David Phillips, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and CSHR visiting scholar, will testify on U.S.-Turkish relations on May 14 before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Europe.  The following is from http://www.acus.org/highlights/david-phillips-congressional-testimony-us-turkish-relations.

Testimony:

Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Europe.

It is a testament to the importance of US-Turkish relations that President Barack Obama chose to visit Turkey just 77 days after his election as President of the United States. The visit was a truly an historic opportunity to enhance the US-Turkey strategic partnership that has benefited both nations for more than five decades.

By Betwa Sharma

Taner Akcam is one of the first scholars of Turkish origin to speak and write about the killing of one and half million Armenians by the Ottoman government during the First World War. Many academics and historians have been charged under Law 301 - which makes insulting "Turkishness" a crime.

Last year, the Turkish government, driven by its desire of European Union membership, amended the law and eased restrictions on free speech. Recently, at an event organized by Columbia University's Armenian Students Association, Akcam said, "After decades of suppression the lid has blown off the Armenian genocide in Turkish society."

By Roshini Shanker

Whilst increasing food production seems like a simple answer to meet the current food crisis, it would not increase the purchasing power of the marginalized sections of the society who are the ones suffering from starvation.

This is the opinion of Oliver De Schutter, a law professor at Belgium’s University of Louvain and the College of Europe in Bruges. He was speaking at an event held at the Columbia Law School Apr. 7. An expert on social and economic rights and on trade and human rights, De Schutter previously served as the secretary general of the International Federation for Human Rights between 2004 and 2008.

On March 19, 2009, the Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR) co-hosted a luncheon in honor of Beba Hadzic, the founder of a women’s organization in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The luncheon was held at Felidia’s, one of the NYC-based restaurants owned by Lidia Bastianich of PBS’s Lidia’s Italy. Twenty-one people attended the luncheon including faculty and staff from Columbia University, a playwright whose recent work Dog and Wolf is about Srebrenica and officials from the Genocide Prevention Project and the Women’s Refugee Commission.

During the lunch, Beba spoke about her organization, BOSFAM, which is known for creating the Memorial Quilt that remembers those who died in Srebrenica in 1995. Beba spoke eloquently about all those who perished—from the unborn child of newlyweds to an elderly teacher who had mentored her when she first became director of the Srebrenica Primary School.

CSHR co-sponsored the luncheon in conjunction with the Advocacy Project, a DC-based organization that has been working with BOSFAM for the past several years, the Heinrich Boll Foundation which sponsored Beba’s trip to the USA, the Bosniak American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Lidia Bastianich. On March 13, 2009, CSHR and the Harriman Institute at SIPA co-sponsored a talk by Beba entitled “The Economic Hardships of Bosnian Women: Examples from Srebrenica.”

Overcoming Katrina:
African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond

D’Ann R. Penner and Keith C. Ferdinand; Foreword by Jimmy Carter

“The narrators of Overcoming Katrina allow us to understand the richness of pre-Katrina community life and the non-material sources of trauma. Stories of survivors of Hurricane Katrina go beyond the mere retelling of the horrors of their tragedy and its impact on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast… These stories provide an opportunity for Americans to reflect on how we want to be viewed internationally for our treatment of the most vulnerable in our midst.” —President Jimmy Carter

Human Rights Advocate Program participant Dr. Roger Luhiriri, who treats victims of sexual violence in Eastern Congo, joined in a panel discussion on September 8th prior to the screening of Invisibles, a documentary that raises awareness on five of the world’s most underreported crises. The film is produced by Javier Bardem (Academy Award-Winning Actor No Country for Old Men, Vicky Cristina Barcelona). One crisis it examined, extreme violence against women in the Congo, was the subject Dr. Luhiriri discussed, along with Dayle Haddon, author and UNICEF Ambassador and Enough Projects’ Rebecca Feeley, Candice Knezevic and John Prendergast.

Dr. Luhiriri spoke about the scale of violence against women and girls in the Congo, most specifically how rape is used as a weapon of war. He discussed the physical, emotional and psychological impact the women suffer from conflict rape, and how his work and advocacy, along with other women’s organizations, tries to alleviate this impact. The Panzi Hospital, where he words in Eastern Congo, provides vocational training, child care and other holistic approaches for the women and girls as a source of empowerment.

Women’s Humanitarian Network is excited to announce the launch of the WHN website: http://www.whnonline.org. Check it out for news, pictures, events and more; we will be continually adding content, so please bookmark us!

We are also glad to see that some of our graduating members found great jobs with worthy humanitarian organizations, both here in New York and places like the DRC. Our returning student members spent their summers around the globe in Colombia, Sudan, Uganda and, of course, New York City--great work all!

The WHN is featured in the report “Women in UN Peace Operations: Increasing the Leadership Opportunities," from Women in International Security. Read more and download the full report. See WHN’s website for details on the launch of this report on October 8.

Prof. Reddy’s presentation at the United Nations’ Special Event: Interactive panel on “The Human Right to Food and the Global Food Crisis: Root Causes and Responses,” organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Public Information, the NGO Committee on Human Rights and the Permanent Missions of Cuba and Malawi.

Prof. Reddy’s comments begin approximately 1 hour and 4 minutes into the stream; Real Media Plug-In or Player is required.

From mid-August to mid-December 2008, six human rights leaders working on behalf of marginalized communities in the Global South and the United States will be in residence at Columbia University for the Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP). Started in 1989, the Program provides opportunities for proven grassroots leaders to strengthen their skills and to participate in dialogues on globalization with members of the academic, NGO, policymaking, and corporate communities. The Advocates bring a wealth of practical knowledge and a diversity of experiences, and are available as speakers, experts, and collaborators.

The 2008 Human Rights Advocates are: Anbu Sengo Arasi, Alex Rivera, Carolina Delgado, Peter Mulbah, Amalia Pulungan, and Roger Luhiriri.

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The Center for the Study of Human Rights is delighted to announce the appointment of Yasmine Ergas to the position of Associate Director.

Ms. Ergas, a lawyer and sociologist who also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of International Law at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, is a graduate of the Universities of Sussex, Rome and Columbia Law School. Her experience spans research, teaching and legal practice, program-building and administration, and human rights activism. Ms. Ergas is a former member of the School of Social Science of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, fellow of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University and Pembroke Fellow of Brown University. Among other honors, she has been awarded fellowships and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford Foundation and the Italian Consiglio Nazionale della Ricerca. Ms. Ergas served on the staff of the Social Science Research Council where she developed programs focused on the social consequences of HIV/AIDS, staffed the Committee on Western Europe and administered major fellowship programs. She has been a consultant to key international organizations, including the OECD and UNESCO. More recently, she has served as the coordinator of, and an advisor to, the gender program of the Millennium Village Project. Ms. Ergas has been involved in Human Rights Watch for many years and is a member of the Board of New York City Global Partners. Ms. Ergas has written extensively, focusing particularly on women’s rights and social movements. Her work has been published in English, Italian, French, German, Japanese and Portuguese.

A brown bag with Irwandi Yusuf Governor of Aceh, Indonesia

In an historic general gubernatorial election on 11 December 2006, the people of Aceh voted for a former separatist leader, Irwandi Yusuf, as the new Governor of Aceh. Governor Yusuf was formally installed as Aceh’s first democratically elected Governor on 8 February 2007.

In addition to being designated as the Senior Representative to the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) from 2005 (immediately after the signing of the Helsinki Peace Accord 15 August 2005) until AMM’s departure December 2006, Governor Yusuf played a key role in the Helsinki peace talks between the Government of Indonesia and Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) for Aceh-Nias and has overall responsibility of the newly re-structured Aceh Reintegration Peace Agency (BRA) securing and sustaining the peace process.