national Guard staged scorched earth operations against their villages.

The Permanent Missions of Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe to the United Nations in partnership with the

Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights

cordially invite you to

A dialogue on the human rights situation in Western Sahara and screening of

Spanish Academy Award winning documentary on Western Sahara

SONS OF THE CLOUDS:

THE LAST COLONY

Date: March 5, 2013

Time: 6:30pm to 9pm

Location: The ECOSOC Chamber of the United Nations (At the New UN Building).


Panel:

Mr. Javier Bardem, Academy Award Winner, Producer Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony
Ms. Kerry Kennedy, President, RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights
Ms. Aminatou Haidar, Sahrawi human rights defender, 2008 RFK Human Rights Award Laureate
H.E. Mr. Mohammed Loulichkil, Permanent Representative to the United Nations for the Kingdom of Morocco (invited)
Mr. Ahmed Boukhari, Representative of the Frente Polisario to the United Nations (invited)
Mr. Herve Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations (invited)
Mr. Ivan Simonovic, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights (invited)

Q&A

Film Screening: 1h21m

Please RSVP by Monday March 4, 11am to: rsvp@rfkcenter.org

Join us for presentations by participants in ISHR's 2013 Human Rights Essay Contest. Each presentation will be followed by Q&A and discussion with students, faculty, and other members of the Columbia University community. Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to humanrightsed@columbia.edu (not required, but much appreciated).

This town hall meeting is for current Human Rights Studies MA students.

Spring 2013 Happy Hour. Drink tickets for first 30 and empanada appetizers!!!

Presenter:

Somali Cerise
Gender Project Coordinator OECD Development Centre

Co-moderators:

Professor Yasmine Ergas
Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs
Associate Director, Institute for the Study of Human Rights

Professor Eugenia McGill
Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs
Assistant Director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration at SIPA

Men and women 150 years ago grappled with information overload by making scrapbooks—the ancestors of Facebook and blogging. Women’s rights scrapbook makers documented women’s pioneering participation in the public realm and experimented with ways to present it. African Americans created massive compilation scrapbooks that acted as repositories of communal knowledge and passed along a critical, oppositional reading of newspapers. They passed along their understanding that newspapers, including “the paper of record” did not provide a simple record, but a set of voices and conversations to read critically. In this lecture, Ellen Gruber Garvey reveals a previously unexplored layer of American popular culture, where activists collected and constructed new narratives to create “unwritten histories” in books they wrote with scissors.

Ellen Gruber Garvey is a Professor of English at New Jersey City University, where she co-edits the journal Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy.

This event is free and open to the public. Venue is wheelchair accessible.

Interested in a summer internship in the field of human rights? Your fellow students will discuss how they found internships, explain the nature of their work, and reflect upon challenges, successes, and lessons-learned.

Come learn about internships at Amnesty International, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth, and the New York County District Attorney's Office.

The Two Sudans Project of the Program on Peace-building and Rights invites you to a discussion with the Honorable Francis M. Deng, Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Sudan to the United Nations.
Ambassador Deng is an expert on conflict management and U.S.-Africa relations, having served in various diplomatic positions in the Sudan, including as Ambassador to the United States and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and served at the United Nations as Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons and Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide before taking his present post representing South Sudan.

Are you a CC or GS student with questions about the human rights major or concentration requirements? Interested in learning more about the course advising process and opportunities available to human rights students?

Come to the UHRP human rights major and concentration info session!

Awarded a New Play Commission from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in association with EST, France Luce Benson has written a play about one of Haiti’s most celebrated and controversial heroes – Jean Dominique.

Jean Dominique was an activist, journalist, and the voice of Haiti-Inter – but above all of this, he was an agronomist. The play is a dramatization of his work with peasant farmers in the 1960’s leading to his arrest. The first staged reading will take place on 2/19 at 3 pm at the Ensemble Studio Theatre.Free, but seating is limited, so please reserve your seat at:

http://www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org/first-light-2013

In the first event of the semester of our Professor Speaker Series, Professor Paul Martin will speak on the topic of “Mitigating Violence: Is There A Place For Human Rights?” This informal discussion is designed to give you an opportunity to engage with faculty outside of the classroom. Pizza will be served.

Program:
UNICEF film: "Not My Life" (30 min.)

Panelists:
-George Andreopoulos, Professor of Political Science and Criminal Justice, CUNY; Director, Center for International Human Rights, John Jay College (CUNY)
-Jennifer Chan, M.Ed., Program Officer, End Trafficking, US Fund for UNICEF
-Dorota Gierycz, Ph.D. Human rights scholar, Ludwig Boltzman Institute of Human Rights, University of Vienna

Moderator:
-Katerina Stefanatou, UNICEF Global Citizenship fellow at the US Fund for UNICEF

A wine and cheese reception will follow the discussion.

A talk with Professor Daniel Pinello, Political Science Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Refreshments will be served!

Yale Visiting Scholar and University of Cinncinnati Asst. Professor, Shailaja Paik, PhD. We will be workshopping a chapter of Dr. Paik's upcoming book exploring the contested site of Dalit (untouchable) women's education in the 20th century. Lunch will be served!

Please email rp2471@columbia.edu or gn67@columbia.edu for a copy of the paper.

[Description]

On Feb. 9, Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri convicted for the Dec. 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, was hanged in New Delhi.
The hanging occurred early morning India time, as Kashmiris were trying to understand why a strict curfew was suddenly imposed by the authorities. Cable news and Internet service have been shut down in Kashmir. Local TV channels have all been banned from reporting anything, while major newspapers were asked not to run their print editions for the day. This media censorship also happened in 2008 & 2010.

Join the CJS chapter of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) as we discuss the case, how it’s been covered in Indian media, and the potential ramifications of this event.

Speaker: Mohamad Junaid is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology at The Graduate Center CUNY, and teaches at Lehman College. He grew up in Kashmir and has contributed essays on Kashmir in recently published volumes Everyday Occupations: Experiencing Militarism in South Asia and the Middle East, (2013) University of Pennsylvania Press and Until My Freedom Has Come: The New Intifada in Kashmir(Haymarket Books, 2012). His writings on Kashmir have also appeared in Economic and Political Weekly, Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Reader, Aljazeera, Tehelka, and Himal.

"Epidemics, like wars, mark a generation for life."

The AIDS Memorial Quilt was created 25 years ago as a work of community activism to protest the appalling lack of attention by the US health agencies to what was then, in 1987, an increase in improbable fatalities among previously healthy gay men in the United States. Its first inception unfolded in October 1987 on the National Mall in Washington DC as part of the March for Gay Rights; it included 1,920 Quilt panels. Now 25 years later, the Quilt encompasses more than 48,000 panels, representing 60 countries and commemorating more than 93,000 names. It is the largest living memorial of its kind in the world.

The Quilt is also an "activist archive" of the late 20th century. The activities that gave rise to the Quilt in 1987 are part of the history of the campaign for gay and lesbian rights in the US. The Quilt literally stitches together a million memories, a million stories, a million lessons about the relationship between individual lives, public culture, and political activism. In its textile form, it is an unwieldy archive. If laid out in its entirety the Quilt would cover more than 1.3 million square feet. It weighs more than 34 tons.

This presentation discusses the creation of an interactive memorial that was designed to augment the viewing of the textile Quilt. Anne Balsamo will demonstrate three digital experiences: 1) an open-source mobile web application called AIDS QUILT TOUCH; 2) a tangible tabletop interactive that enables viewers to SEARCH the database of Quilt images to find a specific image and to BROWSE the archive of Quilt panel images; and 3) a community sourcing application that engages people in analyzing and archiving information about the Quilt.

Join Gabriele Stabile, an Italian photographer based in New York City; his photography has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and Juliet Linderman, a reporter for the Times-Picayune for a presentation and discussion on the role of oral history in contemporary human rights and photojournalism. The two authors will discuss the newest title from Voice of Witness, Refugee Hotel, a collection of photography and oral histories that documents the experiences of refugees in the United States.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

Aslam and Heni, former Adidas workers at PT Kizone, an Indonesian Adidas factory that supplied apparel for Columbia and other US universities, speak out about their struggle for Adidas to pay $1.8 million in legally-owed severance to 2,800 former workers.This speakout is part of a nationwide speaker tour raising awareness of the misdeeds of apparel giant Adidas.

This World Leaders Forum program features an address by Judge Sang-Hyun Song, President of the International Criminal Court, titled "The International Criminal Court and the Fight Against Impunity for Atrocity Crimes," followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

Registration will open Thursday, January 31st, at 10:00 A.M.

When former Nebraska police officer Kathryn Bolkovac arrived in Sarajevo, as a human rights investigator, heading the gender affairs unit, she discovered military officers involved in human trafficking and forced prostitution, with links to private mercenary contractors, the UN, and the U.S. State Department. After bringing this evidence to light, Bolkovac was successively demoted, threatened with bodily harm, fired, and ultimately forced to flee the country under cover of darkness—bringing the incriminating documents with her. Thanks to the evidence she collected, she won a lawsuit against DynCorp, publicly exposing their human rights violations. Her story, recounted in the book The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice, later become the Hollywood feature film The Whistleblower.

Ms. Bolkovac will discuss her story, human trafficking, and other topics with Tanya Domi, whose reporting broke this story.

Free and open to the public.

First come, first seated.

AC4 is pleased to announce that the Annual Conflict Resolution Internship Fair will take place again in 2013. Building on the success of last year’s event, we invite organizations and students working in the areas of peace and sustainability, violence prevention, social justice, human rights and international development to make connections and learn about opportunities in this field.

Dr. Zheng Wan from the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University.

Moderated by: Professor Robert Jervis from the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics, Columbia University

With the rising tensions between China and Japan, people have begun to worry about whether peace in East Asia could continue. Maintaining peace and concentrating on economic development have been the open secrets for the rise and prosperities of the Eastern Asian countries in the recent three or four decades. Would the tendency turn over? What role has historical memory played in the formation of national identity and nationalism and how would the clash of nationalism influences the peace and security in East Asia? With this background, Dr. Zheng Wang will present his new book, Never Forget National Humiliation: Historic Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations (Columbia University Press, 2012).

Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Andrey Moroz, Russian State University for the Humanities. This talk will be in Russian. Co-sponsored by the Slavic Department of Columbia University.

Peter Gastrow is director of programs at the International Peace Institute. His research and policy work focuses on transnational organized crime and related threats and involves a review of the current international framework for countering organized crime. He forms part of the Coping with Crisis program and focuses on multilateral responses to new transnational security threats. Peter joined IPI in 2009 from South Africa, where he was Cape Town director of the Institute for Security Studies and served as an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa.

The talk is free and open to the public, but please register by writing to saw2156@columbia.edu.

An optional dinner will precede the talk. We will dine in Columbia's Faculty House at 6:30 pm. Meals, buffet style, cost $25 (cash or check), and wine comes compliments of the seminar. Register for dinner at saw2156@columbia.edu. If you sign up, please provide two days' notice if you cannot attend.

Europe and the United Nations commemorate the victims of the Shoah each winter on the date of Auschwitz's liberation in 1945, and the Italian Academy marks Holocaust Remembrance Day with an annual academic event exploring issues of discrimination and crimes against humanity. In past years, the Academy has broadened its focus to explore other minority groups that were targeted by the Nazi and Fascist regimes, and that suffered and died along with the millions of Jews: the Roma and Sinti (or Gypsies) in one case, and homosexuals in another. Persons with disabilities were subject to persecution as part of radical public health policy aimed at excluding hereditarily "unfit" Germans from the national community. According to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, these strategies began with forced sterilization and escalated toward mass murder. The most extreme measure, the Euthanasia Program, was in itself a rehearsal for Nazi Germany's broader genocidal policies.

Welcoming remarks:

Barbara Faedda

Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University

Speakers:

Patricia Heberer

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

"Giving a Face to Faceless Victims: Profiles of Disabled Victims of the Nazi 'Euthanasia' Program"

Susan Bachrach

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

"Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race"

David Forgacs

New York University

"Photographing Places of Social Exclusion"

The Human Rights Institute, The Center for Human Rights and Drug Policy & Righstlink invite you to an evening debate in which experts in international humanitarian law (IHL) will debate the law of armed conflict and its application to drug related violence. The debate will begin with a brief overview of IHL. Speakers will address such questions as When does drug-related violence fulfil the traditional criteria for the applicability of the law of armed conflict? Is a political objective of an armed group a condition for the applicability of the law of armed conflict? Can drug lords/traffickers be subject of targeted killings? What are the implications of a "conduct of hostilities" against and by drug lords/traffickers for civilians? Can crop eradication be subject to the laws of armed conflict? Speakers will contextualize their remarks with regional problems. The event is open to all. A reception will follow the discussion in Case Lounge.
Speakers:
Marco Sassoli, Director, Department of International law and International Organization, University of Geneva
Noam Lubell, School of Law, University of Essex
Moderator: Gabor Rona, International Legal Director, Human Rights First

Event is open to all. Please rsvp to greta.moseson@law.columbia.edu.

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, Director of the LRC's Constitutional Litigation Unit, and Cameron Mcconnachi, an attorney with the LRC's Grahamstown office, will discuss the right to education, focusing on specific cases and the challenges they face in crafting legal interventions that will bring about much needed structural changes to education for poor children in South Africa. The LRC is a leading host organization for Columbia's Human Rights Internship Program and still seeks applicants for 2013 internships. Pizza will be served. Sponsored by Social Justice Initiatives and the Human Rights Institute. The event is open to all.

The Human Rights Institute and Rightslink invite you to a lunch-time discussion with Lotfi Maktouf a Tunisian civil society activist and founder of Almadanya, a Tunisian NGO formed after the revolution to empower people through a series of development and cultural programs. Two years after peaceful demonstrators calling for three and only three demands (freedom, dignity and jobs) forced then president Ben Ali to flee, some question what happened to the Tunisian revolution and its aspirations. How did it shift from jobs to polygamy, from freedom to gender separation in public places and in schools, and from dignity to criminalizing blasphemy? Mr. Maktouf will discuss the challenges and tasks facing post-revolution Tunisia as well as discussing the broader consequences of fundamental ideological shifts on the region's social fabric, social dynamics, human rights, the place and value of the law, security and economics.

Lotfi Maktouf graduated from Tunis, Paris-Sorbonne and Harvard law schools. Member of the New York Bar, he practiced international corporate and tax law in Wall Street and then served for four years as Senior Counselor at the International Monetary Fund based in Washington, D.C. Since the Tunisian revolution, he became active in Tunisia via Almadanya. Pizza lunch will be served. The event is open to all.

Please join us in celebrating the launch of Women Creating Change, the new global initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Difference. The evening’s program features a screening of excerpts from the award-winning Women, War, and Peace, and a discussion with producer Abigail Disney ’94GSAS.

Reception to follow.

Why is it that some NGOs choose to invest in overcoming the significant costs of working transnationally? Some previous works portray these groups as normatively motivated actors, guided by solidarity with activists abroad. Others describe those NGOs as pragmatic actors, chasing funding and valuing survival over their mission. This paper develops and tests a theory of the motivations of NGOs or participating in transnational activism, proposing that these motivations change over time and follow a cycle from principle to pragmatic.

Over the past decade, the prevention agenda has expanded to include conflict prevention, protection of civilians, genocide prevention, atrocity prevention, transitional justice, and the Responsibility to Protect. While this expansion is welcome, it does not come without its challenges. The rapid growth in policy response and civil society advocacy has left little time for critique and self-reflection. The prevention field's underlying assumptions and goals have remained for the most part under-examined and under-theorized.

This conference seeks to reveal an understanding of atrocity prevention, defining its parameters and rationalizing its relationship to related disciplines and agendas. It will result in an edited volume serving as an authoritative work on the state of the field of prevention.

For more information please visit: http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/MemberContentDisplay.aspx?ccmd=ContentDisplay&ucmd=UserDisplay&userid=10618&contentid=25774&folderid=588

Columbia University Human Rights Seminar

Jia Ping, Human Rights Lawyer; Director, The Health Governance Initiative
Zhang Tao, Associate Director, The Health Governance Initiative

No registration required.

What are the OSCE Guidelines? In 2012, ODIHR developed the Guidelines on Human Rights Education for Secondary School Systems. The document presents a comprehensive set of guiding principles which should be the basis for mainstreaming human rights in all spheres of the education sector.

Pavel Chacuk
Felisa Tibbitts
Moderated by Dr. Monisha Bajaj

Phillips will discuss: why, when, how, and with whom the United States should intervene in foreign conflicts. He will profile the Kosovo case and his recent book – “Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention,” drawing lessons for today's challenges in Syria and Iran.

Rachel Wahl
Ph.D. Candidate, New York University
Visiting Scholar, Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights

Discussant: Jack Snyder, Professor of International Relations

International human rights norms diminish in significance when domestic state actors do not learn to uphold them. Yet little is known about the process wherein such norms are taught and learned, especially among the state representatives who bear direct responsibility for protecting human rights. This paper examines what occurs when domestic actors learn and respond to international norms related to the prevention of torture. It is based on twelve months of fieldwork with 33 law enforcement officers who were participating in human rights education in India. The study builds on social constructivist scholarship on norm diffusion, which emphasizes the role of ideas, interpretation, and identity in world politics. First, this paper highlights a way in which material and ideational factors intersect to constrain norm diffusion. Human rights professionals often explain torture as the result of corruption, insufficient resources, and a lack of commitment to justice among law enforcers. In contrast, law enforcement officers argue that certain types of torture are motivated by their desire to uphold justice. Interviews reveal the ways in which officers’ material constraints and self-interest intersect with their conceptions of justice, and in combination contribute to the high rates of torture in India. Although officers’ normative justifications for torture account for only part of the reason it occurs, it plays a significant role in how officers resist attempts to teach international norms. Second, it seems that international norms do not remain static as they travel but are negotiated and adapted by the actors who use them. In the case of state actors who are responsible for norm implementation, this can involve using the language and logic of the norm in ways that subvert its core principles. This suggests a way in which state actors resist international norms without suffering the potential costs of explicitly rejecting them.

This is a closed session.

This is a closed session.

What does it mean to be Indian? How does one survive, resist, and thrive? What does indigenous peoplehood look like in the face of settler colonialism?

Native peoples in North America have been interrogating and reinterrogating these questions for over five hundred years, producing writing and art, gestures, and movements that document and perform their responses.

This interdisciplinary symposium seeks to witness and examine these responses. National scholars will present their latest work, paying particular attention to questions of the nature of archives, repertoires of gender and sexuality, and the dynamic valences of community.

The documentary film A Path to Dignity: The Power of Human Rights Education is a 28-minute movie that presents three stories illustrating the impact of human rights education respectively on school children (India), law enforcement agencies (Australia) and women victims of violence (Turkey). The film was launched at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last September.
The screening of the film is part of the Human Rights Day 2012 celebrations and will be followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Ellen Bruno, Ambassador Saul Weisleder (Costa Rica), Maarit Kohonen Sheriff(OHCHR) and Hiro Sakurai (SGI). The panel will be moderated by Frank Elbers, Executive Director of HREA.

Dr. Joseph Gerson works for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) as the Director of the Peace and Economic Security
Program, the Disarmament Coordinator and the Director of Programs in New England. He is also the co-convener of the Network for a
NATO-Free Future. A leading public intellectual and peace campaigner, his work focuses on U.S. foreign and military policies,
particularly challenging U.S. hegemony in the Asia-Pacific, prevention of nuclear war and achieving nuclear weapons abolition, ending
the U.S. Central Asian wars, and the withdrawal of foreign military bases. He is the author of four books, most recently Empire and the
Bomb: How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World

Guantanámo in Historical Dialogue
Session Thirteen
Guantánamo in Historical Dialogue, Part Four: National Security’s New Paradigm: Confronting the post-911 past

Session Fourteen
Guantanamo in Historical Dialogue, Part Five: Can we “close Guantánamo?” Alternative visions for GTMO’s future

Guantánamo Public Memory Project, Exhibit Opening Reception

Session Nine (Held Auditorium, 304 Barnard Hall, Barnard College @ 118th and Broadway)
Plenary Opening on GTMO in International Context

Session Ten (IAB, rooms 402B and 407)
Panel 1: Teaching Controversy: Pedagogy and Contested Histories
Panel 2: Visual Representation and Exhibits as Historical Dialogue

Session Eleven (IAB, rooms 402B and 407)
Panel 1: The Burden of Memory in Post-Conflict Societies
Panel 2: Narrative and Memory in South Asia

Session Five (IAB, rooms 402B and 407)
Panel 1: Memory and Memorialization in Eastern and Western Africa
Panel 2: The Historian in Dialogue

Session Six (IAB, rooms 402B, 407 and 409)
Panel 1: Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
Panel 2: Indigenous Studies Roundtable
Panel 3: Germany and Poland after WWII

Session Seven (IAB, rooms 402B, 407 and 409)
Panel 1: Historical Dialogue and Conflict Negotiation in Israel and Palestine
Panel 2: Religion and Memory in Historical Dialogue
Panel 3: The Politics of Memory and Transition in Indonesia

Session Eight (IAB, rooms 402B, 407 and 409)
Panel 1: Archives and Human Rights
Panel 2: Hegemony and Memory in Turkey
Panel 3: History, Transitional Justice, and the Aftermath of WWII

Plenary Session (Schermerhorn 501)

Session Two (IAB rooms 402B and 407)
Panel 1: Sequestered History, Public History
Panel 2: Victims and Victimhood in Historical Dialogue

Session Three (IAB, rooms 402B, 407 and 409)
Panel 1: Local Memory and Global Relations: China, Japan, Korea
Panel 2: Literature as Historical Dialogue
Panel 3: Remembering Genocide, Then and Now

Session Four (IAB, rooms 402B and 407)
Panel 1: History and Justice in Post-colonial Societies
Panel 2: Historical Dialogue, Transitional Justice and The Balkans

Fourteen years in the making, Anand Patwardhan's documentary Jai Bhim Comrade tells a story of Dalit and communal politics in Maharashtra, and the ongoing struggles of Dalits for justice and equality.

Introduction by Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor and Chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Dept.

Discussion moderated by Anupama Rao, Associate Professor, History

Join us for our Professor Speaker Series! Professor George Andreopoulos will speak on the topic of “The United Nations and Counter-Terrorism.” Professor Andreopoulos teaches Human Rights and International Organization at Columbia University. He studied history, law, and international relations at the Universities of Chicago and Cambridge, and he has written extensively on international security, international human rights, and international humanitarian law issues. There will be pizza.

For more information, contact: art2143@columbia.edu, orvdc2106@columbia.edu

The Center for International Human Rights panel discussion in celebration of the 64th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Celebrate the season with us, and bid farewell to the Human Rights Advocates and the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellows.

The second round of this Workshop on Deconstructing and Reconstructing ‘Mother’ explores ways in which, in different political and cultural contexts, definitions of motherhood are being challenged by the concomitant development of assisted reproductive technologies, globalized markets in reproductive services, gender neutralizing norms regarding parenthood, and the trans-nationalization of everyday life.

Introduction by Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor and Chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Dept.

Discussion moderated by Anupama Rao, Associate Professor, History

Fourteen years in the making, Anand Patwardhan's documentary Jai Bhim Comrade tells a story of Dalit
and communal politics in Maharashtra, and the ongoing struggles of Dalits for justice and equality.
Jai Bhim Comrade traces the decade-long story of the protest through the poetry and music of Ghogre
and others. Jai Bhim Comrade was named Best Film at both the Mumbai International Film Festival
and Film South Asia, Katmandu, Nepal, and received the Firebird Award at the Hong Kong International
Film Festival.

Anand Patwardhan earned a B.A. in English Literature from Bombay University, a B.A. in Sociology from
Brandeis University, and a Master's degree in Communications from McGill University. He has been making award-winning political documentaries for nearly three decades, pursuing diverse and controversial issues
that illuminate social and political life in India.

Seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first seated basis. There is no charge for admission.
The film is approximately three hours long. There will be a brief intermission at about 4:30pm,
followed by a discussion to begin at about 6:20pm.

A talk by Zahir Tanin, the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations. He was Vice President of the 63rd, 65th, and 67th sessions of the General Assembly, and he has served as a Vice Chair of the Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People since 2006. Before his appointment as Permanent Representative, Tanin worked for 11 years with the BBC. He is co-author of The Communist Regime in Afghanistan, 1978-1992.

An optional dinner will precede the talk at Columbia's Faculty House at 6:30 pm. Meals, buffet style, cost $25 (cash or check), and wine comes compliments of the seminar.

By providing a comparative examination of the Holocaust and the Armenian, Rwandan, and Sudanese Genocides, this panel will identify ways to overcome genocide denial.

Moderator
Professor Martin Flaherty

Speakers
Professor Taner Akçam
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton
Professor Sheri Rosenberg

The international community has endorsed the idea that national war crimes prosecutions complement the work of the International Criminal Court. Yet, national courts often face significant difficulties conducting such prosecutions domestically, sometimes due to lack of capacity, but more often due to lack of political will. Join practitioners and experts in this field to examine how political contexts impacted local war crimes prosecutions in four diverse countries-the DRC, Serbia, Iraq, and Guatemala.

Pre-registration is required.

Sonia Pierre (1963-2011), mobilized communities in the Dominican Republic to advocate for citizenship and human rights for Dominicans of Haitian descent. At age 13, Pierre led strike to improve working conditions for sugar cane cutters in the batey where she was born. As the director of Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitiana (MUDHA), she used legal challenges in domestic and international courts to defend the citizenship rights of first and second generation children born on Dominican soil. This panel will highlight the activism of young women who are moving forward with Sonia Pierre’s work on behalf of Dominicans of Haitian descent, and address the question of how international pressure impacts efforts by marginalized groups to demand recognition.

Reels for Rights aspires to raise consciousness about human rights in the United States. Film screenings will be followed by an after-party of dinner, music and dancing! This public event, hosted in conjunction with the U.S. Human Rights Fund, will showcase galvanizing and thought-provoking films and discussion as a taste of the media and collaborations that will be nurtured by the Reels for Rights Festival.

This program includes excerpts from: The Sky is Pink by Josh Fox, The Strength of the Storm by Rob Koier and the Vermont Workers Center, Dear Mandela on U.S. Tour by Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza and Organizing to Protect our Fire Stations produced by Media Mobilizing Project.

A Three-Part Conference
In connection with Sleep Song performed at Harlem Stage

American poet, slammer, and musician Mike Ladd conducted interviews with 35 Iraq War veterans and used this material to create a poetry and musical performance, Sleep Song, during a residency at the Royaumont Foundation in France. Ladd worked with poets Maurice Decaul and Ahmad Abdul Hussein and musicians Serge Teyssot-Gay, Ahmed Mukhtar, and Vijay Iyer to give voice to the nightmares haunting those who lived through the Iraq war. Artists, academics, and cultural actors discuss this work and explore the theme of art and war in three panel discussions.

10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Part II: Art Against War?

2-4:30 p.m.
Part III: Trauma: Once the Guns are Silenced

Sleep Song will be performed at Harlem Stage November 30 and December 1. Tickets are $30 General / $24 Students or Members / FREE for Active Military & Veterans and are available at www.harlemstage.org/event/sleep-song

A talk by Zahir Tanin. ZAHIR TANIN is the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations. He was Vice President of the 63rd, 65th, and 67th sessions of the General Assembly, and he has served as a Vice Chair of the Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People since 2006. Before his appointment as Permanent Representative, Tanin worked for 11 years with the BBC. He is co-author of The Communist Regime in Afghanistan, 1978-1992.

An optional dinner will precede the talk. We will dine in Columbia's Faculty House at 6:30 pm. Meals, buffet style, cost $25 (cash or check), and wine comes compliments of the seminar. Register for dinner at saw2156@columbia.edu. If you sign up, please provide two days' notice if you cannot attend.

Ambassador Rapp heads the Office of Global Criminal Justice in the U.S. Department of State. He will discuss war crimes prosecutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the International Criminal Court's prosecutions of war crimes in Africa. The program will begin with a light reception. It is free and open to the public.

How may peace education be conducted through different mediums? Why use the arts? What have been common responses to using the arts as a way to raise awareness about peace-related issues? A variety of practitioners from organizations, including Global Arts Corps, NYC Theatre of the Oppressed, Kids Creative, and Creative Arts Workshops for Kids, will present their work. Q&A with the panelists will follow. Join us to learn more about this topic from practitioners representing various contexts!

As concepts of citizenship are challenged not only by processes of globalization but also by renewed demands of recognition and rights, do our understandings of consent as an essential underpinning of democratic societies demand rethinking?

Etienne Balibar is currently a Visiting Professor with the Department of French and Romance Philology at Columbia University. He serves as Professor Emeritus of moral and political philosophy at Université de Paris X – Nanterre and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Some of his recent publications include Europe, Constitution, Frontière (2005); L’Europe, l’Amérique, la Guerre. Réflexions sur la mediationeuropéenne (2003); and Politics and the Other Scene (2002).

Genevieve Fraisse is a preeminent French feminist philosopher serving as Research Director at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, France. She is the author of numerous publications, notably, "La Fabrique du féminisme, Textes et entretiens" (Le Passager clandestin, 2012); "A côté du genre, sexe et philosophie de l'égalité" (Le Bord de l'eau, 2010); and “Du Consentement” (Seuil, 2007).

Speaker: Kimberly Lowe, PhD Candidate, Department of History, Yale University
Discussant: George Andreopoulos
Optional Dinner: Participants are cordially invited to an optional buffet dinner at 6:30 pm on the second floor of the Faculty House. Price of dinner is $25/per person. University Seminars prefers dinner payments by personal checks. Checks should be made payable to Columbia University and indicate "Dinner: Seminar #561" on the memo line. RSVP by Wednesday, November 28.

The first film of the "Central Asian Film Series" is Chinese filmmaker Yu Qiong's documentary "Tibetan Dreams." The director will be present at the screening and available for a Q&A afterwards.

The Women in Conflict Conference, with the aim of educating the greater Columbia community on the special issues facing women and girl in conflict situations, will present panel discussions on the topics of girl child soldiers, women in the U.S. military and sexual violence as a tool of war. The Conference will include speakers from the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Open Society Institute, the US Military, Service Women's Action Network, and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights.

Schedule:
9:15 – 10:30: Women in the U.S. Military
This panel will include speakers from the Service Women's Action Network, NYU Medical Center, and Columbia University.

10:45 – 12:00: Girl Child Soldiers
This panel will include speakers from Human Rights Watch, Watchlist on Children in Armed Conflict, InterAction, Columbia University, and the International Rescue Committee.

12:35 – 1:45: Sexual Violence as a Tool of War
This panel will include speakers from the Humanitarian Law Center, Columbia University, and Human Rights Watch.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Please register for this event.

John-Paul Himka, Professor in the Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta will examine four recent, very different works on the Ukrainian famine (Holodomor) in roder to take stock of what is happening in the memory discourse. Among the issues broached are sacralization, nationalization, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and troublesome links with Holocaust memory.

There will be an Expert Seminar on access to justice for indigenous peoples, including truth and reconciliation processes, held at Columbia University, New York, from 27 February to 2 March 2013. The main objective of the Expert Seminar will be to contribute to the Expert Mechanism's study on access to justice in the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.

There will be an Expert Seminar on access to justice for indigenous peoples, including truth and reconciliation processes, held at Columbia University, New York, from 27 February to 2 March 2013. The main objective of the Expert Seminar will be to contribute to the Expert Mechanism's study on access to justice in the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.

There will be an Expert Seminar on access to justice for indigenous peoples, including truth and reconciliation processes, held at Columbia University, New York, from 27 February to 2 March 2013. The main objective of the Expert Seminar will be to contribute to the Expert Mechanism's study on access to justice in the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.

Join us for a brownbag discussion with AHDA Fellows who will discuss their peacebuilding and reconciliation work in the Balkans. The Fellows will speak about their individual work and organizations, and they will address points of collaboration and overlapping challenges that they face in confronting contentious historical narratives.

Mario Mažić is the director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Croatia, where he monitors research on wartime human rights violations, and he is currently working on a project to connect youth of different ethnic backgrounds in Croatia.

Sandra Orlović is the Deputy Executive Director of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) in Belgrade, leading a team working on the Kosovo Memory Book project and exploring questions of reparations for war victims.

Irena Stefoska works as an Associate Professor of Research at the Institute of National History, University Ss. “Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje, and she works on promoting peace, diversity and multiethnic understanding through teaching history.

Columbia University Partnership for International Development (CUPID), co-sponsored by the Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR), will be hosting the first development dialogue of the year. Please join us for a short presentation by Liberian human rights advocate, war victim, and survivor Jacob Massaquoi, as well as 2012 Human Rights Advocates Program member Marayah Louisa Wychen-Munah Fyneah. The presentation will be followed by a short dialogue regarding their work in international advocacy. All are welcome to this unique and dynamic presentation!

The Center for Palestine Studies invites you to the New York premiere of "Some of My Best Friends Are Zionists," a documentary film by Director Bruce Robbins about American Jews who take an independent line on Israel and the Middle East.

The heart of the film focuses on the experiences of American Jews changing their minds on Palestine/Israel: what they were told about Israel and their Jewish identity as they were growing up, what they went through as they began gaining a different perspective, and finally what Israel and Jewish identity mean to them now.

Following the screening, there will be a discussion with the Director.

How do courts render justice for Palestinians as residents of the Occupied Territories and as citizens of the State of Israel? We will examine litigation before both military jurisdictions in the West Bank and before the Israeli civil courts, including the High Court of Justice.

PANELISTS:

Lisa Hajjar, Associate Professor of Sociology, U.C. Santa Barbara, author of Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza (California, 2005.

Yael Berda, Ph. D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, Princeton University; author of The Bureaucracy of the Occupation: The Permit Regime in the West Bank (Tel Aviv, 2012).

Hedi Viterbo, Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School; PhD in Law, London School of Economics (The Legal Construction of Childhood in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict); LLM (Tel Aviv).

MODERATOR:
Katherine Franke, Professor of Law. Columbia Law School; Director, Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

DISCUSSANT:
Darryl Li, Postdoctoral Fellow, Committee on Global Thought (JD, Yale) (Ph.D., Anthropology, Harvard).

THE SPOTLIGHT: HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE brings together practitioners in the field of human rights with theatre artists, scholars and students from NYC colleges and high schools to collaborate on the creation of new plays, pairing those plays with new scholarship that raises public awareness about the lives and experiences of international aid workers. This initiative tackles critical questions and issues through art that have a meaningful impact for human rights practitioners. 'A Guide for the Homesick’ explores “homecoming” challenges confronting gay humanitarian workers

The Deferred Action for Undocumented Young Immigrants: Context & Perspectives
Although it is unanimously agreed that the nation's immigration system is broken, the US Congress has failed to reform system to address the situation of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. However the immigrant communities and immigrant rights organization have warmly welcomed the Executive Order signed by the President on June 15, 2012, providing relief to about 800, 000 undocumented youth (deferred action). What is the extent of that relief? How does it impact on the need for comprehensive immigration reform?
With Bakary Tandia, African Services Committee, and Eugenie Mukeshimana, Genocide Survivors Support Network

Rape is the rule and not the exception in conflict situations. Between 250,000 and 500,000 women were violated, many with broken bottles, rifles and sticks, during the Rwandan genocide. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—where it is estimated that 48 women are raped per hour—has been deemed the rape capital of the world. The office of the UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict supports the capacity of governments affected by armed conflict to address sexual violence. The SCR 1960 (2010) provides further possibilities and concrete mechanisms to continue to strive for the ending of sexual violence in armed conflicts. Tonderai Chikuhwa, Special Advisor to the SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict, will talk how the office engages complementary mandates at the UN to promote the prevention of mass atrocities.

Join us for this collaborative opportunity to find out more about the professional and academic human rights work that your fellow students have done, and share your own experiences, insights, contacts, and resources.

Some specific topics covered include:
• resources for internship and job opportunities
• tips for informational interviews
• individual research/thesis projects
• human rights work in various sectors (beyond NGOs)
• building your network at Columbia

Snacks will be provided!

Join NYC-YPAI and Zeke Johnson, Director of the Security with Human Rights Campaign, for a discussion on Guantanamo detainee status and photo slide show. Following Zeke’s presentation, we’ll engage in on-the-spot activism and participate in lobbying calls, emails and Tweets urging support for ongoing negotiations for the fair trial or release of the two remaining Kuwaiti detainees, al-Odah and al-Kandari.

RSVP by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 to nyc.ypai@gmail.com. Please visit our Meetup and/or Facebook pages for additional information

Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Kemal Pervanic, Founder, Most Mira (Bridge of Peace).

Join us to learn more about important details regarding general requirements and the IRB approval process for the HRSMA thesis.

3:30-4:15 pm: Joyce Plaza from Columbia's Institutional Review Board office will speak about the IRB approval process. She will give a general overview to help students determine if they will need IRB approval and then answer more specific questions for students going through the process.

4:15-5 pm: Kristina Eberbach will discuss requirements for the thesis proposal, course options, advice for finding an adviser, and other general information regarding the thesis process.

Share your thoughts and perspectives on the Human Rights Studies MA program with Professor Barkan, Kristina Eberbach, and your fellow students. This is also an opportunity to have your questions answered and to discuss suggestions for improving your experience in the program. Please join us!

Human Rights Initiative brings together practitioners in the field of human rights with theatre artists, scholars and students from NYC colleges and high schools to collaborate on the creation of new plays, pairing those plays with new scholarship that raises public awareness about the lives and experiences of international workers.

'The Lion's Roar' explores how human rights and aid workers experience brutality, commonality and spirituality in their work and it asks what sustains and what breaks them. At every turn it challenges our fundamental belief in human equality as it explores our radical relatedness.

A conversation with the editors of Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Maginalisation: Christophe Jaffrelot and Laurent Gayer (editors), Karen Barkey (moderator), and Anupama Rao (discussant).

Numbering more than 150 million, Muslims constitute the largest minority in India, yet they suffer the most politically and socioeconomically. Forced to contend with severe and persistent prejudice, India’s Muslims are often targets of violence and collective acts of murder. While the quality of Muslim life may lag behind that of Hindus nationally, local and inclusive cultures have been resilient in the south and the east.

Combining firsthand testimony with sound critical analysis, this volume follows urban Muslim life in eleven Indian cities, providing uncommon insight into a little-known but highly consequential subject.

Registration not required.

Discussion with Teng Biao, Lecturer, China University of Political Science and Law; Visiting Staff Member, Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong

No registration required.

Please join the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Lepa Mladjenovic, Feminist Councelor, Lesbian Counseling Line, GAYTEN, Serbia.

This talk is part of the "LGBT Hope and Human Rights in the Western Balkans" Lecture Series.

See harrimaninstitute.org for more information

A talk by John Hirsch, Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute and was United States Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone from 1995 to 1998

An optional dinner will precede the talk. We will dine in Columbia's Faculty House at 6:30 pm. Meals, buffet style, cost $25 (cash or check), and wine comes compliments of the seminar. Register for dinner at saw2156@columbia.edu. If you sign up, please provide two days' notice if you cannot attend.

Join leading feminist thinkers for a debriefing on the role of gender and sexuality in the recent political season. We will discuss some of the issues that punctuated the elections, including women's health, reproductive rights, marriage equality, poverty, and political participation. Speakers will consider what issues should be at the top of the feminist and LGBT political agenda and how these communities can best affect change in the new presidential administration.

with guests:
Melissa Harris-Perry
Darlene Nipper
Rebecca Traister
Patricia J. Williams
Moderator: Alondra Nelson

In the first event of our Professor Speaker Series, Professor Paul Martin will speak on the topic of “Human Rights Education and Peacebuilding.” Kristina Eberbach will moderate this informal discussion, which will give you an opportunity to engage with faculty outside of the classroom. Pizza will be served.

Columbia University Partnership in International Development (CUPID), co-sponsored by the Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR), will be hosting the first development dialogue of the year. Please join us for a short presentation by Liberian human rights advocate, war victim, and survivor Jacob Massaquoi, as well as 2012 Human Rights Advocates Program member Marayah Louisa Wychen-Munah Fyneah. The presentation will be followed by a short dialogue regarding their work in international advocacy. All are welcome to this unique and dynamic presentation!
Light refreshments and snacks will be provided.

A Roundtable discussion with Etienne Balibar, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Lydia H. Liu, and Samuel Moyn

The universalism of human rights is often countered with cultural relativism, particularism, and other symmetric or dissymmetric oppositions. But what are the conditions under which one speaks for or against a certain kind of universalism? Does the logic of inclusion/exclusion apply to both sides of the dichotomy? For instance, is racism intrinsic to the discourse of human rights? What are the limitations of “human rights” as a concept or as a political project for the purpose of framing struggles for social justice? The panelists on this roundtable will debate and exchange views on these questions as they aim to reframe the discussion of human rights in the contemporary world.

Yahad-In Unum is the leading research organization investigating mass executions and collecting evidence of more than 2.2 million Jews and Roma killed in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1944. To date, YIU has identified over 800 extermination sites and recorded the testimony of more than 3000 eyewitnesses to these crimes Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme is organizing an event at the United Nations in New York to highlight the work of Yahad-In Unum and action by the international community to help prevent genocide today.

Speakers:

Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information
Father Patrick Desbois, Catholic priest and President of the association “Yahad-In Unum”
Paul Shapiro, Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
Karen Odaba Mosoti, International Lawyer, Head of the Liaison Office of the International Criminal Court to the United Nations
Gillian Kitley, Senior Political Affairs Officer, Office of the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide

The discussion will be moderated by Pamela Falk, CBS News - United Nations Resident Correspondent

Andrea Saccucci is a Professor of International Law at the Second University of Naples; he is also Adjunct Professor of Migration Law at the LUMSA of Rome and currently holds a course of International Protection of Human Rights at the Master of International Relations of the Catholic University of Milan. Andrea was a Visiting Scholar at the Law School of the Columbia University of New York in 2006, and ever since he has been cooperating with the Human Rights Clinic and the Human Rights Institute. He is one of the leading counsel in Italy for litigating individual and collective cases before the European Court of Human Rights and other international and national human rights bodies. Andrea will discuss the States’ obligations relating to the transfer of persons at risk of torture or ill-treatment under the most recent case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. Notably, Andrea will try to highlight the existing gaps and inconsistencies in the application of the absolute prohibition of non-refoulement and the margin of relativity inherent to the control over the risk of ill-treatment in the receiving State.

Consuelo Morales works in Mexico to defend victims of human rights violations and hold their abusers accountable. Security forces there have committed widespread violations against civilians—including torture, rape, and “disappearances”—yet their crimes are virtually never investigated. In the face of persistent threats, Morales’s organization has led efforts in the state of Nuevo León to document these abuses, litigate key cases, and provide critical support for victims of both security forces and violent drug cartels. Human Rights Watch is honoring Consuelo Morales for her courageous efforts to end impunity and aid victims of abuses in Mexico’s “war on drugs,” and is hosting her visit to Columbia for this program.

Pizza will be served.

In his new book, ‘Reforming Justice: a Journey to Fairness in Asia’, (Cambridge University Press: June, 2012), Dr. Armytage calls for justice to be positioned more centrally in evolving notions of equitable development. Building on new evidence from Asia, he argues that there is now an imperative to realign these reforms to promote justice as fairness and equity. The brown bag presentation will create an opportunity to discuss the findings of the book and link them up with UNDP’s efforts in supporting Rule of Law, Access to Justice and Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

Please RSVP by 25th October 2012, to Derek M. Welski at Derek.Welski@undp.org. All attendees must be placed on the UNDP security list.

A Panel Discussion with Ousseina Alidou and others.

Many scholars within a variety of disciplines have begun to examine the ways in which new media technologies in the Muslim world have helped amplify discussions and debates about the role and meaning of Islam in everyday life. This panel will consider how women in different Muslim contexts, who may or may not identify with feminism, are engaging media to explore different understandings of Islam in relation to their gendered lives and experiences.

Speaker: David Fasenfest, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, "Marx and Human Rights”

*Optional Dinner: Participants are cordially invited to an optional buffet dinner at 6:30 pm on the second floor of the Faculty House. Price of dinner is $25/per person. University Seminars prefers dinner payments by personal checks. Checks should be made payable to Columbia University and indicate "Dinner: Seminar #561" on the memo line.

RSVP by Monday, October 29 with the following info:
University Seminar on Human Rights (#561)
Name:
Affiliation:
Meeting Date:
Optional dinner (Y/N):
Dietary restrictions:

Please join HRI for a lunch time discussion with Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program, and Ted Piccone, a CLS graduate and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, on the role of UN special procedures in working with advocacy efforts and promoting human rights.

Ted is a senior fellow and deputy director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. His latest book, Catalysts for Change: How the UN's Independent Experts Promote Human Rights examines the strengths and weaknesses of one of the United Nations' most important human rights mechanisms--the collection of independent experts known as special procedures—as they negotiate the rocky terrain where rights meet reality.

Jamil is the director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program, which is dedicated to holding the U.S. government accountable to its international human rights obligations and commitments

Join an international campaign to raise awareness and take a stand against sexual violence! Students, faculty, staff, and other community members are encouraged to wear orange on Thursday, October 25th and gather on the steps of Low Library between 12:30 and 1:30pm to take crossed-arm photos that will be featured among other examples of “Get Cross” photos on the UN’s Stop Rape Now website.

Leading up to Cross Your Arms, Show Your Face, we will be showing a series of short films about sexual violence in conflict throughout different countries, which will be followed by a short discussion. Popcorn and snacks will be served. Join us!

Cross Your Arms, Show Your Face: Wear Orange on October 25th to support UN's Stop Rape Now Campaign

Join an international campaign to raise awareness and take a stand against sexual violence! Students, faculty, staff, and other community members are encouraged to wear orange on Thursday, October 25th and gather on the steps of Low Library between 12:30 and 2:30pm to take crossed-arm photos that will be featured among other examples of “Get Cross” photos on the UN’s Stop Rape Now website. To create extra impact leading up to International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Sunday, November 25, 2012, Stop Rape Now has joined forces with the UNiTE’s “Orange Day” campaign. Supporters wear orange on the 25th of every month to help raise awareness about violence against women. In that spirit, students and faculty wear orange (or bring something orange) on the 25th.

Join us to learn more about important details regarding general requirements and the IRB approval process for the HRSMA thesis.

4:10-5 pm: Joyce Plaza from Columbia's Institutional Review Board office will speak about the IRB approval process. She will give a general overview to help students determine if they will need IRB approval and then answer more specific questions for students going through the process.

5-5:30 pm: Kristina Eberbach will discuss requirements for the thesis proposal, course options, advice for finding an adviser, and other general information regarding the thesis process.

John Washburn is Convener of the American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC) - ISHR's ICC program - and co-chair of the Washington Working Group on the International Criminal Court (WICC). He was a director in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1988 to 1993. Thereafter he was a director in the Department of Political Affairs at the United Nations. The talk is free and open to the public, but please RSVP to Stephen Wertheim.

Graduate students who engaged in summer internships in the field of human rights or who conducted field research for their thesis will discuss how they identified and prepared for these opportunities, explain the nature of their work, and reflect upon challenges, successes, and lessons-learned.

Lunch will be served.

Please join the United Nations Association Brooklyn Chapter & Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus Honors and United Nations Graduate Certificate Programs for a panel discussion: Women, Children, HIV/AIDS: Progress and Challenges for World Health.

Global health experts Ian Pett (UNICEF), Peter Navario (UNAIDS), and Adam Deixel (Family Care International) will discuss the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the Millennium Development Goals, with an eye to increasing public awareness and support around their critical and very achievable aims.

RSVP required.

Join five participants in the 2012 Human Rights Advocates Program at ISHR as they discuss their grassroots work in Kenya, Palestine, Uganda, Nepal and Sierra Leone. Prof. Rainer Braun will moderate the discussion.

Please join the Harriman Institute for a presentation by ZoranMilosavljevic, M.D..

This talk is part of the “LGBT Hope and Human Rights in the Western Balkans” Lecture Series.

Many contemporary feminist projects attempt to subvert the male gaze by “bearing witness” to female trauma through visual representation. Yet these projects have tended to be under-theorized. Since visual images invoke the spectator’s experience of unmediated access to the inner world of the subject, the evocative power of photographic images may readily reproduce forms of voyeurism. This under-theorizing becomes particularly problematic in projects that document the lives of migratory and marginalized women. Drawing on several decades of prior field research and documentary film projects, Professor Haaken presents a study carried out with women refugee and asylum-seekers in the UK. In discussing photographic images from the study, Haaken provides a framework for working through a series of ethical, political, and methodological dilemmas. She draws on psychoanalytic feminist theory, critical psychology, and participatory action research methods to argue for the importance of an approach to the visual that includes the dynamics of spectatorship as well as the dynamics of the research setting itself as an affectively rich and conflicted site of knowledge production.

Janice Haaken is Professor Emerita of psychology at Portland State University, a clinical psychologist in private practice, and documentary filmmaker

Panelists:
Benny Widyono, Former Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Cambodia, 1994-1997
Stephen Mathias, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs
Andi Gitow, Co-producer of the United Nations documentary Cambodia: A Quest for Justice
Samphoas Huy, Representative, the Documentation Center of Cambodia at Rutgers University-Newark
REGISTER ONLINE

EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE.

Yu Jie is an award-winning writer and notable figure in Chinese pro-democracy efforts.

Calling himself a “true patriot,” Mr. Yu has vowed to use his new-found freedom to continue to write works “that will not betray the expectations of my friends” and that will “put forth my voice on the broader international platform on behalf of the struggle for democracy and freedom in China.”

Moderated by Prof. Andy Nathan, Political Science

Screening of La soif du monde (A Thirsty World) a documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. With introductory remarks by Pierre Gentine, Assistant Professor, Earth and Environmental Engineering and research scientist at the Earth Institute, Columbia University.

Despite the attention given to the recent political changes in Burma, gross human rights violations continue to take place in impunity. Young women activists from Kachin, Karen, and Arakan States will be present to discuss continued gross human rights violations and the fragility of the reform process.

The panel will include:
- Debbie Stothard, FIDH Deputy Secretary-General
- Shiwei Ye, FIDH Permanent Representative to ASEAN
- An activist from Rakhine/Arakan State to discuss the current situation facing the Rohingya
- An activist from Kachin State to discuss the on-going armed conflict in Kachin State

Bernadette Atuahene will talk to us about “Property-Induced Invisibility: When the expropriation of property removes people from the social contract.”
Professor Atuahene is Visiting Professor at Fordham Law School, as well as Associate Professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Please RSVP to Daniel Mahla if you want to take
part in the seminar, and notify him in case you would like to read a PDF file of the paper before our session.

Leading experts in International Humanitarian Law will debate the applicability of the law of armed conflict to drug related violence.
Marco Sassoli, Director, Department of International law and International Organization, University of Geneva
Noam Lubell, School of Law, University of Essex

Magdalena holds a Ph.D in International Human Rights Law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and an LL.M in human rights law from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. She has worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, as a staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and as the Co-Director of the Department of International Law and Human Rights of the United Nations affiliated University for Peace. She also served as a consultant to the Department of International Protection of UNHCR and more recently to the Norwegian Refugee Council in Colombia.

Please join us for a mock international tribunal, the 'Israeli-Palestinian Claims Tribunal', which will hear arguments on the application of principles of international humanitarian law to the property issues at the heart of the Sheikh Jarrah litigation. Sheikh Jarrah, in East Jerusalem, is an area of great historical and cultural significance, both to Palestinian and Jewish communities, and has been the site of a long-running litigation involving a wide range of international law issues. These include the the status of the properties at issue under international law, the right of return of refugees to their homes in the State of Israel, and the fair and lawful resolution of international property law disputes. The purpose of this event will be to present these issues before a fair and impartial hypothetical international tribunal, which will resolve the issue based on principles of international humanitarian law.

Jean-Marie Guehenno is Director of the Center of International Conflict Resolution. He also serves as Associate Director of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies at SIPA, directs the School's International Conflict Resolution specialization, and is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. For approximately five months in early and mid-2012 Guehenno was deputy joint special envoy of the UN and the Arab League for Syria, working with Kofi Annan. He previously served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations from 2000-2008. In that role, he led the largest expansion of peacekeeping in the history of the UN, overseeing approximately 130,000 staff on eighteen missions. Mr. Guehenno will be discussing his role as Deputy Joint Special Envoy on Syria as well as the conflict in Syria.

Dr. Lobsang Sangay, Prime Minister, Central Tibetan Administration

Introduced by: David L. Phillips, Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights

Interviewed by: Robert A.F. Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies

The ABA Section of Dispute Resolution has designated the third week of October as a time to promote and celebrate peaceful conflict resolution practices worldwide. JAMS invites you to attend a “Meet the Mediators” Reception

This presentation explores the way in which seven main Israeli institutions presented between 1949 and 2004 the causes for the main historical event of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict – the 1948 Palestinian exodus, which led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem.

Please join Robert Ricigliano, Director of the Institute of World Affairs at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, as he discusses his book "Making Peace Last: A Toolbox for Sustainable Peacebuilding."

Please join us for the NYC Premiere of "Walking Merchandise," a new documentary about child trafficking and human smuggling networks by NECR Alum Ethan Downing (Class of '10). Produced over two years, the film chronicles the stories of five children who were trafficked to the U.S. from China and just debuted at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival. Following the film screening, there will be a panel discussion and a Q&A with human trafficking experts and the filmmakers. The purpose of the film and panel discussion is to raise awareness about child trafficking and smuggling networks like the snakeheads.

Barbara Ammirati of Religions for Peace will speak about her professional work on child protection, religion, and human rights. Barbara completed Columbia GSAS LSMA program, Human Rights in October 2010. Her study and research helped transition her over 20 years private sector management and strategic planning experience into the field of international humanitarian aid and development; specifically program implementation and management. Barbara has for the last seven years worked in international aid, focusing on field operations in emergency, conflict and post-conflict situations. Her recent work with UNICEF in Afghanistan focused on engaging religious leaders in advocacy for child protection. Today she works on a global partnership project between Religions for Peace and UNICEF on Conflict and Child Protection.

International Criminal Court Prosecutions Coordinator Alex Whiting will discuss the work of the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor and assess its successes and shortcomings. Whiting is responsible for managing and providing legal guidance and direction to all of the ICC's prosecutions. He was previously a senior trial attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. A former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts and a former trial attorney in the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, Whiting is on leave from Harvard Law School where he is an assistant clinical professor of law. He holds a B.A. and a J.D. from Yale.
Free and open to the public. No RSVP required. Lunch will be provided.

Hua Ze, Visiting Scholar, Institute for the Study of Human Rights will speak, and the discussion will be moderated by Andrew Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University.

*In Chinese with English Translation.

A Conversation with Center for International Conflict Resolution Scholars: Marta Debolini, Fiorella Triscritti, Elizabeth Wishnick

Respondents Panel: Robert Barnett, Jacqueline Klopp, Marc Levy

Moderated by: John Mutter

This event is free and open to the public.

This ground-breaking event will help shine a light on ways in which companies in the region are impacting human rights and the environment – negatively and positively.

Mohamed Nagi, Director, Habi Center for Environmental Rights (Cairo)

Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, Middle East & North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch

Mary Robinson, President, Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice – former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Ireland

Unarmed civilian peacekeeping is a relatively new innovation for protecting civilians and reducing violence without the use of armed force. Tiffany Easthom is South Sudan Country Director for the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP), an international non-governmental organization that has worked to promote, develop and implement unarmed civilian peacekeeping. Ms. Easthom will present on the NP’s experience in Sri Lanka, South Sudan and elsewhere, with a special focus on women’s peacekeeping teams. The discussion will conclude with a panel of respondents and then open for questions.

The Ginetta Sagan Speakers Tour is a four-city, national event illuminating the work of three past recipients of the Ginetta Sagan Award: Jenni Williams, Beatrice Mukansinga and Mangala Sharma. These women were originally recognized for working to protect the liberty and lives of women and children in areas where human rights violations are widespread

Two of these women, Beatrice Mukansinga (from Rwanda) and Jenni Williams (from Zimbabwe) will be speaking at Columbia University's Faculty House. Refreshments will be served, and this event is free and open to the public.

Peter Mulbah, Executive Director of the Skills and Agricultural Development Services and 2008 Advocate, and Marayah Louisa Wychen-Munah Fyneah, National Director of the Coalition of Political Parties Women and 2012 advocate, will speak about their professional work in Liberia.

Kimberly Lowe, PhD Candidate, Department of History, Yale University, "Humanitarianism and National Sovereignty: Red Cross intervention on behalf of Political Prisoners in Soviet Russia, 1921-23"

Jadwiga Pieper Mooney, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Arizona, “For Women’s Rights and Human Rights in the Cold War: The Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF)”

The Holocaust Program will organize a discussion with Professor Ilya Altman, founder and co-chairman of the Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center in Moscow. Professor Altman is the editor of the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust in the Territory of the Soviet Union (soon to be available in English) and his team of contributors will participate in the question-and-answer session.

Join the students of Lehman College for a screening of an award-winning documentary film: Dear Mandela. Filmmaker Dara Kell will be available for Q&A after the screening.

Reverend Jacky Manuputty of Indonesia and Dishani Jayaweera of Sri Lanka will share their experiences as grassroots peace leaders. Both of their communities have been rocked by ethnic and religious violence, but Jacky and Dishani are working at the heart of these conflicts to empower a new generation of peacebuilders. Join us to learn more about their innovative efforts. RSVP by Friday, October 5, 2012.

Hear first-hand accounts of international peace building initiatives. Graduate-students returning from the field will discuss their findings and emerging issues facing today’s practitioners. This is the capstone event of “Applied Peacebuilding: Core Competencies for Fieldwork”, a unique course taught by Zachary Metz (Columbia and Consensus) and Devanand Ramiah (UNDP BCPR). Student presentations will discuss innovative initiatives in Burundi, Colombia, Cyprus, East Timor, Fiji, Indonesia, Lebanon, Papua New Guinea, and the US.

Deborah A. Thomas is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Politics of Culture in Jamaica and a co-editor of Globalization and Race: Transformations in the Cultural Production of Blackness, both also published by Duke University Press. ID will be needed to enter the Heyman Center.

Lecture by Nicholas Bequelin, Senior Researcher, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch

Gérard Araud is the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, and President of the Security Council for August 2012. For a full bio, please visit http://www.franceonu.org/france-at-the-united-nations/the-permanent-mission/The-Ambassador-and-his-team/the-permanent-representative/article/gerard-araud-4130

Opening remarks by Robert C. Lieberman, Interim Dean, School of International and Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs.

Professor Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies History & MESAAS will moderate the discussion.

Of interest for human rights majors and concentrators:

Every year, the Office of Global Programs organizes this event which brings together Columbia’s study abroad programs with our partners from institutions and organizations around the world. The fair is a great opportunity to meet with the faculty and staff from these institutions and to learn more about the variety of opportunities for international study available to undergraduates in the College, Columbia Engineering, and General Studies.

G.L. Peiris was appointed Minister of External Affairs in 2010. He has previously served as Minister of Justice, Constitutional Affairs, Ethnic Affairs and National Integration and the Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning. From 2000-2002 he served as Minister of Industrial Development and Constitutional Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning. In 2002 he was also appointed as Chief Negotiator to peace talks with the LTTE.

This World Leaders Forum program features a discussion with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, chair of the National League for Democracy, Member of Parliament from Kawmhu Constituency, and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Ann Curry, national and international anchor and correspondent for NBC News will moderate. Ms. Suu Kyi will discuss the role of education and health on human development and Burma's political transition. The discussion will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

Registration will open Thursday, September 20, 10:00 AM

Ahmed H. Adam is a leading Sudanese/Darfurian activist who has represented the people of Darfur in peace negotiations with the Government of Sudan, in Ndjamena, Abuja and Doha since 2004. He has been one of principal negotiators on behalf of the people of Darfur within the international organization, governments’ circles and international media agencies He obtained his LL/M in International Law at Westminster University, London 1999. Adam currently lives in London, UK. In February 2011 he was designated a Visiting Scholar at Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights.

Keynote speaker Justice Edwin Cameron of the Constitutional Court, South Africa will present “Autonomy, Dignity and Rights – A Judge’s Reflections” to inaugurate the World Health Organization’s formal recognition of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Center for History and Ethics of Public Health as a collaborating center on Bioethics.

RSVP to Kim Milian at km2884@columbia.edu by October 1.

Teachers College Vice President’s Office for Diversity and Community Affairs presents “The Political and Social Dimensions of Surveilling Muslim Students after 9/11: The Impact in Schools and Higher Education Institutions” with panelists Dr. Arshad Ali, Mitra Ebadolahi, Cyrus McGoldrick,and Diala Shamas, moderated by Monisha Bajaj.

When the Walls Come Down—Truth! is a dynamic black box theater production created by SUNY undergraduate students in collaboration with the Rwandan theater company Mashirika.

This workshop is required for incoming students in the HRSMA program. Returning HRSMA students are also welcome to attend.

Students should refer to the HRSMA New Courseworks page for additional information.

Sulakshana Rana, Lydia Jacenta Nakiganda, and Sabrina Rajan Mahtani, three of the 2012 Advocates, will speak about their experiences working on issues of gender-based violence and women's rights, drawing on their professional work in Nepal, Uganda, and Sierra Leone.

Pussy Riot is at the center of domestic controversy in Russia, and their sentence has sparked outrage throughout the world. But what exactly is the significance of the Pussy Riot phenomenon? How does Pussy Riot engage with traditions of dissidence while at the same time frustration traditional expectations about political protest? How can we understand Pussy Riot in the context of performance art? What does this Russian riot girl movement tell us about feminism and gender politics in post-socialist Russia?

A Documentary Short on the Political Landscape in Zimbabwe

"No News from Harare" (20 mins) delivers cutting edge account of the current political climate in Zimbabwe, as reported solely from those who have the courage to speak out. The film features exclusive interviews filmed undercover with NCA Leader Dr. Lovemore Madhuku, rare footage of the recent land evictions and accounts by the lawyers representing its victims. The film presents a chilling portrayal of Zimbabwe that Mugabe prefers to be unseen.

http://www.wendydent.com/No_News_From_Harare

Please join us for a lecture by economist Thomas Piketty, moderated by Bernard Salanié, who will discuss the character of current American inequality. Does it have a distinctive meritocratic character (American exceptionalism), or is the New World simply becoming like Old Europe?

Please note: Registration required at: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=60610

Join the Maison Francaise and Franco-Algerian poet and journalist Anouar Benmalek for a discussion on the danger of writing in the Arab world. "Silence is death / And you, if you remain silent, you die / And if you speak, you die / So speak and die."

Join us for "Echoes of Victimhood", a discussion of women activist leaders in the South Korean anti-prostitution movement.

Speaker: Sealing Cheng, PhD, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Wellesley College and
Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Barnard College welcomes writer, Nobel laureate, and human rights leader Elie Wiesel. A dynamic teacher and author, Wiesel has used his own experience of the Holocaust to defend human rights and strive to ensure real and lasting international peace. At this special event, he will share his wisdom on the power of memory and the desire for resolution.

Barnard College welcomes Ziba Mir-Hosseini of the University of London’s Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law. Mir-Hosseini will examine the growing confrontation between political Islam and Islamic feminism, as well as the rise of a new activism that challenges patriarchal interpretations of religious texts.

The Barnard Center for Research on Women gathers contributors to the recently launched issue of The Scholar & Feminist Online, "A New Queer Agenda," for an evening of politics, discussion, and celebration. A collaboration between BCRW and Queers for Economic Justice, "A New Queer Agenda" shows how activists, academics, and organizers can work together to build larger, more effective social justice movements.

Cafe Columbia is a series of informal discussions, led by Columbia University faculty, focused broadly on the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.

Sociologist Alondra Nelson will discuss
Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination

$10 cover (cash only) includes one drink, First come, First served space is limited, NO RSVP necessary

Showcasing cutting-edge interdisciplinary work in
conflict resolution, violence prevention, peace and
sustainability at Columbia University. Includes nine 50-minute workshops.

Open to the public. RSVP requested.

Ed Husain
Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations.

This event is free and open to the public.

Narrative in Conflict is a reading and conversation on the latest Voice of Witness title "Throwing Stones a the Moon" with authors Sibyalla Brodzinsky and Max Schoening.

Join us for a panel discussion about Egypt’s future, post-presidential election and under Mohamed Morsi’s stewardship. This event launches Egypt in Transition, the 2012 Summer issue of Social Research: An International Quarterly.

Participants: Hazem Fahmy, Samer Shehata
Moderator: Talal Asad

Free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served. RSVP is not required, but appreciated.

Lead Speakers:

Amartya Sen: Nobel Prize in Economics, 1998.

Wakar Uddin: Director General, Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU)—an umbrella of 25 non-governmental organizations and associations that represent the Rohingya minority around the world—and Chairman, Burmese Rohingya Association of North America (BRANA).

T. Kumar: Director, International Advocacy, Amnesty International USA.

Elaine Pearson: Deputy Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch.

Followed by a Roundtable.
Registration is required.

As faculty and students return to campus, ISHR welcomes the 2012 Advocates to the Human Rights Advocates Program, the 2012 Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellows, the Visiting Scholars, and all those engaged with its programs with a wine and hors d'oeuvre reception. Please join us!

Learn about ISHR at hrcolumbia.org

The event is free and open to the public; no RSVP is required.

Orientation for incoming HRSMA students

As part of a public lecture series on The History and Future of Religious Violence and Apocalyptic Movements, the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative Presents Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History and Professor of German Studies, Brown University

Omer Bartov is the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University and chair of the department of History. He was born and raised in Israel and received his BA degree from Tel Aviv University. He was awarded his D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1983, and taught at Tel Aviv University until 1989. Bartov is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Academy in Berlin, the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Davis Center at Princeton, and others. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include The Eastern Front, 1941-45 (1985), Hitler’s Army (1991), Murder in Our Midst (1996), Mirrors of Destruction (2000), Germany’s War and the Holocaust (2003), The “Jew” in Cinema (2005), and Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine (2007).

Peace creates resilience and is statistically related to economic development, environmental health, and social cohesion. How can peace metrics inform discussions around risk, resilience, and sustainability?

The Global Peace Index (GPI) is the first-ever analysis to methodically rank countries on their peacefulness and identify potential determinants of peace. Comprised of a range of indicators measuring the absence of violence in society, the GPI takes into consideration both internal and external factors, and measures 99% of the world’s population.

For the first time, this year’s report includes a Positive Peace Index, highlighting the key institutional factors associated with creating peaceful and resilient societies. The Positive Peace Index ranks countries by their institutional capacity to move away from violence and towards peace.

The Global Peace Index is produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), guided by an international expert panel of independent experts and collated by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

A panel discussion featuring Pamela Graham, Ramazan Aras, Michelle Brané, Sandra Coliver and Lisa Magarrell on the ethical, political and legal implications of using narrative, testimony and oral history in human rights contexts. Each panelist will explore how narrative connects informal and formal justice- seeking initiatives, and questions surrounding the use of narrative in pursuit of legal or political justice.

“Interpretive Listening: Deconstructing the Language of Testimony” a public presentation by independent documentary filmmaker and Voices of Rwanda founder Taylor Krauss. He will discuss his work recording and preserving testimonies of Rwandans, ensuring that their stories inform the world about genocide and inspire a global sense of responsibility to prevent human rights atrocities.

SPONSORS: This panel is co-sponsored by: the Columbia Center for Oral History and the Human Rights Institute at the Columbia Law School.

Columbia University Law School, Jerome Greene Annex, Morningside Heights Campus, 435 W 116th Street NY, NY 10027. Google Map, Campus Map.

Human rights and civil liberties attorney, Jameel Jaffer, is the Director of the ACLU's Center for Democracy, and directed the National Security Project from 2007 – 2010. Ronald Grele is the director emeritus of the Columbia Center for Oral History and one of the primary interviewers for the Rule of Law Oral History Project.

Neeti Khanal, Lecturer at Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Tribhuvan University, Nepal and recipient of Australian Leadership Awards Scholarship, will give a presentation focused on her recent work, entitled, “Violence Against Disabled Women in Nepal” and interviewing disabled women survivors of violence. Her past work includes an examination of Maoist women’s experience in armed conflict in Nepal.

Join us for a discussion with Daniela Grunow (University of Amsterdam, Dept of Sociology and Anthropology) and Silke Aisenbrey (Yeshiva University, Dept of Sociology), in conjunction with the recent workshop, “Deconstructing and Reconstructing ‘Mother’: Regulating Motherhood in International and Comparative Perspective,” at Columbia University.

Discussion moderated by Yasmine Ergas, Associate Director, ISHR.

A light lunch will be served.

Luncheon and Program with Colum Lynch, The Washington Post. Colum Lynch covers the United Nations for The Washington Post. Lynch has been involved in the paper’s diplomatic coverage of a broad range of crises, including conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Somalia, the nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, and most recently, Syria. He has played a key part in The Post’s diplomatic reporting on the Iraq war, the International Criminal Court, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and US counterterrorism strategy. Lynch also writes Foreign Policy Magazine’s Turtle Bay blog, which won the 2011 National Magazine Award for best news reporting in digital media, and serves as a commentator on the NewsHour, MSNBC, NPR, and the BBC.

Lynch’s investigations have uncovered a US spying operation in Iraq, Dick Cheney’s financial links to Saddam Hussein, and evidence of corruption, sexual misconduct, and other crimes in UN peacekeeping missions. Lynch holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He previously worked for The Boston Globe.

Space is limited. Advance registration is required.
Register at https://web.memberclicks.com/mc/quickForm/viewForm.do?orgId=wfpg&formId=120067
WFPG Members— $20 Non-Members— $35

Lecture by Dr. Myint Oo, Alumnus, IIE Scholar Rescue Fund and Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program

Columbia University Human Rights Seminar

Columbia University Human Rights Seminar

Abandoned by their family members, stigmatized by society, physically abused, receiving inadequate mental health services, individuals with mental illness in India often live in subhuman conditions. Many individuals wander the streets aimlessly, some are deposited in shrines in the name faith healing or are living under the open sky out in the streets. A great number are dropped off in different custodial institutions by family members who are at a loss for what to do next.

Come and listen to a first-hand account of this issue from a visiting lecturer, Dr. Tapas Kumar Ray, from Kolkata India. He is a social activist working with individuals and family members affected by mental illness and will be presenting on SEVAC’s (Sane and Enthusiast Volunteers’ Association of Calcutta) work.

Please RSVP by calling the NAMI Helpline at (212) 684-3264.

President Joensen will discuss the historic residual mechanism for the UNICTR and UNICTY which is to begin functioning on July 1, 2012 and the significant changes in the UNICTR rules throughout his tenure as Chair of the ICTR Rules Committee. He will also discuss jurisprudence developed at the UNICTR on sexual assaults on women in the context of civil war. The discussion will be followed by a period for questions and answers.

The program is free and open to the public. Please register at the link below.

An attack on women has become an ominous part of political debate in this election year. From contraception to a woman’s place in public life, issues long settled have fostered an atmosphere of misogyny that darkens the social landscape.

You are invited to join this panel of prominent women as they respond to this threatening assault.

Dr. Debora Spar: President, Barnard College; Katha Pollitt: Columnist, The Nation; Nancy Northup: President and CEO, Center for Reproductive Rights

Entry to our 100-year-old building and meeting rooms is available for most wheelchair users with prior arrangements. Please call ahead (212-874-5210 x 107).

Auditorium Members, $5 Visitors $10

Panelists:

George Andreopoulos – Professor of Political Science, City University of New York (CUNY) and Director, Center for International Human Rights, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Edward J. Flynn – Senior Human Rights Officer, UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate
Kim Prost – Ombudsperson for the Security Council Al Qaida/Taliban Sanctions Committee (to be confirmed)
Ana María Salinas de Frías – Book co-editor and Professor of Public International Law, Málaga University, Spain
Dr. Katja Samuel – Book co-editor and Project Co-Director, Nottingham University, UK

Concluding remarks will be made by a representative of the CTITF working group

The Institute for the Study of Human Rights and
The Harriman Institute
Invite you to a discussion:

The Copenhagen Criteria, Inter-Ethnic Relations, and Macedonia's Milestones for EU Membership
with

DR. TEUTA ARIFI
Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia

moderated by

David L. Phillips
Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University

Please RSVP: https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?vt=detail&br=default&id=58593

Join the Columbia University Forum on Cuba this Thursday, April 26th at 8 p.m. for an open discussion on Che Guevara and his legacy. Our moderator, political science professor emeritus Douglas Chalmers, will guide the discussion, but all students are welcome to join the dialogue and bring in their own questions or talking points. Some topics we hope to discuss are the evolution of Che as a pop culture icon in the decades after his death, as well as his involvement with the Cuban revolution of 1959, and the revolutions of many other Latin American countries. This event will be in Hamilton 306, and there will be free food and drinks. For questions please contact columbiauniversityforumoncuba@gmail.com

Columbia University Department of Anthropology cordially invites you to attend a Franz Boas Seminar by

JOSEPH MASCO
Associate Professor
Anthropology Department
University of Chicago

“No Such Agency:
Digital Surveillance in the Era of Post-Privacy”

Reception follows in the Anthropology Department Robert F. Murphy/Morton H. Fried Lounge (Room 465 Schermerhorn Extension)

The National Committee on American Foreign Policy presents:
“Diplomatic History: The Turkey-Armenia Protocols”

with
David L. Phillips
Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University
Former Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of State

and moderated by

Dr. Helena K. Finn
Vice President, American Council on Germany
Former Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Education & Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State

5:30 Registration
6:00 Lecture
7:15 Cocktail reception

*Men must wear jacket and tie
*Cell phones not permitted

The Human Rights MA congratulates all 2011-2012 graduates and celebrates the end of another academic year at this popular annual event. This year will feature a showcase of graduate student research and a keynote address from an alumna of the program, Tanya L. Domi, Adjunct Assistant Professor at SIPA.

Join students, faculty and staff for an interesting bill of presentations, and of course fine food and company! Family and friends are welcome.

Postponed

Please join the Center for Institutional and Social Change, the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, the Human Rights Institute, the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, the Center for the Study of Law and Culture, and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies for a screening of "I Came to Testify".
When the Balkans exploded into war in the 1990s, reports that tens of thousands of women were being systematically raped as a tactic of ethnic cleansing captured the international spotlight. Part of the acclaimed series Women, War & Peace, I Came to Testify is the moving story of how a group of women imprisoned in the Bosnian town Foca broke history’s great silence – and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law.
After the screening, please join us for commentary and conversation with the filmmaker and Co-creator of Women War & Peace, Pamela Hogan, and Refik Hodzic of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Discussion will explore the potential and the limitations of the law to transform the gender dynamic of war, and the ways in which a groundbreaking decision at the Hague - while a start - is only one step towards justice and reconciliation.

Is the Obama Administration upholding human rights, the Constitution, and the rule of law in its War on Terror efforts? Since 9/11, at least 1780 people have been killed in American drone strikes abroad, and accounts of the number of civilians harmed vary widely. During that same time period, more than 400 individuals have been prosecuted in U.S. Article III courts for terrorism-related crimes. As the United States wages war against terrorists at home and abroad, are human rights and accountability being permanently suspended in the name of national security? Two teams of students in the Human Rights Clinic have spent the past year examining U.S. counterterrorism policy and practice through the lens of targeted killings abroad by drones and domestic terrorism investigations and trials. Join us for a discussion about the human rights and government accountability concerns raised in the U.S.-led war on terror.

Non-pizza lunch will be served.

"Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In small places, close to home."
– Eleanor Roosevelt

While we often examine human rights from an international perspective, the real effect of human rights is experienced locally. Local authorities are on the front lines of combating discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, sex, and other identities; enabling access to affordable housing, healthcare, and education; and ensuring that fundamental human rights are realized. Recognizing the importance of implementing human rights on the local level, students in the Human Rights Clinic are working to investigate and amplify innovative ways state and local government officials have harnessed human rights to improve the lives of members of their local communities. Join us for a lunchtime discussion highlighting ways cities and states throughout the country are bringing human rights home.

Non-Pizza Lunch will be served.

This Thursday, join the Institute for Research on Women and Gender to celebrate the publication successes of our faculty and the end of another successful year!

The event is being coordinated by the SIPA Food Group and is part of the Columbia University Earth Summit 2012. The purpose of this event is to engage leaders in the field of agribusiness, policy and academic research in a discussion about the respective roles of the public and private sectors in ensuring food security. Mr. Carl Hausmann, Managing Director Corporate and Government Affairs at BUNGE will be one of the panelists. He will be joined by representatives from the Rockefeller Foundation and academia from Columbia's Earth Institute.
This panel will be of interest to students studying business, economics, policy, environmental science, food systems, and sustainable development. We believe that the presence of students in various fields of study will make for a much stronger discussion, so we encourage you to distribute widely.

Join the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies for an undergraduate luncheon with Jordan Hirsch, Staff Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine (CC '10), and David Keyes, the executive director of Advancing Human Rights, who will discuss the overall state of human rights in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring and why they matter for Israel.
Lunch will be served!

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/251625558267670/

The Anthropology department

Cordially invites you to attend a Franz Boas Seminar by

NAVEEDA KHAN
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
Johns Hopkins University

Reception follows in the Anthropology Department Robert F. Murphy/Morton
H. Fried Lounge (Room 465 Schermerhorn Extension)

Anthropology Department
Columbia University
Cordially invites you to attend a Sheldon Scheps Talk by:
MANUEL SCHWAB
Ph.D. Candidate
Anthropology Department
Columbia University
Respondent:
Professor Rosalind Morris
Anthropology Department, CU
“Messianic Empire: Humanitarian Imaginations and Ethical Material in Sudan”

Bombay/Mumbai Stories explores questions of gender, labor, the politics of visibility, and subaltern public culture with Mumbai-based documentary film-makers Surabhi Sharma and Paromita Vohra. This event is part of BCRW’s Transnational Feminisms Initiative. We are grateful for additional support from the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, The Forum on Migration, MESAAS, The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia. These screenings are in conjunction with the seminar “Bombay/Mumbai and Its Urban Imaginaries.”

Paromita Vohra will explore gender, the city, and vulnerability with clips from select films, accompanied by a screening of her award-winning documentary Q2P. Q2P is a film about toilets and the city. It sifts through the dream of Mumbai as a future Shanghai and searches for public toilets, watching who has to queue to pee. As the film observes who has access to toilets and who doesn’t, we begin to also see the imagination of gender that underlies the city’s shape, the constantly shifting boundaries between public and private space; we learn of small acts of survival that people in the city’s bottom half cobble together and quixotic ideas of social change that thrive with mixed results; we hear the silence that surrounds toilets and sense how similar it is to the silence that surrounds inequality. The toilet becomes a riddle with many answers and some of those answers are questions—about gender, about class, about caste and most of all about space, urban development and the twisted myth of the global metropolis.

Surabhi Sharma will share her debut film, Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories, which documents narratives of gender and informal labor as these relate to the broader processes of deindustrialization. Sharma will also share scenes from her latest work, Bidesia in Bombayya, a story of Bhojpuri music, migration and mobile phones. Migration is the predominant theme in the music, and the phone is a recurring motif. Mobile phones are also used to circulate the music. And it’s the only way to stay connected to the mothers and wives back home in the village. This film follows two singers in Mumbai who occupy extreme ends of the migrant worker’s vibrant music scene, a taxi-driver chasing his first record deal and Kalpana, the star of the industry.
Surabhi Sharma is an independent film maker. She studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, and made her first film in 2001. She has since produced six films including Aamkar [Turtle People] and Jahaji Music, which explores race, identity and Indian indenture as these are reflected in Caribbean music, as well as three video installations including, most recently, an installation for the Hongkong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture.

Program Description:
Rape is the rule and not the exception in conflict situations. Between 250,000 and 500,000 women were violated, many with broken bottles, rifles and sticks, during the 100 day-Rwandan genocide. Forty-eight women an hour are raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), deemed the rape capital of the world by the UN. Men and boys also suffer the pain and stigma of rape. This panel will explore avenues to prosecute perpetrators including mobile courts in the DRC and national courts that utilize universal jurisdiction. The speakers will focus on international law developed in supranational tribunals that have decided that rape is a crime against humanity and can be genocide. Cases will be discussed that hold superiors liable for rapes committed by their subordinates. The panel will also propose measures to dispel cultural norms that prevent victims from disclosing the horrors inflicted upon them and motivate them to initiate an action against their perpetrator.

Program Chair and Moderator:
Elizabeth Barad, Esq., L/O E. Barad, New York, New York, International Law and Gender Consultant, elizabethbarad@gmail.com
Speakers:
Ambassador Stephen J. Rapp, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, rappsj@state.gov
Tonderai Chikuhwa, United Nations, New York, NY, Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Senior Adviser, tonderai@me.com

Alison Cole, Esq., Open Society Justice Initiative, New York, NY, Legal Officer, acole@justiceinitiative.org

Eugenie Mukeshimana, Genocide Surviors Support Network, South Orange, New Jersey, Founder, eugeniem@me.com.

Dr. Roger Luhiriri, Spine Africa Project, participant in the 2008 Human Rights Advocates Program at Columbia, and former physician at the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo, rogerluhiriri@yahoo.fr.

Primary Sponsor: Africa Committee Co-Sponsors: International Human Rights Committee; Women's Interest Network (WIN); International Criminal Law Committee

Social Text invites you to a conference on Thursday, April 19, celebrating the publication of our two-part special issue on "China and the Human" (Social Text 109-110), coedited by David L. Eng, Teemu Ruskola, and Shuang Shen. The conference will take place at the Graduate Center, CUNY; please see the link below for the full schedule. The contents of Social Text 109-110 can be viewed at http://socialtext.dukejournals.org/

China is everywhere in the news for its astounding economic development and its equally astonishing human rights abuses. Beginning with this curiously inverse relationship between economic success and political rights and freedom, the relationship of China and the human begs to be explored. Bringing together editors and contributors toSocial Text's newly published double issue on "China and the Human" (coedited by David L. Eng, Teemu Ruskola, and Shuang Shen), this interdisciplinary symposium seeks to question the self-evident nature of both "China" and "human" by examining the long career of the human in Chinese culture and thought, reaching back to ancient traditions and exploring the radical transformations under Maoism and in the current socialist-capitalist era. Join us for a series of panel discussions and conversations with: Ackbar Abbas, Tani Barlow, Michael Dutton, Brent Edwards, David Eng, David Harvey, Eric Hayot, Peter Hitchcock, Petrus Liu, Camille Robcis, Teemu Ruskola, Haun Saussy, Shuang Shen, Shu-mei Shih, andMei Zhan.

For a full program please visithttp://centerforthehumanities.org/events/China-and-the-Human.

Co-sponsored by the Halle Institute, Emory University; the Mellon Committee on the Study of Globalization and Social Change and the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; the Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University; the Department of Comparative Literature, Penn State University, and Social Text

Free and open to the public. All events take place at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave btwn
34th & 35th. The building and the venues are fully accessible. For more information please visithttp://centerforthehumanities.org/ or call 212.817.2005 or e-mail ch@gc.cuny.edu

What are the current professional opportunities available to human rights students? What skills, credentials, and experiences are valuable? What are the benefits and challenges of various types of human rights work?

Human rights professionals will discuss their current work and previous professional experiences, and offer insights and advice to students who are interested in pursuing and developing a career in human rights.

Refreshments will be served!

Join Karl Eikenberry, the current Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and former Commander of Combined Forces in and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, this upcoming Monday at 5 pm in the Wein Hall Lounge for an open discussion on Afghanistan and related issues. From the state of U.S. relations to Afghanistan and the Afghan government to the potential for a regional oil pipeline deal that could bring peace and stability to the region, there are few more knowledgeable voices on policy in the area than former Ambassador Eikenberry. Do not miss this opportunity for a spirited discussion of one of the nation’s most pressing regional concerns.

A roundtable discussion at UN Headquarters to mark the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind behind the mass deportation and murder of European Jews during the Holocaust.

Distinguished speakers will include Israeli Minister Yossi Peled, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Executive Director of the International Bar Association Mark S. Ellis, Professor and Author Deborah Lipstadt, and Amos Hausner, attorney and son of the trial's Chief Prosecutor.

The panelists will explore the psychological, social and legal aspects of the trial, and its influence on justice and accountability in the twenty-first century.

The tea industry is second largest employer in India and a major force in the economy. Yet tea production in India is also associated with a long history of forced migrations and exploitative labor practices. Some companies claim to be addressing the problems; recently, even the World Bank’s private lending arm – the IFC – has made direct investments in plantations on this basis. The Human Rights Clinic, under the direction of Professor Peter Rosenblum, is involved in a major investigation of the most substantial investment in the sector. They have been involved in dialogue with the IFC, unions, workers, and the company. One team traveled to the Assam in January to document the conditions of workers and their families. Another will travel, next week, to meet with management and explore continuing options. Join us for a lunchtime discussion about the challenges of promoting economic growth and fair labor conditions in the Indian tea sector.

An exhibit of the photo documentary work of death penalty activist
Scott Langley, followed by a discussion.
On Wednesday, September 21, Troy Davis was executed by the State of Georgia for a crime he did not commit. Scott Langley was there to photograph the events around this tragic injustice. Like this journey to save Troy Davis, these photos are intense, emotional and the story is long.

“What I saw and felt and experienced this week in Georgia is beyond words. It is probably beyond photographs, but as a photographer, I have no other choice but to share what it is I am able to share. My conscience and my soul demands it. So bear with me.”

Refreshments will be served!

Join us in this interactive event to learn about the current state of the humanitarian field, the most pressing challenges faced by humanitarian actors in the context of multilateral diplomacy, as well as in field operations, and the specific role of the ICRC in relation to International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions. Mr Füllemann will share his experiences as an ICRC Delegate in zones of conflict across the globe, and will establish an interactive discussion with the audience in order to address the issues of greatest interest and concern among the participants.
RSVP to the address below highly appreciated (although not required)
canepa@columbia.edu

Walter Füllemann is the Head of Delegation and Permanent Representative of the Permanent Observer Mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the United Nations.
Prior to his appointment, Mr Füllemann was based in Geneva, serving as ICRC?s Deputy Director of Operations, following his Headquarter posts as Deputy Head of External Resources Division and Head of the Operational Desk for the Former Yugoslavia.
Throughout Mr Füllemann extensive trajectory with the ICRC, he has also served in several field missions, including Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subsequently, he served as the Head of Delegation in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Dr. Howard Stoffer, Principal Advisor, Counter-terrorism Executive Directorate of the United Nations Security Council, will speak about human rights in the work of the UN's Counter-terrorism Committee.

Please RSVP to sarah.guillet@jjay.cuny.edu

Brown bag discussion with Mr. David Hawk (Visiting Scholar, ISHR), Prof. Charles Armstrong, and Prof. Jeong-Ho Roh on North Korean political prison camps and other human rights issues in North Korea.

The discussion coincides with the publication of David Hawk's book length report on North Korean political prison camps.

Jose Antonio Vargas has been a journalist for over a decade, writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country. He is founder of the organization Define American. Born in the Philippines, he emigrated to the United States at age 12. Stunning the media and political circles and attracting world-wide coverage, Vargas wrote the groundbreaking essay, "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant," for the New York Times Magazine in the summer of 2011.

Reception with food will be provided at 7pm in the Law School JG Annex. Network with community leaders, students and professors.

Please register to attend

From Nazi Germany to Rwanda to the former Yugoslavia, the world has attempted to bring some measure of justice to the victims of mass atrocities. In Cambodia, a reign of terror obliterated one-quarter of the population more than three decades ago. The Emmy-nominated United Nations documentary “Cambodia: A Quest for Justice” tells the unforgettable story of the first case ever heard at the United Nations-backed international tribunal.

In July 2010, the tribunal found Kaing Guek Eav, better known as “Duch”, guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes for overseeing the torture and killings of thousands of prisoners at an infamous prison known as Tuol Sleng or S-21. “Cambodia: A Quest for Justice” explores the trial through the compelling and emotional stories of two men: one a victim of imprisonment and brutal torture, and the other a prison warden who committed the torture.

Since the film aired, the tribunal heard the appeal of “Duch” and in February 2012 they increased his punishment, imposing a life sentence for his crimes. The exceptional efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice in Cambodia will be the subject of an event organized by the United Nations Holocaust Programme and held at the Museum of Tolerance, New York from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on 30 May 2012. The documentary film “Cambodia: A Quest for Justice”, produced by the United Nations News and Media Division, will be screened and panellists will discuss what the trial means for Cambodia and the prevention of future genocides.

Speakers include:
- Andi Gitow and Susan Farkas; co-producers of the film
- Patricia O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs
- Professor Alex Hinton, Executive Director for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers University
- Socheata Poeuv, founder and CEO of Khmer Legacies, which is creating an archive of survivor testimonies
- Mark Weitzman, Director of Government Relations, Simon Wiesenthal Center (Moderator)

Seats are limited to 40
Please RSVP

Presenter: Nikola Poposki, The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia with comments by: David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights

Presenter:
David L. Phillips

Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights and a former senior adviser to the U.S. Department of State.

Moderated by:
Alexander Cooley

Bo Kyi founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which works to defend the rights of those imprisoned for their expressions of dissent. He has also received such prestigious awards as the Human Rights Watch Defenders Award, the Alison des Forges Award and the Swiss Government Human Rights Award.

Into the Current takes the viewer into the darkest corners of Burma’s massive system of repression. This film illustrates the evils of military dictatorship with compassion, historical depth, and powerful visual evidence of past and ongoing repression. The ordeal of political prisoners like Ko Bo Kyi illuminates the suppression of democracy activists through imprisonment, torture and isolation, but more importantly, the resolute commitment they embody for a people long denied their freedom.
New developments inside Burma, such as the recent release of 651 prisoners that included prominent political prisoners from the 1988 mass demonstrations and 2007 Saffron Revolution, make the documentary and Bo Kyi's work extremely relevant and topical at this time.

US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Stephen J. Rapp on “The Lubanga Verdict: Its Impact on the International Criminal Court and US Relations with the ICC.” Following the conviction of the ICC’s first defendant, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, for the war crime of enlisting and using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the senior government officials dealing with international justice policy will discuss the verdict and what it means for the ICC and the evolving US relationship with the world’s first permanent international criminal tribunal. Ambassador Rapp, a former US Attorney and international prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, won the first convictions in history for recruitment and use of child soldiers. Presented by Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights and its program, the American NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC).

Lunch will be provided. Following his speech, Ambassador Rapp will answer questions to be moderated by AMICC Convener John Washburn.

the Sixth Annual Colloquium:
Eurasian Pipelines-Road to Peace, Development and Interdependencies?

Confirmed speakers include Karl Eikenberry, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Steve LeVine, author of the acclaimed book, Oil and Glory, and David Onoprishvili, former Finance Minister of Georgia and other experts and scholars from around the world, including Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan and Pakistan as well as from Oxford, Princeton, CSIS and the US Department of Defense.

A symbol of China’s economic prowess, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the world’s largest, and China’s biggest engineering feat since the Great Wall. It also represents the end to a way of life and livelihood for two million people along the Yangtze. Among those being forced to relocate are the Yu family. Poor, illiterate farmers with few options available to them, they decide to send their oldest daughter Yu Shui to work on a cruise ship. Working for the same cruise line is Chen Bo Yu, the only son from a middle class family. Good looking and proficient in English, Jerry (as he is renamed by the cruise line), sees this as an opportunity a stepping stone to bigger and better things, while Yu Shui (renamed Cindy) would prefer to continue her education. Both struggle with the demands of their jobs, especially the expectation to understand Western social cues and to operate comfortably in a Western social environment. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang crafts a beautifully photographed and moving metaphor for life in contemporary China, as well as a disquieting glimpse into a future that awaits us all.

Refreshments will be served!

Film by Julie Bridgham. 2008, 92 min.

Documentary that follows six Nepalese women on the forefront of the civil war in Nepal and the escalating instability and violence that is engulfing the country. Over the course of a year, the film follows these women on the different sides of the conflict and witnesses the challenges they face as women taking such a strong role in a male dominated society, and why they are willing to risk their lives to make a difference in Nepal.

Refreshments will served!

Watch the trailer at http://bit.ly/4EBxSO

Etienne Smith (Fellow, Committee on Global Thought) and Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia University) will discuss why and how Senegal averted a major democratic crisis during its February/March two-round presidential elections. Moderated by Alfred Stepan (Columbia University.
Co-sponsored with the Institute for African Studies

Please join Global Cultural Studies and New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in remembrance of

Wangari Muta Maathai
Professor of Veterinary Anatomy, University of Nairobi
Founder, Green Belt Movement and
2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

at a tree-planting ceremony to celebrate her life and contributions.

A reception will follow in Garden Room 2, Faculty House, 62 Morningside Drive.

Please RSVP to events4@columbia.edu

The University Seminars for 'History, Redress and Reconciliation' and for 'Cultural Memory' invite you to a workshop with Dr. Patrick Hutton (University of Vermont). The title of his presentation is "Memory and Historiography".

Please contact Nadia Hasham (nh2348@columbia.edu) to request a copy of Dr. Hutton's paper or for any further questions. Feel free to circulate this to all who may be interested.

Hailed in The New York Times as " tthhiiss yyeeaarr''ss muusstt--sseeee ddooccuumeennttaarryy," and
featured in major international news outlets,
including Newsweek, The Economist and The Washington Post, Budrus tells the
story of a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites members of all
factions along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village
of Budrus from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier. Success looks improbable
until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women's contingent that quickly
moves to the front lines.
Winner of multiple prizes at top international film festivals, including Tribeca, Berlin
and San Francisco, Budrus is produced by JJuusstt Viissiioonn, an award-winning team of
Israeli, Palestinian, North and South American journalists, filmmakers and human
rights advocates dedicated to increasing the power, legitimacy and exposure of
Palestinians and Israelis working nonviolently to resolve the conflict and end the
occupation.

Professors Katherine Franke, Kendall Thomas, and Vani Natarajan, Humanities and Area Studies Librarian, Barnard College, visited Israel and
Palestine in January, 2012 as part of the first LGBTQ delegation to the West Bank. Come hear them offer a "queer take" on Israel/Palestine.
Moderated by Neta Patrick, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School. Cosponsored with the Center for Palestine Studies and the Institute
for Research on Women and Gender.

Screening of I Came to Testify (part of the Women, War, and Peace series) and Q&A with director Pamela Hogan, cosponsored event with the Center for Institutional and Social Change, the Human Rights Institute, the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, the Center for the Study of Law and Culture, and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies

Cosponsored event with Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine: Katherine Franke and Sa’ed Adel Atshan

Screening of (A)Sexual with lead activist and filmmaker David Jay, cosponsored with OutLaws, Law/Culture, and Professor Emens' Employment Discrimination Law class

This conference will explore factors that have led to greater, or more restricted, liberties in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on the role of religious actors, international bodies like the UN, civil society, and developments since the Arab Spring.

Speakers: Dr. Nouzha Guessous (University Honorary Professor, Feminist, Human Rights and Social Activist; A Key Creator of Morocco’s Progressive 2004 Family Code); Dr. Radwan Masmoudi (President, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, Tunisia); Dr. Toby C. Jones (Specialist on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University); Dr. Tarek Masoud (Specialist on Egyptian and Arab politics, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government); Dr. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (Chairman, United Nations Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria).

Discussants: Dr. Alfred Stepan (Wallace Sayre Professor of Government, Columbia University) and Nina zu Fürstenberg (President, Board of Govenors, Reset-Dialogues On Civilizations).

Home demolitions are a common practice in the occupied west bank. While the Israeli government claims it is upholding the law in place in the occupied Palestinian territory by battling illegal construction, Palestinians maintain that the demolitions stem from a discriminatory planning and zoning regime that favors Israeli settlers. Students in the Human Rights Clinic traveled to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in November of 2011, and submitted upon their return two reports to the United Nations Special Procedures regarding the human rights situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Join a lunchtime discussion in which they will share some of their research and experiences from their trip. They will discuss issues affecting everyday life for Palestinians including: housing and zoning schemes, forced evictions and displacement, and discriminatory land policy.

Oren Ipp is an international development professional with more than ten years’ experience in democratic governance. His expertise is in fragile and post-conflict governance, with a regional focus on Afghanistan and South Asia. Oren has worked in the areas of security sector reform, political party development, election support, legislative strengthening, and civil society capacity building. Within these functional areas, Oren’s primary focus has been on programme design, management and monitoring and evaluation.
 


Oren is currently an adjunct assistant professor at New York University (NYU) as well as a consultant for a number of organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, and the consulting firm Development Transformations. Recent projects have concentrated on international support for post-conflict political settlements, the role of development assistance in counterinsurgency efforts and political party development. During 2006-2008, Oren was based in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he directed the national and sub-national legislative programs of the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

Refreshments will be served!

Columbia University Students for Human Rights (CUSHR) is glad to invite you to a speaker event with Professor Belinda Cooper on Monday, March 26 at 9 pm at Hamilton 603. Professor Cooper will discuss women’s rights and other aspects of international human rights.

Professor Belinda Cooper teaches International Human Rights Law at Columbia University, and is an Adjunct Professor at New York University's Center for Global Affairs. Cooper is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York and a co-founder of its Program on Citizenship and Security. She writes and lectures on human rights and international law and is the editor of “War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg,” which explores the interconnections between the Nuremberg tribunal and today’s international criminal tribunals. She has taught human rights, international law, transitional justice and gender and law at Humboldt University in Berlin, the New School, Seton Hall Law School and Ohio Northern University Law School.

CUSHR’s speaker series with professors has the intention of providing human rights oriented students the opportunity to have a closer interaction with human rights professors, to learn from particular human rights issues, and to learn more from professor’s experiences. Join us! Refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact vdc2106@columbia.edu.

Columbia Liberty in North Korea (CU LiNK) has invited Euna Lee, one of the two Current TV reporters who was detained in North Korea in 2009 and was released with the help of Former President Clinton's skillful diplomatic engagements with the North Korean state. She will be speaking at this event about the North Korean humanitarian crisis, her experiences of being detained, and what you can do to alleviate the plight of North Korean refugees.

Join Mr. Walter Kalin as he takes a moment from his valuable work at the current UN Human Rights Committee sessions to share his expertise.  Mr. Kalin is a preeminent international human rights lawyer who served as the UN Secretary-General’s Representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. Mr. Kalin received his Doctor of Law from the University of Bern and his LL.M. from Harvard Law School.

Mr. Kalin will discuss the challenges and opportunities of working on human rights and specifically with internally displaced persons, referring to his experience in countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia.  The talk will be moderated by Professor Lincoln Mitchell of the Harriman Institute.

Lunch and refreshments will be served.

A talk by Mitchell Orenstein (Professor of European Studies, Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University), who will present a paper of same title co-authored by David R. Cameron (Professor of Political Science, Yale University).
 
This event is free and open to the public. No tickets, no reservations required. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.
 
This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).

Presentation by Katherine Franke, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law

Professor Katherine Franke just returned from a week of working with women lawyers in the West Bank, helping them build a Women's Committee within the Palestinian Bar Association.  She will discuss what women in Palestine feel are the most pressing Gender Justice issues, how they plan to go about addressing them, and what it means to be a feminist in the West Bank.

9:30am: Opening Keynote: Rashid Khalidi (Columbia), ‘America and the Arab Revolts.’ Moderated by Bashir Abu-Manneh (Columbia)

11:00am: First Panel: Gilbert Achcar (SOAS, London) ‘Roots and Dynamics of Arab Revolt.’ Asef Bayat (Illinois) ‘Revolution without Movement, Movement without Revolution-Again,’ Mona El-Gobashy (Barnard) ‘The Politics of Counter-Revolt in Egypt.’ Moderated by Marwa El Shakry (Columbia)

2:15pm: Second Panel: Jason Brownlee (Texas) ‘Antecedents of the Tunisian Revolt’, Gershon Shafir (UCSD) ‘Tahrir in Tel-Aviv?’, Lisa Wedeen (Chicago) ‘"Ideology in the Political Present: Notes from Syria.’ *Moderated by Nadia Abu El-Haj (Columbia)

4:30pm: Closing Keynote: Khaled Hroub (Cambridge), After the Revolts: The Question of Palestine. Moderated by Rashid Khalidi (Columbia)

As the son of the Imam of the local Brooklyn mosque, eleven year-old Daud has to juggle the high expectations of his Father (Maz Jobrani) and his feelings of isolation and difference– even from his peers in the Muslim community. Through an innocent act of good faith, Daud inadvertently befriends a group of Jewish boys who mistake him as a fellow classmate at their orthodox school, in the neighboring Jewish community. A genuine friendship grows between Daud and Yoav, one of the Jewish boys, and his family. Unable to resist the joy of a camaraderie that he has never felt before, David, as he is known to the kids, is drawn into a complicated dilemma inspired by youthful deceit and the best of intentions.

Event is open to the public but registration is required.

Post-screening Q&A featuring Producer Greg Henry and Colin Waugh, author of Charles Taylor and Liberia: Ambition & Atrocity in Africa's Lone Star State

WINNER: Excellence in Cinematography: Documentary at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

Event is open to the general public, but registration is required.

Joshua Milton Blahyi—aka General Butt Naked—was a ruthless and feared warlord during Liberia's 14-year civil war. Today, he has renounced his violent past and reinvented himself as a Christian evangelist on a journey of self-proclaimed transformation. Blahyi travels the nation of Liberia as a preacher, seeking out those he once victimized in search of an uncertain forgiveness. But in the end, are some crimes beyond the pale of forgiveness?

The conference on Egypt in Transition is intended to shed some light on the origins of the events in Tahrir Square, the deposing of President Mubarak, the changes currently under way, likely future developments, and the future of Egypt and the Arab world. It is our hope to hold a follow-up conference in April 2013 with the same speakers as this year's conference.

"Egypt in Transition" will also be the 14th issue in the Social Research Transitions Series, which began in 1990 by examining the transitions in Eastern and Central Europe following the collapse of communism. Since then, Social Research has explored transitions in South Africa, China, sub-Saharan Africa, and India. Social Research: An International Quarterly is the flagship journal of The New School for Social Research.

Book Talk with Colin Waugh

Campaigner, insurgent, arms dealer, warlord, commodity trafficker, elected president, international fugitive and finally prisoner, Charles Taylor sought to lead his native Liberia to change but instead destroyed it in a frenzy of violence, greed and uncontrolled personal ambition. In the process he threw much of Liberia's neighbouring region into turmoil for over a decade, finally facing judgement in The Hague for his role in the Sierra Leone conflict.  In this remarkable and eye-opening book, Colin Waugh draws on a variety of sources, testimonies and original interviews - including with Taylor himself - to recount the story of what really happened during these turbulent years. In doing so, he examines both the life of Charles Taylor, as well as the often self-interested efforts of the international community to first save Liberia from disaster, then, having failed to do so, to bring to justice the man it deems most to blame for its disintegration.  Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event.

The Workshop on Deconstructing and Reconstructing ‘Mother’ explores ways in which, in different political and cultural contexts, definitions of motherhood are being challenged by the concomitant development of assisted reproductive technologies, globalized markets in reproductive services, gender neutralizing norms regarding parenthood, and the trans-nationalization of everyday life.

The American Pakistan Foundation presents a discussion on the opportunities and challenges involved in US civilian aid to Pakistan. The panel will discuss the relationship between Pakistan and the US in the context of the Woodrow Wilson Center's recent report "Aiding Without Abetting: Making US Civilian Assistance to Pakistan Work for Both Sides."

Ehtisham Ahmad is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. Anis Dani is Lead Evaluation Specialist, and former Advisor Social Policy, World Bank.

Michael Kugelman is Program Associate for Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Ambassador Robin Raphel is Senior Advisor to Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, US Dept of State; and former Coordinator for Economic and Development Assistance to Pakistan.

S. Akbar Zaidi is a Visiting Professor at Columbia, jointly appointed at the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies.

The American Pakistan Foundation (APF) seeks to effectively catalyze long term economic development and social change in Pakistan by engaging the diaspora and the private sector and by building partnerships with key stakeholders in Pakistan and the United States. For more information please visit www.americanpakistan.org.

To register for the event, visit the SIPA Events Calendar at .

Brownbag discussion with Convener John Washburn and Deputy Convener Matthew Heaphy of the American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC).

The International Criminal Court will deliver its first verdict on March 14th. John Washburn and Matthew Heaphy will discuss The Prosecutor vs. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and other current ICC developments, including the Kony 2012 campaign and its relationship to the ICC.

The UN Holocaust Programme is partnering with the Permanent Missions of the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the United Nations for a special screening of the highly acclaimed film.

"Nicky's Family"

The film documents the story of Nicholas Winston (today 102 years old), an Englishman who organized the rescue of 669 Czech and Slovak children, nearly all Jewish, just before the outbreak of World War II. His exploits would have probably been forgotten if his wife, fifty years later, hadn't found a suitcase in the attic, full of documents and transport plans.

Speakers:
Edita Hrdá, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the UN Miloš Koterec, Permanent

Representative of Slovakia to the UN Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information

RSVP by 9 March 2012

a Sheldon Scheps Talk by:

SEEMA GOLESTANEH
Ph.D. Candidate
Anthropology Department
Columbia University

Respondent:
Professor Severin Fowles
Barnard College

A light lunch will be served prior to the talk from 12:00-12:30 in the Robert F. Murphy/Morton H. Fried Lounge, room 465 Schermerhorn Extension

A Panel Discussion:

Welcoming Remarks: Professor George Andreopoulos, Director, CIHR

Moderator: Aferdita Hakaj, Assistant Director, CIHR

Panelists:
Prof. Rosemary Barberet
Associate Professor of Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York

Ms. Barbara Borgese
Second Language English Teacher and Community Coordinator, The Brooklyn International High School

Mr. Conor French
Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer, Indego Africa

Ms. Qaterannada Rehan
Youth Participant, Seeds of Peace Organization

Africa in Brazil? Samba, History, and the Allure and Challenge of Diaspora

Marc Hertzman, Columbia University

Belonging Via Involvement in Civic Discourse: Russian Jewish Homecomers in Israel

Tamar Rapoport, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

From One Island to Another: Dominican Immigration to New York, 1892-1924

Ramona Hernández, The City College of NY and e Graduate Center, CUNY

Sports and Ethnicity: Jewish and Palestinian Soccer Teams in Argentina and Chile

Raanan Rein, Tel Aviv University

Colonial Rights & Migration: Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in the 19th Century

Josep M. Fradera Barceló, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

"White Indians" and "Feverish Blacks": Race, Ethnicity, and the Historical Imagination in Recent Argentine Historical Fiction by Paulina L. Alberto from the University of Michigan

Reception to follow

Bahrain: An island kingdom in the Arabian Gulf where the Shia Muslim majority are ruled by a family from the Sunni minority. Where people fighting for democratic rights broke the barriers of fear, only to find themselves alone and crushed. This is their story and Al Jazeera is their witness - the only TV journalists who remained to follow their journey of hope to the carnage that followed.
This is the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West and forgotten by the world. This documentary recently won the Foreign Press Association Documentary of the Year award in London.

A talk with Kirsten Weld, Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Latin American History at Brandeis University about the discovery of Guatemala's secret police archive, and the creation of an archive of genocide.

Pizza and refreshments will be served!

UNC documentary about the 35 year crusade of the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo. Las Abuelas banded together in September 1977 to find their missing grandchildren, most born between 1975 and 1980. Cabandie is one of an estimated 500 children given for adoption after their mothers were abducted during the seven years of state-sponsored violence in Argentina in the late 1970s and early 80s. Cabandie is one of 104 "children" who have been found and whose story is the central theme of the film.

Please join HRI for a lunch discussion about labor, tea, and fair trade in India with Professor Peter Rosenblum and Sarah Besky, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The overwhelming majority of Indian tea is grown and processed on plantations. Most of these plantations date from the British colonial period, and the organization of labor and production has changed little since that time. Tea is still picked by hand, overwhelmingly by women, and processed in small factories that sit on plantation land. Plantation workers normally reside on plantations and rely upon management not only for wages but also for food rations, medicine, and housing. Though unions and regional political organizations have had some success in expanding workers’ rights, legal protections for Indian tea workers continue to erode.

Sarah’s dissertation, “The Darjeeling Distinction: Changing Agricultural Practice, Regimes of Value, and Visions of Justice,” investigates the “empowerment” of farm workers, the connections of products to places, and fair trade and organic certification in the Indian tea industry. She is interested in how debates about labor standards, taste, rights to place, and the legacies of colonialism have informed both the production of boutique tea and the revitalization of the Gorkhaland agitation, a movement lead by Indian Nepalis for a separate state that would encompass Darjeeling and its tea plantations. Starting in fall 2012, Sarah will be a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Michigan Society of Fellows.

Finalists from the 2012 Human Rights Essay Contest will present their papers to students and faculty. Join us for a lively discussion and some light lunch.

Please join the Columbia University Department of Anthropology and the Museum Anthropology program for their upcoming exhibition Unearthing Seneca Village: New York’s Forgotten History.

Come learn the history of Seneca Village, a unique community of middle-class African-Americans and Irish immigrants who lived in what later became Central Park. Read about the exciting archaeological excavations that took place in the park this past summer and view posters on what was found underneath the ground. Located in the Tunnel Gallery at Barnard College’s Altschul Hall (3009 Broadway at 117th St), this exhibition will be on view from February 28th through March 30th.

An opening reception will be held on the evening of February 28th from 6-8 p.m. in the Tunnel Gallery Light food and beverages.

This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011).

Participants Include:
Mark Beissinger, Political Science Department, Princeton University
Valerie Bunce, Government Department, Cornell University
Lucan Way, Political Science Department, University of Toronto

Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes

Conveners: Jack Snyder and Alexander Cooley

The post-communist region offers a wealth of experience for assessing effectiveness of different strategies for advancing human rights. Rights are flourishing as never before in some parts of the post-communist world. In other post-communist regions, however, assassinations of investigative journalists, political imprisonments, torture, stolen elections, and the dismantling of NGO networks demanding accountability have become routine elements of post-communist rule. Our project will ask how these variations are measured, what causes the variations, and what strategies have proven effective—and ineffective—in advancing human rights.

A brief reception will be held at 5:00pm, followed by the panel presentation. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets, no reservations required. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Information about university commencement for HRSMA students is available online here: http://gsas.columbia.edu/content/university-commencement

For more information, please go to: http://gsas.columbia.edu/content/ma-convocation-schedule

Major/Concentration Mentor Event - Human rights majors and concentrators will also be at attendance to talk to first and second year students about the human rights program

Stop by to get food and valuable insider advice from CC juniors/seniors about majors. Also take advantage of joint advising by Career Counselors and Advising Deans about majors and careers. Amazing raffle prizes too!

This event is for you if you are a CC sophomore or first-year:
• Still debating between majors or thinking about a concentration
• Wondering ‘what you can do with a major in…’
• Hoping to land an amazing internship to explore a career path
• Looking for ways to study or work abroad
• Searching for ways to connect with alumni to learn about career paths
• Looking for student clubs to join to connect your academics and career

Registration suggested in advance, but not required.
Eligibility: This event is open to all Undergraduate students in Columbia College.

Register online here: http://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?vt=detail&id=55725&con=embedded&br=cce_default

Meet with faculty and program advisers and learn more about the academic and extracurricular opportunities available to human rights students.

Current and prospective students are encouraged to attend!

Please spread the word to friends and colleagues who might be interested in our academic programs.

Food will be provided!

Join Amnesty International's Northeast Region Field Officer, Thenjiwe McHarris, for a Brown Bag lunch during Death Penalty Awareness Week to learn more about what you may do to take action towards ending this human rights violation!

Hear about Vishal Patel's experiences with peacebuilding efforts in East Timor. Vishal Patel is a Masters in Public Administration candidate at SIPA concentrating in International Security Policy. He spent three months last summer interning at Belun in East Timor as part of a Peacebuilding class's coursework at SIPA. Belun is a national NGO that runs, among other projects, an Early Warning Early Response system that monitors violent incidents and attempts to address them before they escalate through response networks consisting of local actors and citizens.

A leading Brazilian social scientist and former Wilson Center Fellow, Simon Schwartzman is a senior researcher at the Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade in Rio de Janeiro. Simon’s blog is a key source of information and analysis on social policies in Brazil.

On February 21st, Simon will return to the Wilson Center to present Brasil: A Nova Agenda Social, a seminal volume he organized with economist Edmar Bacha on the challenges an emerging Brazil faces in four major areas of public policy: health, education, social security and income, and public security. The book brings together policy analysis from eighteen experts. It was received as a major contribution to the continued improvement of social policies in Brazil.

Please RSVP (acceptances only) with your name and affiliation to brazil@wilsoncenter.org

Join AC4 to network with intern recruiters at non-profits across New York City related to conflict resolution, peace studies, human rights, social justice and international development. So far confirmed to attend:

• Community Mediation Services
• Alternative Dispute Resolution Department of Eastern New York Court District
• National Peace Academy
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• U.S Department of Justice, Community Relations Services
• ATOP Meaningfulworld
• Young Mediators Initiative
• The Center for Collaborative Communication
• Crown Heights Mediation Center
• Outward Bound Center for Peace-Building
• Tanenbaum Center
• Lokashakti
• Kids Creative
• Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, Fordham University
• Community of Living Traditions
• Rocket Hub
• Soliya
• YOUTH Organization
• New York Peace Institute

Human Rights Student Internship Panel

Considering an internship in human rights? Come to the Human Rights Student Internship Panel!

Fellow students will explain how they found their internships, describe their responsibilities as an intern, offer advice for how to get the most out of an internship, and answer other questions you may have.

Sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights and Center for Career Education

https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/displayEvent.php?id=56004&vt=detail&brand=default

Refreshments will be served!

Human rights graduate students are invited to an info session to learn about volunteer opportunities available this summer in countries including Mexico, Uganda, India, Liberia and Sri Lanka. ISHR will award two students $1500 each to use toward travel expenses.

The application is online at hrcolumbia.org/gsvp.

James B. Reed, J.D., Attorney and Disability Policy Adviser, will present at the University Seminar on Disability Studies

Introductory Remarks – Michelle S. Ballan, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work

Drawing on a quarter century of in-the-trenches disability rights advocacy, beginning with AIDS civil rights advocacy in New York City in the 1980’s, and including serving as the first national disability outreach director in a presidential campaign, Jim will discuss effective political communications regarding disability rights. That communications effort begins with listening and learning from the community, continues with educating the political candidate and ends with an inclusive campaign message that brings disability rights to the forefront of campaign policy and talking points. Jim has worked to include disability and chronic disease message within political advocacy, including websites, emails and speech text, for state and federal candidates for the last twelve years. Jim will draw upon personal experience to discuss how the disability rights community can make -- and potentially has made -- a difference in the outcome of presidential elections.

Film by Bahman Ghobadi. 2009, 106 min.

Follows a pair of young musicians, recently released from prison, on a mission to take their rock band to Europe. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan their escape abroad with a fast-talking music promoter. Vowing to play one last show before leaving Tehran, their dangerous mission takes them on a free-wheeling journey through the city's vibrant and diverse underground scene, home to an estimated 2,000 illegal independent bands.

Refreshments will be served!

Watch the trailer at http://bit.ly/a4s2jY

Film by Carlos Carrera. 2009, 122 min.

An idealistic policewoman arrives in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to investigate the murder of a young woman found in the desert. The film incorporates the reality of the massive number of unsolved crimes against women, including kidnapping, rape and murder, in the border town located in the backyard of the United States.

Refreshments will be served!

watch the trailer at http://bit.ly/5iw8uz

A public talk by Glenn Bowman, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Kent and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at IRCPL.

His talk is part of the Religion and Mobility Faculty Seminar, organized by Karen Barkey, Professor of Sociology and History, and Valentina Izmirlieva, Professor of Slavic Languages, and sponsored by the IRCPL.

Lecture by Nicole Pope

Nicole Pope, journalist and author of Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey examines Turkey's prospects for democracy and regime change in the wake of the Arab Spring. Her lecture will build on over 30 years of service as a foreign correspondent in Turkey for the French daily Le Monde and her work for numerous other international publications.

Nicole Pope’s most recent book, Honor Killings in the 21st Century, examines honor-based violence’s roots, evolution, and eradication efforts it in Turkey, Pakistan, and other regions, including western Europe.

No registration required

Commentator: Olati Johnson, Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

Julie Goldscheid is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, and is a Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law. She writes and speaks widely about gender-based violence, women's economic independence and gender equality.

Lunch will be served.

Lecture
Professor Jan Gross and Dr. Jolanta Ambroewicz-Jacobs will be discussing The Holocaust, Anti-Semitism and Memory in Contemporary Poland.

This event is free to students.

Space is limited. RSVP preferred.

Presentation with David Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Mr. Phillips is a former Foreign Affairs Expert and Senior Adviser to the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Department of State. He is author of many articles and books on political developments in the Middle East, including Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco and from Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition.

Brown Bag Lunch

The lecture imparts guidance and motivation to the topic of physical disability by persons who lived the experience. They not only learned how to undertake the challenges that had stemmed from their physical impediments, but courageously pursued the goals that seemed to be perceived as impossible. As diligent employees and devoted athletes, our speakers’ objectives are to augment business community’s awareness regarding the impact of physical impairment on both personal and professional life and to discuss ways to respect and support the rights of persons with physical impediments at work.

Speakers
- Minda Dentler, a native of India and Spokane Washington, works as a Senior Financial Analyst at Chartis Insurance, managing the financial reporting of a $1.3 billion global claims change management initiative. Minda earned her BA in Management Information Systems from the University of Washington and her MBA in Finance from Baruch College.
- George Gallego is the Founder and CEO of Wheels of Progress, a 501C3 nonprofit organization that focuses on creating housing for young people with disabilities. He completed a BS in Organizational Management, an MS in Organizational Leadership and has also earned a Professional Certification in Not-for-Profit Management from Fordham University Graduate Schools of Social Service and Business Administration.

Network with alumni of color and LGBT alumni working on issues related to social justice and advocacy! This will be an informal, intimate panel where alumni will share their professional experience and industry insights through the lenses of their identities. Refreshments will be provided.

Alumni Panelists:
Theresa Yuan, Director of Youth Development, Catholic Charities Neighborhood Services
Lori Slater, Program Director for Phipps Community Development Corporation
Rachel Harris, Advocacy Coordinator/GEAR Campaign Lead at Women's Environment & Development Organization

Casual attire.

Registration is not required, but suggested in advance.

Resume required? No, however, having your resume on hand will be very helpful.

Eligibility: Students that attend Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, and the School of General Studies.

Comparative Perspectives on Education, Identity and Peace
with Professor Zvi Bekerman from the School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Moderated by Monisha Bajaj, Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Education, & Zeena Zakharia, Ed.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of International & Transcultural Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University

Refreshments will be Provided.

Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations, journalist, and author, hosts leaders from around the world in conversations that probe critical global issues and explore the policies designed to address them.

Featuring H.E. Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations

Space is limited. Register for this event at scps.nyu.edu/cga.events

The Silent Strength of Liu Xia, An exhibition of photographs, Opening Reception with Commentary by Guy Sorman and Andrew Nathan

Exhibition Dates: February 9 - March 1, 2012
Gallery Hours: weekdays, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm Saturdays, 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Curated by author and professor, Guy Sorman, the exhibition features photographs of life-like dolls in a series of sets devised by the artist. The dolls, called "ugly babies" by Liu, are positioned between large stacks of books, wrapped in plastic, and lying on planks against a bright sky, among other tableaux.

Born in 1959 in Beijing, Liu Xia is a poet, painter and photographer, and the wife of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo. She has been a noteworthy figure on the contemporary Chinese art scene for more than three decades. Her work in various media focuses on freedom of expression rooted in traditional values and styles.

ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival is the largest festival in the country dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities. Initiated in New York in 2007, the festival presents award-winning films by and about people with disabilities in multiple locations throughout each hosting city. All screenings will be followed by discussions with filmmakers or other guest speakers. ReelAbilities strives for inclusion of all people.

ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival is the largest festival in the country dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities. Initiated in New York in 2007, the festival presents award-winning films by and about people with disabilities in multiple locations throughout each hosting city. All screenings will be followed by discussions with filmmakers or other guest speakers. ReelAbilities strives for inclusion of all people.

ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival is the largest festival in the country dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities. Initiated in New York in 2007, the festival presents award-winning films by and about people with disabilities in multiple locations throughout each hosting city. All screenings will be followed by discussions with filmmakers or other guest speakers. ReelAbilities strives for inclusion of all people.

ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival is the largest festival in the country dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities. Initiated in New York in 2007, the festival presents award-winning films by and about people with disabilities in multiple locations throughout each hosting city. All screenings will be followed by discussions with filmmakers or other guest speakers. ReelAbilities strives for inclusion of all people.

This all-day symposium will recognize the 40th anniversary of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joining the Columbia law faculty as the first female tenure-track professor. This gathering will mark not only this important milestone, but also the foundational contributions Justice Ginsburg has made, as jurist, as advocate, and as scholar, to the law of gender-based justice and equality.

Detailed schedule available at www.law.columbia.edu/center_program/gendersexuality/colloquium

To register for the event, please RSVP to Gender_Sexuality_Law@law.columbia.edu. Due to limited space and tight security measures, seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Your RSVP does not guarantee you a seat.

An Interdisciplinary Dialogue with Ivan Cepeda and Alfredo Molano on Force Disappearance in the Colombian Conflict with respondent, Michale Taussig from Columbia University.

Talk will be conducted in Spanish (If you need simultaneous interpretation, please indicate in RSVP)

*CALL FOR PAPERS!
We invite graduate students to submit proposals for a graduate student colloquium on the theme of Indigenous Spaces: Pushing the Boundaries of History, Bodies, Geographies, and Politics,to take place at Columbia University in the City of New York on February 15, 2012.

Contributors are encouraged to think about 'indigenous spaces' that connect indigenous communities, bodies (understood in a broad sense), histories, geographies, and academia.

Becoming a mother in Africa can be among the most frightening and dangerous jobs in the world. This documentary documents the struggle of Grace Kodindo, an obstetrician in the poverty-stricken central African country of Chad, to stop mothers in her country from dying. Cutting maternal mortality by 75% by 2015 was one of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by 189 countries in 2000. Five years on, progress is far behind schedule, but "Dead Mums Don't Cry" shows there is reason for hope.

This information session will discuss thesis guidelines, deadlines and other important aspects of the thesis-writing process. A representative from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) will also explain what human subject research is, and the basic requirements and general timelines for IRB approval.

Please see the thesis information page for further details: hrcolumbia.org/hrstudies/thesis

A Sheldon Scheps Talk by, Rhoda Kanaaneh, Adjunct Associate Professor, Anthropology Department, CU

Respondent:Isis Nusair, Associate Professor, Department of Women’s Studies, Denison University

A light lunch will be served prior to the talk from 12:00-12:30

Join us to learn more about the internship opportunities at non-profits across New York City related to conflict resolution, peace studies, human rights, social justice and international development.

The Oral History Master of Arts program, Columbia Center for Oral History, the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, and the Human Rights Institute at the Columbia Law School will host Ayelet Waldman, attorney and author of Red Hook Road and Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace and Robin Levi, human rights director of the California-based non-profit Justice Now, to discuss their latest book Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women's Prisons in the United States. The talk is part of the Oral History Seminar Series.

Waldman and Levi will discuss and read from their new book, which is an extraordinary account of women’s lives both inside and out of prison in their own voices and reveals egregious human rights violations within women’s prisons in the United States.

In connection with Holocaust Remembrance Day

Free and open to the public. Reservations are recommended.

Welcoming remarks: Barbara Faedda, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University

Speakers:
Edward Phillips, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945”
Elizabeth Leake, Columbia University Department of Italian, “Fascism and Sexuality in Italian Literature and Film”

Europe and the United Nations commemorate the victims of the Shoah each winter on the date of Auschwitz's liberation in 1945, and the Italian Academy marks Holocaust Remembrance Day with an annual academic event exploring issues of discrimination and crimes against humanity.

Jocelyn Courtney was a Fullbright scholar in El Salvador. As a result of her research, she co-created the documentary "Escape Valve" which aims to portray the causes, realities and consequence of child gangs in this small Central American country. Ms. Courtney is currently a lawyer, with experience in criminal and human rights law. She will conduct a discussion after the documentary and will be available to answer any questions.

Refreshments will be served!

The Columbia Center for Oral History will host Oral History Productions founder Elisabeth Pozzi-Thanner. An independent oral historian based in New York City and Vienna, Elisabeth conducts oral history interviews, develops and manages oral history projects and creates personal histories on audio, video and print. Her work is wide-ranging and includes interviewing and interpretation for USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education and the September 11, 2001 Narrative and Memory Project at Columbia University. Elisabeth will speak on her past and current work in the US and Austria, as well as chronicle her path to becoming an oral historian.

RSVP: Holocaustremembrance@un.org
“IWitness” is a new online application which provides a searchable collection of video testimonies of Holocaust
survivors, along with educational tools and supporting resources for students. Ten classes from secondary
schools in the New York metropolitan area will be invited to create a research project using “IWitness”. The
launch will feature student presentations of their projects using “IWitness” and a Q&A with Roman Kent, a
Holocaust survivor, whose testimony is in this collection.

Peter Raymont’s latest documentary pays as much tribute to Allende’s Chile as it does to writer and intellectual Dorfman. The strength of the film lies in Dorfman returning to Santiago and recalling in vivid detail how he escaped from the soldiers and hid in the Argentinean embassy that Chilean snipers were watching day and night. Rare archival footage is skilfully blended with Dorfman’s recent homecoming. There are of course, tributes paid to the thousands of mothers of the disappeared, who Pinochet’s secret police murdered without a trace. Based in part on Dorfman’s memoir and co-produced by his son, A Promise To The Dead is a walk through Chile’s dark history, guided by a key eyewitness.

Refreshments will be served!!

http://vimeo.com/15088725

Brown Bag Lunch Presentation

Remarks by: David L. Phillips
Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights

Dr. Hamid Ali: Assistant Professor of Public Policy, American University of Cairo

Dr. Hamid Ali’s research on the severe economic impact of war is the first attempt to quantify the economic cost of the conflict in Darfur. The war costs in Darfur include the destruction of infrastructure, direct military spending attributable to the war effort, and the impact of the latter on the export sector and capital formation. In addition, the human destruction—loss of life and income—is taken into account. With support from Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Ali also helped establish the Darfuri Development Advisory Group (DDAG), a Darfuri-led non-governmental, non-profit organization in Sudan mobilizing Darfuri civil society in support of humanitarian relief, early recovery and development.

Florence Howe became involved with the women’s movement in the 1960s after participating in the civil rights and antiwar movements. She co-founded the Feminist Press in 1970. As a professor of English, first at Goucher College and then at SUNY’s College at Old Westbury, she was a leader in creating and nurturing the women's studies movement in North American universities. Howe tells the story of the tribulations and triumphs of women’s studies from the inside.
The Institute for Retired Professionals presents this program of free events on timely topics for IRP members, friends, and all members of the New School community.

Free; seating is limited; reservations required by calling or emailing.

Cafe Social Science is a series of informal discussions about the questions surrounding the social science field today, led by Columbia University's foremost professors. The discussions are held at the Picnic Market Cafe at 2665 Broadway (between 101st and 102nd Street).

Professor of International and Public Affairs Elazar Barkan will discuss "Is Refugee Repatriation a Solution or a Problem?"
There is a widespread international belief that displaced refugees have the right to be repatriated to their homes. This conflicts with political and empirical reality, and ethnic refugees hardly ever return. Should repatriation be more diligently implemented, or is the commitment to repatriation misguided? Barkan will discuss this complex contemporary issue.

Space is limited; $10 cover (cash only) includes one drink
Social Science on Us, First Come, First Served
NO RSVP Necessary

Cafe Columbia is a series of informal discussions, led by Columbia University faculty, focused broadly on the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The discussions are held at the Picnic Market Cafe at 2665 Broadway (between 101st and 102nd Street).

Professor of Journalism and Sociology Todd Gitlin will discussUnderstanding Occupy Wall Street
Gitlin will talk about the social, political and historical background of the Occupy movement.

Space is limited; $10 cover (cash only) includes one drink
First Come, First Served
NO RSVP Necessary

Cafe Columbia is a series of informal discussions, led by Columbia University faculty, focused broadly on the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The discussions are held at the Picnic Market Cafe at 2665 Broadway (between 101st and 102nd Street).

Political Theorist David Johnston will discuss
A Brief History of Justice
Johnston will discuss how complex ideas are anchored in ordinary tuitions about justice, how distributive and corrective justice converge and diverge, and how the modern idea of social justice emerged.

$10 cover (cash only) includes one drink. First Come, First Served.
NO RSVP Necessary.

Helene D. Gayle '76 is president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading international humanitarian organization with approximately 10,000 staff whose poverty fighting programs reached 82 million people last year in 87 countries. Since joining CARE in 2006, Dr. Gayle has led efforts to reinforce CARE's commitment to empowering girls and women to bring lasting change to poor communities. Under her leadership, CARE has strengthened its focus on long term impact, increased policy and advocacy efforts and deepened connections between poverty and the environment. Gayle has leveraged the power of CARE's corporate and NGO partners to significantly expand CARE's reach across the globe. An expert on health, global development and humanitarian issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gayle then worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues.

Dr. Gayle serves on several boards, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Rockefeller Foundation, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Cox Enterprises Incorporated and ONE. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Public Health Association. Dr. Gayle also chairs the Obama Administration's Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, and serves on the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

Named one of Foreign Policy magazine's "Top 100 Global Thinkers," and Newsweek's top 10 "Women in Leadership" Dr. Gayle has been featured by national and international media outlets. She has also published numerous scientific articles.

The Athena Center for Leadership Studies Power Talks feature today’s leaders in conversation on provocative topics of the moment. Each talk will be followed by audience Q&A. Come join the conversation. Cost is $20 per individual lecture.

For the entirety of her career, Anita Hill has been committed to securing justice and equality. Over twenty years ago she ignited a national discussion on sexual harassment with her testimony at the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, and she has continued to broaden the conversation around race, class, and gender through her publications and teaching. This spring, we are pleased to bring Professor Hill to Barnard as the 2012 Helen Rodgers Reid Lecturer, a series that was inaugurated in 1975 to honor distinguished women in public life who have shown significant commitment to improving the lives of all women. Professor Hill will share her most recent work, Reimagining Equality: Gender, Race, and the American Dream. Exploring cultural ideas and ideals about the home as a site of social and economic security, she will discuss how our definition of the American Dream is tied up in the concept of “home,” and what this means in our current climate of mortgage foreclosures and an ever-widening income gap. The event will be followed by a book signing.

Anita Hill is Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women’s Studies at Brandeis University. Professor Hill raised awareness nationwide on the issue of sexual harassment. Thanks to her efforts, Congress passed a law that allowed sexual harassment victims to seek damage awards as well as back pay and reinstatement. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1980 and began her career in private practice in Washington, D.C. Before becoming a law professor, she worked at the U.S. Education Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 1989, Professor Hill became the first African American to be tenured at the University of Oklahoma, College of Law, where she taught contracts and commercial law. Her latest book is Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race and Finding Home. She has also written her biography,Speaking Truth to Power and co-edited with Professor Emma Coleman Jordan, Race, Gender and Power in America: The Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings.

This event is free of charge, but registration required to attend. Registration will be available on the BCRW website starting in mid-January.

Most feminist studies of post-1979 Iran focus on the legal setbacks that women encountered and their collective strategies for regaining the formal grounds they lost with the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Iran. However, Iranian women’s studies should not only examine social movements and elite political action in its effort to decipher the post-revolutionary state. Researchers must also account for non-elite and individual political action in different spheres of daily life. This conversation between Shirin Saeidi (Cambridge University, UK) and Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi (Columbia University) will engender debates regarding the urgency in continually reconsidering and reinventing methodological approaches used in Iranian studies.

Historian of education Diane Ravitch tackles one of the most provocative issues in education today: What’s behind the trend to close lowscoring schools and turn them over to private managers? What happens when the educational welfare of America’s next generation becomes privatized? And what are the troubling repercussions for the future of public education? Diane Ravitch, research professor of education at New York University, is the author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education; The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn; and Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform.

Jan Willem Duyvendak addresses prominent debates in Western Europe and the United States on themes as seemingly diverse as national identity and nostalgia, migration and integration, and gender relations and “caring communities.” At the most fundamental level, all of these debates deal with the right to belong and the ability to “feel at home.” Professor Duyvendak discusses what has happened to the “home feelings” of the majority under the gender revolution and increased mobility due to globalization. Duyvendak is professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam and the author or editor of 10 books on urbanism, community development, and multiculturalism, including, most recently, The Politics of Home: Nostalgia and Belonging in Western Europe and the United States.

Science journalist Barbara Seaman (1935-2008) spent the last forty years of her life on the front lines as a women’s health advocate. Throughout her career, she was also a tireless supporter of other women’s voices. The recently published anthology Voices of a Women’s Health Movement, co-edited by Seaman and her long-time collaborator, Laura Eldridge, brings together an essential collection of essays, interviews, and commentary by leading activists, writers, doctors, and sociologists on topics ranging across reproductive rights, sex and orgasm, activism, motherhood and birth control. Contributors to the book will discuss the rich history of this movement and its continued significance in struggles for reproductive rights today. Panelists include:

Laura Eldridge ’01 is co-editor of Voices of a Women’s Health Movement, and author of In Our Control: The Complete Guide to Contraceptive Choices for Women.

Helen Lowery has worked as a legal advocate at a rape crisis center and as an attorney in the area of reproductive rights and women’s health.

Lauren Porsch ’01 is a reproductive and sexual health activist, educator, and researcher with extensive experience working on access to health care for traditionally marginalized communities.

Leonore Tiefer PhD, is an author, educator, researcher, therapist and activist who has specialized in many areas of sexuality.

Irene Xanthoudakis ’01 is Manager of Major Gifts for the Ms. Foundation. Her professional experience includes tenures with organizations ranging in size from grassroots groups to national foundations.

In America, more than any other place in the world, guest workers are used to lower labor costs under the guise of filling shortages for substandard or scarce skilled jobs. Immanuel Ness shows migration’s influence in weakening wages and working conditions in countries that send and receive guest workers. His in-depth case studies of hospitality workers from India and Jamaica not only reveal how these programs expose guest workers to employers’ abuses but also detail how organized labor ought to protect the interests of migrant and US-born workers alike. Immanuel Ness is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, CUNY. He has published scholarly books and monographs on unemployment, precarious labor, migration and guest work, syndicalism, and new worker organizations.

Since the fall of communism, Muslim organizations have boomed in number and strength in Albania. Yet, they represent an exceptional case of Islam which is both liberal, tolerant, pro-democratic and pro-European. The Albanian brand of moderate Islam has persisted over radical influences which have penetrated the porous post-communist terrain characterized by open competition for sources and ideas.

A discussion with: Bachir Souleymane Diagne, Etienne Smith, Alfred Stepan, and Alioune Badara Diop (a political scientist from Senegal). Moderated by Mamadou Diouf on the upcoming Senegalese elections, which were rocked by the recent announcement of the presidential bid by musician and media mogul Youssou N'Dour. That this is one of the smaller issues in these fraught contests speaks volumes about their complexity and import.
Followed by a film screening from 6:15 to 7:30 of "Democracy in Dakar," which looks at the involvement of the youth and rap singers in the elections in 2007.

Saudi Arabia's leaders have claimed that their regime is immune to the revolutionary changes associated with the Arab Spring uprisings. The Saudis have been quite actively engaged with these events and in complicated ways, domestically as well as regionally. They have encouraged some of the uprisings and attempted to clamp down on others. Haykel will explore Saudi Arabia's policies in response to the Arab Spring, which include enforcing religious sanctions against public demonstrations within the Kingdom, increasing various domestic subsidies in an effort to co-opt potential dissent, stabilizing the monarchy in Bahrain and stewarding a new government into power in Yemen.

This event is by invitation only and features 1996 Advocate Jackson Kaguri who has been building schools for AIDS orphans in southwestern Uganda.

A very special evening of solidarity and political strategy
featuring a documentary “The War We Are Living”
part of the acclaimed PBS series Women, War & Peace
and conversation with Clemencia Carabali and Francia Marquez, Afro-Colombian Leaders featured in the film.

The film highlights the efforts of two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women who are defying powerful mining interests and paramilitary death threats to protect their community and the land that sustains them. They are standing up for a generation of Colombians who have been terrorized and forcibly displaced as a deliberate strategy of war.
Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
Please RSVP at yesenia@afrocolombiany.org

Side-event organized by B'nai B'rith International Zachor:

RSVP by 23 January 2012 rsvpUN@bnaibrith.org or Tel.: (212)-557-0019

Opening of the Exhibitions A Monument of Good Deeds: Dreams and Hopes of Children During the Holocaust; and “The Holocaust - Keeping the Memory Alive”

The exhibition on children is curated by Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, and features the stories of 13 children during the Holocaust. Through their portraits, toys and artwork, visitors to this exhibition will learn how these children lived their daily lives as the war was raging around them.

A second exhibit titled "The Holocaust - Keeping the Memory Alive" will feature 16 entries of the Design Student Poster Contest. The exhibition is supported by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF) and held in partnership with Yad Vashem, le Mémorial de la Shoah, the European Shoah Legacy Institute and the UN Holocaust Programme. The top 16 entries will be presented.

RSVP: exhibition@topographie.de

This exhibition presents new photographs of community life in the Lodz Ghetto, taken by the Jewish inhabitants. The exhibition is curated by the Topography of Terror Foundation, Berlin in cooperation with the National Archives in Lodz (Poland). While researching in the National Archives in Lodz, historian Dr. Ingo Loose and curator Dr. Thomas Lutz came across 27 photo albums. Inside were about 12,000 contact prints in small format, sorted thematically and taken by Jewish photographers at the request of the ghetto's Jewish Council. This collection of images - which is hardly known, even among experts in the field - shows a decisive step in the persecution of Jews in the Lizmannstadt Ghetto. Through this exhibition, these photographs are accessible to the public for the very first time.

In this lecture, Professor Bajaj will discuss how human rights education has influenced policy, pedagogy, and practice in contemporary India. She will present findings from a larger research project that examined how human rights education has been contested and received by policy actors, educators, activists, and students in India over the past three decades. Professor Bajaj's talk and recent book, based on research undertaken from 2008-2010, will focus on the rise of human rights education globally and in India, the range of responses from students and educators, local adaptations of human rights, and the strategies activists employ to secure support domestically and internationally.

Please RSVP to RussellHallServices@gmail.com

RSVP: Holocaustremembrance@un.org
The UN's Holocaust Programme will screen a new animated documentary film on the life and artwork of Petr Ginz, a Jewish boy from Prague who perished in the
Holocaust at the age of 16, after spending two years in Terezin. He was a brilliant child who wrote a diary, four novels and created 200 illustrations and paintings during his short life. The screening will be held in partnership with the Documentary Film Program at Wake Forest University, the Documentary Institute at the
University of Florida. A panel discussion with the filmmakers will follow. The UN Holocaust Programme will also launch a 32-page study guide that will serve as
a companion to this documentary. The publication features Petr’s art and writings, and provides historical context for the film and information about the United
Nations, human rights and Holocaust remembrance activities. The publication will be available online in all official United Nations languages. For more information, please visit our website

The 2012 observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust will focus on the theme, “Children and the Holocaust”. The theme serves to highlight the impact of mass violence on children. We invite you to attend the United Nations' annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust

To register, please RSVP to holocaustremembrance@un.org by 15 January 2012.
The solemn ceremony on the theme “Children and the Holocaust” will feature a video message remarks by UN
Secretary-General, and statements by the President of the General Assembly and the Permanent Representatives of Israel and the Dominican Republic to the United Nations. The UN Holocaust Programme’s new study guide for children will also be launched. Keynote remarks will be made by Professor Robert Krell (Canada), a child survivor and a psychiatrist. Students will perform songs from the musical theatre production “Sosua: Dare to Dance Together”, which is based on the true story of the emigration of Jewish refugees to the Dominican Republic.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is proud to present a panel discussion on the case for international accountability featuring representatives from Survivors Network of those ...Abused by Priests (SNAP), CCR staff attorneys and clients, and activists. We will examine CCR and SNAP’s current complaint before the International Criminal Court charging that Vatican officials tolerate and enable the systematic and widespread concealing of rape and child sex crimes throughout the world.

This event is free and open to the public.

For more information about this and other events please visit www.CCRjustice.org.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SEMINAR: Culture, Power, Boundaries

Note: Paper available at: http://www.box.com/s/ba6qx6qxlbvdyojb9jpf

Ttalk and discussion with:
Thaddeus Gregory Blanchette, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Macaé
Ana Paula da Silva, University of Sao Paulo

Please join our speakers and us at Faculty House for drinks and dinner before the presentation. If you will be able to join us for dinner, please inform our rapporteur "Alexandra Hall" ASAP, so that we can give Faculty House an approximate count. The dinner costs $24 and should be paid for in cash or with a check. It is not necessary to RSVP if you will be attending only the presentation.



Please join us for our next Distinguished Anthropology Lecture (postponed from December 2010 and rescheduled by popular demand).

Guest speaker: Paul Shankman, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado-Boulder

Margaret Mead was the best-known anthropologist of the 20th century, and her reputation was secure until Derek Freeman, an anthropologist at the Australian National University, published two books sharply criticizing Mead’s Samoan research in the 1920s. Freeman’s books on Mead and Samoa spawned one of the great controversies in anthropology, and many intelligent academics, as well as some of the American public, found his arguments credible. In his recent book,The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy and in this lecture, Paul Shankman reviews Freeman’s allegations about Mead’s fieldwork in Samoa.

“Comfort Women Survivors’ Encounter with Holocaust Survivors”

The Cinema for Peace Foundation Invites you to the screening of "The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court."

There will be introducing remarks and a post-screening discussion with Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Film Director, Pamela Yates, and Yasmine Ergas, Columbia University.

This event will be followed by a reception. RSVP is requested but not required to guest@cinemaforpeace.com. Seating is first come first serve.

45 neighbourhoods in Ciudad Bolivar, a municipal district of Bogotá, are the site of a conflict between guerrillas, paramilitary groups, street gangs and the Army

Film Screening of "Ciudad Bolívar: Mosaico de una realidad" followed by a discussion with filmmaker David García.

Talk will be conducted in Spanish and Spanish-English consecutive interpretation will be provided.

Refreshments will be served.

Since South Sudan gained independence earlier this year, the tensions with its northern neighbor, the rump state of Sudan, have exacerbated. What are the prospects for a positive outcome of these complex dynamics? Will conflict trump peacebuilding?
This conference brings together a panel of experts with a deep understanding of these issues.

Panelists:
-Huda Shafiq Ali, Human Rights Advocate; Vice President, Gesr Center for Development, Khartoum.
-Luka Biong Deng, former Minister of Cabinet Affairs for the National Government of Sudan (representing South Sudan), now Executive Director of Kush, Inc., and Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex.
-Tanya Domi, Chair of the Board, Our Humanity in the Balance; Adjunct Professor at SIPA.
-Kenny Gluck, Chief of Staff of the AU-UN Joint Mediation Support Team (2008-1010); earlier, Director of Operations at Médécins sans Frontières (MSF).
-Ahmed Adam Hussein, Chief Negotiator for the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
-John Prendergast, Co-Founder of the Enough Project; earlier, Director of African Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council; author of, inter alia, Not On Our Watch.
Moderator:
-Dirk Salomons, Director, Humanitarian Affairs Program, SIPA

Cheese and wine reception after the panel discussions

Celebrate the season with us, and bid farewell to the Human Rights Advocates.

Thursday, December 8, 2011
5:30pm - 7:00pm

Int’l Affairs Bldg, Lindsay Rogers Room

What right do people have to claim against social and economic inequality? Is inequality unjust? Who can be held accountable?

Join us for a discussion with OWSers and Columbia faculty from the Economics, Business, Human Rights and Political Science
worlds.

Confirmed speakers include:

Elazar Barkan: Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, Director of SIPA's Human Rights Concentration, and Director of Columbia's Institute for the Study of Human Rights

Yesenia Barragan, OWS Protester and Ph.D. Candidate, Columbia University

Bruce Kogut: Sanford C. Bernstein& Co. Professor of Leadership and Ethics, Columbia Business School, Columbia University.

Peter Rosenblum: Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann& Bernstein Clinical Professor of Human Rights Law Columbia University.

Jeffrey Sachs: Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Dorian T. Warren: Ass. Professor of Political Science at
Columbia  University, SIPA

Alicia White, OWS Protester and M.A. Candidate, Columbia University

Moderated by Anya Schiffrin

Columbia University Students for Human Rights (CUSHR) invites you to:
Looking Back to Look Forward: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 63

A discussion on this critical document, including the historical background and challenges for the future, with Professors Yasmine Ergas and J. Paul Martin
Refreshments will be served
For more information contact ler2138@gmail.com

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) presents a brown bag discussion and book talk with Michael Laffan, Professor of History, Princeton University; Author of "The Makings of Indonesian Islam" and Duncan McCargo, Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute; Professor of Southeast Asian Politics, University of Leeds; Author of "Mapping National Anxieties: Thailand's Southern Conflict."

No registration required.

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) presents a brown bag lecture entitled "China's Demographic Dynamics and Future Challenges" with Xizhe Peng, Dean, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University.

Co-sponsored by the Columbia University Population Research Center.

The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed a passionate engagement with the losses of the past. Rites of Return examines the effects of this legacy of historical injustice and documented suffering on the politics of the present. Twenty-four writers, historians, literary and cultural critics, anthropologists and sociologists, visual artists, legal scholars, and curators grapple with our contemporary ethical endeavor to redress enduring inequities and retrieve lost histories. Mapping bold and broad-based responses to past injury across Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, Australia, the Middle East, and the United States, Rites of Return examines new technologies of genetic and genealogical research, memoirs about lost family histories, the popularity of roots-seeking journeys, organized trauma tourism at sites of atrocity and new Museums of Conscience, and profound connections between social rites and political and legal rights of return.

Contributors will read from their piece for 5 minutes—just long enough to suggest the range of returns that are featured in the book.

Marianne Hirsch is William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and professor in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Her recent books include The Generation of Postmemory: Visual Cultures After the Holocaust and Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory. Nancy K. Miller is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her most recent books are But Enough About Me: Why We Read Other People’s Lives and the family memoir, What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish Past.

Amnesty International celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011. Panelists reflect upon the history AI-USA’s campaigns and strategies and discuss the present and future of human rights advocacy.

3:00 Opening Remarks:
James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, Columbia University; and Joshua Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director, AIUSA

3:15 Panel I: Torture:
Sowore Omoyele of Nigeria, Former Prisoner of Conscience
Vincent Warren, Center for Constitutional Rights; Dr. Allen Keller, Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture
Moderator: Jerald Albarelli, Columbia Center for Oral History

4:45 Panel 2: Capital Punishment:
Laura Moye, Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, AIUSA; Lawrence Hayes, former inmate on death row and co-founder, Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Vincent Southerland, NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Moderator: J. Paul Martin, Director, Human Rights Concentration, Barnard College

6:00pm Reception:
AIUSA Archives Exhibit and AIUSA Write-a-thon

Programme on 2 November, argues that sustainability and equity must—and can—be addressed simultaneously in order to achieve a fair, inclusive and sustainable future.

A distinguished panel will debate how these recommendations can translate into action for the Rio+20 agenda, and in national and international policy making.

Participants include: Rajendra Pachauri (Chairman, UN IPCC), Maurice Strong (former Executive Director, UNEP) and UN Under-Secretary General Rebecca Grynspan (Associate Administrator, UNDP). This event will be introduced and moderated by Khalid Malik, Director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office.

Award-winning filmmaker and founder of Scribe Video Center Louis Massiah to discuss how communities are defined by common histories and the specific methodology developed at Scribe to create community history media projects. Scribe Video Center was founded in 1982 in Philadelphia as a place to give emerging and mid-level media artists the skills and opportunities to use digital media as tools for self-expression and for representing and supporting their communities.

Louis Massiah is the Lang Professor for Issues of Social Change at Swarthmore College, a prolific, award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, and the founder and executive director of Scribe.

Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, lasting for over a quarter of a century, came to an end in May 2009 with a decisive military victory for the government forces over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The culmination of the war resulted in thousands of deaths and allegations of human rights violations by both the government as well as LTTE forces. The international community’s response to the violence varied widely, yet unanimously urged both sides to work towards national reconciliation and address the vast human displacement and humanitarian crisis. The government has launched its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, whose results will be published later this month.

For the first time, excerpts of the films Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, produced by the U.K.’s Channel 4, and Lies Agreed Upon, the Sri Lankan government’s rebuttal, will be screened at one event, followed by discussion featuring the director of the Channel 4 film, Callum Macrae, the International Crisis Group’s Bob Templer, and other distinguished panelists.

Join a talk with Magda M. Elsanousi Omer, Director of Middle East Regional Gender Equality Program at Oxfam GB, on Arab Women's Rights.

Magda Mohammed Elsanousi Omer is the Oxfam Great Britain Country Director for Lebanon, where she also directs Oxfam’s Middle East Regional Gender Equality Program. She is currently leading a women’s empowerment program with an innovative Arab Spring strategy. Magda has extensive experience working in the area of gender justice with a special focus on engaging men and boys in promoting gender equality. She holds Masters degrees in both Rural Development and Gender and Development from the University of Sussex. She worked previously in several capacities for Oxfam GB in Yemen, and with several organizations and research teams in Sudan.

Confirmed speakers include:

Bill Dobbs, Member, Occupy Wall Street Public Relations Working Group

Jeremy Kessler, J.D./Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University

Donna Lieberman, Executive Director, new York Civil Liberties Union

Nathan Schneider, Editor, Waging Nonviolence

Alicia White, OWS Protester, M.A. Candidate, Human Rights Studies Program, Columbia University

Moderated by Professor Kendall Thomas

Join the Human Rights Working Group at SIPA as participants in the 2011 Human Rights Advocates Program read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their native languages.

The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War & Peace Studies presents a special ambassador series event
"The International Criminal Court: The First Ten Years"

Registration required at
https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/register.php?eventID=54648

This event is free and open to the public.

Ambassadors included:

Amb. Christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein,
Permanent Representative of Liechtenstein to the United Nations

Amb. Bruno Stagno Ugarte of Costa Rica,
Executive Director of the Security Council Report

Moderated by Jean-Marie Guéhenno,
Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs, and Director of the Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR)

Part of Columbia University's "Rights Week."
For additional info or with any questions or concerns, email Dani at daniel.salvador.alonso@gmail.com
*also see http://occupycolumbiauniversity.tumblr.com/

Tamil National Alliance:
R. Sampanthan
Mavai S. Senathirajah
K. (Suresh) Premachandran
M. A. Sumanthiran

Remarks by: David L. Phillips--Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and Professor E. Valentine Daniel, South Asia Institute

Technology and Human Rights: The Role of Information Technology and Social Networking Platforms in Mobilizing People to Advance the Cause of Human Rights and Social Justice

Welcoming Remarks: Professor George Andreopoulos, Director, CIHR
Moderator: Aferdita Hakaj, Assistant Director, CIHR

Panelists: Mr. Fred Kirungi, Mr. Shahram Hashemi, Professor Sylvia Maier, Ms. Raja Althaibani, Ms. Sally Abdelghafar

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) and the Center for Chinese Legal Studies (CCLS) present a brown bag lecture entitled "Marriage Law Propaganda and Legal Education Campaigns in the Early PRC" with Jennifer Altehenger, An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History.

The Philolexian Society invites you to enjoy an evening examining the role of journalism in creating socially just societies. Sheila Coronel, founder of the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism and head of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia's own J-School, will discuss the role of investigative reporters, bloggers, plane spotters, WikiLeakers, and citizen journalists in promoting government accountability through media old and new. Refreshments will be provided.

The Inaugural Robert N. Butler Memorial Forum brought to you by the Philolexian Society

Thomas A. Perreault, Associate Professor of Geography, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

This presentation explores the social and environmental implications of intensive mining activity on the Bolivian altiplano. Of particular concern are the implications for agrarian communities downstream from the Huanuni mine, the sole remaining mine operated by the state-owned Corporación Minera de Bolivia (COMIBOL). Once part of tin baron Simón Patiño's mining empire, the Huanuni mine has never implemented adequate environmental safeguards in its nearly 100 years of
operation. As a result, the Huanuni river, into which the mine and associated processing plants dump their waste materials, is contaminated in the extreme. In 2009, Bolivian president Evo Morales took the unusual measure of declaring an ecological disaster in four
municipios, but remediation efforts promised by the government have been slow to materialize. Quechua speaking indigenous-campesino communities downstream from the Huanuni mine are exposed to an array of pollutants, and suffer from acute water scarcity and associated health problems and deteriorating livelihoods opportunities. Mining has long held a hegemonic position in Bolivian culture and political
economy, and the country remains structurally dependent on its extractive industries. Thus, in spite of having a president with indigenous-campesino heritage, little has been done to address the social and environmental injustices of mining in Bolivia. Using the
analytical lens of political ecology, this presentation examines the relationship between mining, water and rural livelihoods in the Huanuni watershed, and considers the relative absence of social mobilization against the impacts of Bolivia?s mining economy, a paradox in the hyper-politicized context of Bolivian politics.

Professor Anne McClintock (Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison) will be exploring what kind of overt U.S. empire emerged in the aftermath of 9/11. She will engage notions such as paranoia and perpetual war, torture and the crisis of violence and the visible, imperial déjà vu and the empire of drones in the twilight of U.S. imperial power. McClintock will be exploring the concept of imperial deja vu through the unquiet dead of Hiroshima as the first “ground zero,” and the ubiquitous invocation of “Indian Country” in the “War on Terror.”

Free and open to the public. The building and the venues are fully accessible. For more information please visit http://centerforthehumanities.org/ or e-mail ch@gc.cuny.edu.

The Columbia Center for Oral History will host Daniel Kerr, American University professor and author of "Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland," as part of the Oral History Seminar Series. Focusing on his work with the Cleveland Homeless Oral History Project, Kerr will examine how oral history research can move beyond professional and academic aims and actively facilitate social change. Community organization members outside of Columbia University are especially encouraged to attend.

A full-day conference.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Frantz Fanon's death, an international group of scholars addresses the diverse sources, trajectories and reinscriptions of his thought. Participants will consider Fanon's biographical and intellectual migration between the French Caribbean and North Africa, and between the theory of race and the project of anticolonial nationalism, and discuss his legacy across continents and across disciplines.

Read the full day's schedule here: http://www.maisonfrancaise.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1364:transcolonial-fanon-trajectories-of-a-revolutionary-politics&catid=18:upcoming-events-conferences-and-cinema&Itemid=54





Filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien has been praised for his “stunningly lush aesthetics” and “utterly sensual” approach to filmmaking (Artforum). In this lecture, he presents excerpts from his recent major work, Ten Thousand Waves. Set in China, this work features renowned actresses Maggie Cheung and Zhao Tao, video artist Yang Fudong, poet Wang Ping, and venerable Chinese calligrapher, Gong Fagen. Ten Thousand Waves is an homage to the culture of immigrants who relocate seeking a better life, echoing his parents' journey from the Carribean to England.

Followed by a moderated conversation with Carol Becker, Dean of Faculty, School of the Arts


Required Reservation


Isaac Julien's earlier works include Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask; Young Soul Rebels (which was awarded the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival); and the acclaimed poetic documentary Looking for Langston. 

Julien was visiting lecturer at Harvard University's Schools of Afro-American and Visual Environmental Studies and is currently a visiting professor at the Whitney Museum of American Arts.

The talk will include the following speakers:
- Ifeanyi Orazulike – Executive Director, International Center on Advocacy for the
Right to Health
- Dr. Cheikh Traore – Senior Policy Advisor, HIV & Sexual Diversity, UNDP
- Jessica Stern – Director of Programs, International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights

Moderator: Betsy Apple – Legal Director/General Counsel, AIDS-Free World, and Adjunct Professor, SIPA

Topics Included:
Stigma, HIV/AIDS, Discrimination, "Corrective" Rape, Hate Crimes, Criminalization, Gender Identity, Laws, Policy, Education, Culture, and Violence surrounding Same-Sex and Intersex individuals and relationships.

Ethiopian food buffet at 6:00pm



"Methods, experiences from the field, industry initiatives, challenges"

The two speakers are Kelly Bidwell from Innovations for Poverty Action, Director of the Post-Conflict Recovery Initiative, and Cyrus Samii, Assistant Professor at NYU who has extensive field experience with evaluating peacekeeping missions. They will talk about the methodologies they use to understand the performance and impact of post-conflict interventions, e.g. peace education, peacekeeping, etc., their own experiences in the field and the challenges they encountered. It will also be a great opportunity for students to interact with field practitioners.

Refreshments will be provided.

Co-sponsored with OLAS, Latino Heritage Month, Colony at Columbia University, Omega Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, Students for Education Reform, the Beta Chapter of Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc.

Entertainment: a talented mix of musicians and artists: Andre Rivie's Blues Band, Osekre and the Lucky Bastards, and the Columbia University Ballroom Dance Troupe

There will be catered food from Havana Central and lots of yummy chocolate!

Your very attendance to this event contributes directly to the important work of BECA (Bilingual Education in Central America), a non-profit organization working to promote cultural exchange and affordable bilingual education to underserved communities in Honduras. BECA also offers volunteering opportunities so come learn about how to immerse yourself in an enriching experience. For more information, visit their website: www.becaschools.org

BUY YOUR $5 TICKET ONLINE!
https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/9391765

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=310104285671011

"Not My Life" is directed, written and produced by Oscar Nominee Robert Bilheimer, President of Worldwide Documentaries, a non-profit film production company focusing on subjects of social, cultural, and humanitarian concern. This documentary portrays modern-day slavery and global human trafficking, crimes that affect millions of children, women, and men in North and South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa.

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=239815439410571

Lazihno vs. Brazil was brought to the InterAmerican Commission in 2005 in response to a summary execution at a juvenile center in Brazil. Daniela Ikawa, a human rights attorney from Brazil, and Program Officer at ESCR-net, will discuss her experiences bringing this case before the commission and the broader impacts of Inter-American Commission recommendations on human rights protection in Brazil.

Second International Forum for Peace and Prosperity in Northeast Asia--Sixty Years after the San Francisco Peace Treaty: Peace, Conflict, and Historical Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific

An all-day conference entitled Sixty Years after the San Francisco Peace Treaty: Peace, Conflict, and Historical Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific. Speakers include Bruce Cummings, Kimie Hara, Naoyuki Umemori, and many more.

For full agenda, visit The Center for Korean Research website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ckr/events.html

Asian Women Leaders Series
A lunchtime discussion on Kyrgyzstan’s Political Transition
and its Role in the World

Featuring Her Excellency Roza Otunbayeva, President of the Kyrgyz Republic. Roza Otunbayeva is the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, a post she has held since July 2010.
Following the Kyrgyz Republic’s independence in 1991, she served as the Ambassador to the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, and on three occasions as Foreign Minister. A former member of the Kyrgyz parliament, she was honored with the U.S. Secretary of
State's 2011 International Woman of Courage award.
President Otunbayeva will be joined in discussion with Reuters’ Senior Correspondent in Washington, D.C., and former Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Fellow, Philip Shishkin. — Lunch will be served —

Can't make it to this program? Tune into AsiaSociety.org/Live at 12:30pm ET for a free live video webcast.

Tickets:
Members: $25
Students/Seniors: $30
Nonmembers: $35
To purchase tickets: Call the Box Office: (212)-517-ASIA (M-F 1pm-5pm)
Online tickets: tickets.asiasociety.org
No cancellations, exchanges or refunds

The Human Rights in New Constitutions - Professor Ssekandi and Elvis Mbembe Binda, a human rights advocate will be speaking. The program will focus on human rights and constitutional issues in Africa. A light lunch will be served.

All over the world controversies continue to beset the practice of peacebuilding. Peace versus justice. Religious versus secular. Individual versus structural justice. Forgiveness versus retribution. Overcoming these dilemmas requires more than reforming institutions but rather new thinking about the questions: what is justice? how is it related to the building of peace?

Answers to these questions lie in the twin concepts of reconciliation and restorative justice. The symposium explores their potential for overcoming the familiar controversies and offering guidance for peacebuilding. It will explore as well what these concepts have to say about punishment, accountability, apology, forgiveness, confession, truth telling, human rights, international law, and other issues and practices. Participation is open to students, scholars, and practitioners interested in transitional justice and peacebuilding.Learn more and RSVP at http://iilj.org/newsandevents/RJRP.asp

All over the world controversies continue to beset the practice of peacebuilding. Peace versus justice. Religious versus secular. Individual versus structural justice. Forgiveness versus retribution. Overcoming these dilemmas requires more than reforming institutions but rather new thinking about the questions: what is justice? how is it related to the building of peace?

Answers to these questions lie in the twin concepts of reconciliation and restorative justice. The symposium explores their potential for overcoming the familiar controversies and offering guidance for peacebuilding. It will explore as well what these concepts have to say about punishment, accountability, apology, forgiveness, confession, truth telling, human rights, international law, and other issues and practices. Participation is open to students, scholars, and practitioners interested in transitional justice and peacebuilding. Learn more and RSVP here: http://iilj.org/newsandevents/RJRP.asp

Panelists: Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University; Elizabeth Hurd, Northwestern University; Liesl Gerntholtz, Human Rights Watch; Ron Hassner, UC Berkeley; Naz Modirzadeh, Harvard University; Makau Mutua, SUNY Buffalo; Anupama Rao, Barnard College; Dorothy Q. Thomas; Miriam Ticktin, The New School; Burton Visotzky, Jewish Theological Seminary; and Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights
Watch.

Please contact Chris Chafin at chriscdtr@gmail.com to
read panelists' papers before the workshops.

Panelists: Fabienne Hara, International Crisis Group; Stephen Hopgood, SOAS University of London; Thomas Kellogg, Open Society Foundations; Sally Merry,
New York University; Daniel Philpott, Notre Dame University; Leslie Vinjamuri, SOAS.

Please contact Chris Chafin at chriscdtr@gmail.com to
read panelists' papers before the workshops.

The Center for Public Scholarship presents the 25th conference from the Social Research journal at The New School. Join us as experts and scholars discuss human rights as a mediating language for discussions about social justice and the global economy. How does a wealthy nation determine what they can do to alleviate global poverty? What are the ethical obligations and how can such assistance be mutually beneficial? What are the human rights responsibilities and obligations of
international financial institutions and corporations? Where are the opportunities in economic policies and institutions to strengthen human rights policies around the world and improve social justice?

Full program and registration:http://newschool.edu/cps/human-rights-global-economy/

Featuring:
Philip Alston, Christian Barry, Nehal Bhuta, Jackie Dugard, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Des Gasper, Siri Gloppen, Kathryn Hochstetler, Robert Howse, Chris Jochnick, Andrew Lang, Asunción Lera St. Clair, Chris London, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Sanjay Reddy, Margot Salomon, Galit A.
Sarfaty, Meaghen Simms, Ruti Teitel and Miriam Ticktin.

Tickets:
Full conference: $30; single session $10
Nonprofit Members and Staff: $15; single sessions $5
Free for all students and all New School faculty, staff, and alumni
(with valid ID)

The Center for Public Scholarship presents the 25th conference from the Social Research journal at The New School. Join us as experts and scholars discuss human rights as a mediating language for discussions about social justice and the global economy. How does a wealthy nation determine what they can do to alleviate global poverty? What are the ethical obligations and how can such assistance be mutually beneficial? What are the human rights responsibilities and obligations of
international financial institutions and corporations? Where are the opportunities in economic policies and institutions to strengthen human rights policies around the world and improve social justice?

Full program and registration:http://newschool.edu/cps/human-rights-global-economy/

Featuring:
Philip Alston, Christian Barry, Nehal Bhuta, Jackie Dugard, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Des Gasper, Siri Gloppen, Kathryn Hochstetler, Robert Howse, Chris Jochnick, Andrew Lang, Asunción Lera St. Clair, Chris London, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Sanjay Reddy, Margot Salomon, Galit A.
Sarfaty, Meaghen Simms, Ruti Teitel and Miriam Ticktin.

Tickets:
Full conference: $30; single session $10
Nonprofit Members and Staff: $15; single sessions $5
Free for all students and all New School faculty, staff, and alumni
(with valid ID)

Free, four-day (11/10-13), non-profit film festival featuring work by international filmmakers exploring social, political, and cultural issues. Documentaries, features, experimental work, and shorts look at industrial pollution, workers' rights, police brutality, the economic collapse, living with disabilities, other topics. Q&A's with the artists follow some presentations. See www.chafilmfest.com for screening schedule and more information. Reserve seats through pr@chafilmfest.com or Eventbrite.

Free, four-day (11/10-13), non-profit film festival featuring work by international filmmakers exploring social, political, and cultural issues. Documentaries, features, experimental work, and shorts look at industrial pollution, workers' rights, police brutality, the economic collapse, living with disabilities, other topics. Q&A's with the artists follow some presentations. See www.chafilmfest.com for screening schedule and more information. Reserve seats through pr@chafilmfest.com or Eventbrite.

Free, four-day (11/10-13), non-profit film festival featuring work by international filmmakers exploring social, political, and cultural issues. Documentaries, features, experimental work, and shorts look at industrial pollution, workers' rights, police brutality, the economic collapse, living with disabilities, other topics. Q&A's with the artists follow some presentations. See www.chafilmfest.com for screening schedule and more information. Reserve seats through pr@chafilmfest.com or Eventbrite.

Free, four-day (11/10-13), non-profit film festival featuring work by international filmmakers exploring social, political, and cultural issues. Documentaries, features, experimental work, and shorts look at industrial pollution, workers' rights, police brutality, the economic collapse, living with disabilities, other topics. Q&A's with the artists follow some presentations. See www.chafilmfest.com for screening schedule and more information. Reserve seats through pr@chafilmfest.com or Eventbrite.

A conversation with Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, and most recently Super Sad True Love Story. Moderated by McKenzie Wark, professor of media and cultural studies at The New School and author of Gamer Theory.

Rewiring the Real is a yearlong series of conversations with writers about the interplay of literature, technology and religion.

Opening Reception of new Exhibition

Social Forces Visualized offers an innovative view of the beginnings of social documentary photography in the United States. The exhibition includes over 125 photographs by seminal photographers Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Jessie Tarbox Beals, and others. The photographs were selected from over 1,000 images in the Community Service Society records at Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Many of the exhibition images have not been seen in public for close to a century. The exhibition also includes a generous selection of original illustrations, maps, exhibition panels, and publications in which many of the photographs first appeared. Social Forces Visualized is organized by Drew Sawyer and Huffa Frobes-Cross, both Ph.D. candidates in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

Featuring photographs by Jacob Riis, Jessie Tarbox Beals, Lewis Hine, Hiram Myers, and many others. An exhibit drawn from the Community Service Society Records at Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Exhibit: 9 November through 17 December, 2011 (Wed-Sat, 1-5 pm)

Tthe first program that the Middle East Task Force will convene at the New America Foundation’s new space on Lafayette St.
To guarantee your Place, RSVP NOW at http://newamerica.createsend1.com/t/y/l/wjklld/ctjttitw/i/

Coming to NYC! This winter, the New America Foundation will officially launch New America NYC at our new space in Soho.
Join us for a video screening and discussion with B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights NGO, as we showcase “Visual Impact,” a video project that trains and empowers hundreds of Palestinians to record human rights abuses. Through innovative and conventional media channels the short films shine a spotlight on violations, promote accountability, create deterrence to violence, and generate new avenues for advocacy.

FEATURING: AWATIF ALJADILI, Gazan producer; ARAFAT AMIRA, Seventeen-year-old citizen journalist; DANIEL LEVY, Co-director of New America's Middle East Task Force; YOAV GROSS, Project Leader

NEW AMERICA NYC is dedicated to big ideas and lively conversation. It is an initiative of the New America Foundation, an independent and non-ideological organization that invests in new thinkers, breakthrough research and policy innovation to address the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.

Speaker: Douglas Morris
Discussant: Anne Nelson

About the speaker: Douglas G. Morris is a legal historian and practicing criminal defense attorney with Federal Defenders of New York, Inc. He is author of Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany (University of Michigan Press, 2005). He is now working on a book, tentatively entitled Discrimination, Degradation, Defiance: Jewish Lawyers in Nazi Germany. This book will explore the response of lawyers, both in their legal practice and their legal thinking, to a tyrannical regime’s destruction of a liberal legal order.

Optional Drinks/Dinner: Before the meeting, participants are cordially invited to join the speaker for drinks in the lobby of the Faculty House at 6:00pm and an optional buffet dinner at 6:30pm (partially subsidized for a cost of $24) on the second floor of the Faculty House.

Please RSVP by contacting Sarika Bansal at cuhrseminar@gmail.com and make sure you include your full name and affiliation. Please specify whether you plan to attend the dinner before the seminar.

A screening of Sun Come Up, an Academy-Award nominated documentary that tells the story of some of the world's first climate change refugees, the Carteret Islanders of Papua New Guinea, who are falling victim to rising sea levels. Sun Come Up provokes discussion about climate change, displacement, and the rights of vulnerable communities around the globe.

Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Columbia Center for Climate Change Law, and Paige West, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University, will briefly introduce the film.

Dinner (Non-pizza) and drinks will be served.

Film by Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam. 2010, 79 min.

A "look at The Dalai Lama's ceaseless struggle for justice and recognition for the Tibetan people, [the film] focuses on the pivotal and particularly tumultuous events of 2008. From Buddhist monks' protests in Lhasa on the 50th anniversary of the Chinese invasion and the four-month march of exiled Tibetans through India to the Tibetan border, to the Beijing Olympics and the raucous talks the between the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government, the film uncovers the growing rifts between younger Tibetans and their most respected spiritual leader. While His Holiness advocates for political autonomy within China rather than secession from it, a younger generation within Tibet has grown impatient and begun to chart a more confrontational course. Following The Dalai Lama's political life with unprecedented personal access, Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam and co-director Ritu Sarin bring an impassioned focus to the myriad complexities in finding a peaceful solution based on compromise and dialogue"

PIZZA will be served!

Over the past several months, the Horn of Africa has experienced one of the worst famines in the last 60 years. Although early warnings surfaced in November 2010, famine was not officially declared by the United Nations until July this year for regions in southern Somalia. Did the international community react too late? Malnutrition and disease are widespread and millions of food insecure people have yet to receive any emergency assistance. This panel discussion will focus on the current crisis along with the political instability and security factors linked with the various political factions, including the Islamist group Al-Shabaab.

Guest panelists include:

• Federica D'Andreagiovanni, Coordination Response Division-OCHA Somalia Desk
• Dr. Richard Garfield, Columbia University Schools of Nursing and Public Health, Forced Migration
• Sibi Lawson-Marriott, External Relations for Eastern and Central Africa, World Food Programme
• Gerry Martone, Director of Humanitarian Affairs, International Rescue Committee