Category Archives: human rights

human rights

Raymond and Beverly Distinguished Sackler Lecture with the Honorable Patricia Wald

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Patricia Wald, who served for two decades on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and also was U.S. Judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, Netherlands, will deliver the 14th Annual Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture in Human Rights.

Her talk, “Perplexing Predicaments in Human Rights Law: Women, Terror, and Tribunals,” will take place at Konover Auditorium in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, beginning at 4 p.m on Monday, March 3.

Wald received her bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College and her law degree from Yale Law School, were she was editor of the Law Journal. She began her career as a law clerk to Judge Jerome Frank of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

She was an associate in the Washington, D.C. firm of Arnold, Fortas & Porter; an attorney in the Office of Criminal Justice of the Department of Justice; attorney for Neighborhood Legal Services; member of the District of Columbia Crime Commission; co-director of the Ford Foundation’s Project on Drug Abuse; attorney with the Center for Law and Social Policy; and litigation director of the Mental Health Law Project.In 1977, Wald was appointed Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs in the U.S. Department of Justice; and in 1979 President Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until her retirement in 1999. From 1999 to 2001, she served on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, where she rendered significant decisions in the field of international humanitarian law.From 2002 to 2004, she was chair of the Open Society Justice Initiative; and from 2004 to 2005, was a member of the President’s Commission on U.S. Intelligence Capabilities Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction.Wald is a council member and former first vice president of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She is the author of Law and Poverty (1965), and co-author of Bail in the United States (1964) and Dealing with Drug Abuse (1973). She has also published many articles on a wide range of legal subjects.Wald is a fellow of the American Philosophical Society and a former member of the executive board of the American Bar Association’s Central European and Eurasian Institute.She received the American Bar Association Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award; the annual award of the Environmental Law Institution; and the annual award of the International Human Rights Law Group.

She has received many honorary degrees from universities and law schools, including most recently the degree of Doctor of Law at Yale University.

Human Rights Film Series– Tying the Knot– Feb. 12, 2008

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My apologies for the infrequency of postings here– February and March are jam-packed with events and work deadlines, so I haven’t been posting here as much as I’d hoped! 

But there are lots of human rights events coming up, and I’ve been ordering new books for the library, so keep checking back for further information.

The 2007-2008 Human Rights Film Series, “A Cinematic Exploration through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” continues with our first film of 2008, Tying the Knot, on Tuesday, February 12, at 6 PM in Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. 

A description of Tying the Knot (2004) is below. 

“When a bank robber’s bullet ends the life of police officer Lois Marrero, her wife of thirteen years, Mickie, is honored as her surviving spouse but denied all pension benefits. When Sam, an Oklahoma rancher, loses his beloved husband of 22 years, long-estranged cousins of his late spouse try to lay claim to everything Sam has. As Mickie and Sam’s lives are put on trial, they are forced to confront the tragic reality that in the eyes of the law their marriages mean nothing. From an historical trip to the Middle Ages, to gay hippies storming the Manhattan marriage bureau in 1971, Tying the Knot digs deeply into the past and present to uncover the meaning of civil marriage in America today.”  (From the film’s website)
 

Reminder: Human Rights Funding Deadlines, Feb 1, 2008

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Human Rights Fellowship CompetitionThe Human Rights Institute announces a one semester Human Rights Institute Fellowship for tenure track faculty that will provide a two course remission over one academic semester during academic year 2008-9. The objective of this competition is to support and promote faculty research projects on human rights and to facilitate the writing of external grant proposals.

For more information: http://humanrights.uconn.edu/rese_fellowship.htm

Faculty/Graduate Human Rights Research Grant Competition The objective of this competition is to support and promote research projects on human rights related questions. The program is open to all faculty and all masters and doctoral students from Storrs and regional campuses, in all disciplines.

For more information: http://humanrights.uconn.edu/rese_funds.htm

Faculty Human Rights Workshops The Human Rights Institute will fund two faculty-led human rights workshops in AY 2008-2009. These workshops will bring to the campus 5-10 scholars from external institutions to interact with UConn faculty over a 1-2 day period on a substantive human rights theme.

For more information: http://humanrights.uconn.edu/rese_faculty_workshops.htm

Symposium: Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Transforming Ideas into Practice

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The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut would like to invite you to join us for a symposium, “Human Rights Archives and Documentation:  Transforming Ideas into Practice.”

The Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network and the Center for Human Rights Documentation at Columbia University Libraries are co-sponsoring the event.  This one and a half day symposium will bring together archivists, librarians, and human rights scholars together to address specific needs and unique issues in human rights documentation and to create strategies for the future.  The keynote address for the symposium will be the Honorable Patricia Wald, who served on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.  The second day of the program will consist of working group sessions to share information and address issues specific to human rights documentation.  Trudy Huskamp Peterson, expert on preserving the records of Truth Commissions, and former Acting Archivist of the United States, will be our special guest.  Further information, a detailed schedule, and registration materials are available on our website:  http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/events/human_rights_symposium.htmThe symposium will take place at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, on Monday March 3, and Tuesday, March 4, 2008.  The event is free and open to anyone working with or interested in human rights collections, though there are a limited number of spaces available.   The deadline for registration is Friday, February 15.   

Human Rights Documentation Issue of “Focus on Global Resources”

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The Center for Research Libraries (CRL)’s  FOCUS on Global Resources newsletter, Winter 2007-08 issue (“Human Rights Documentation”) is now available online.

In this issue:

  • Global Resources / Columbia University conference, Human Rights Archives and Documentation.
  • A roundtable discussion sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation examines the role of research libraries in preserving human rights related documentation.
  • The newspaper Aquí and the human rights struggle in Bolivia during the 1970s and 80s.
  • CRL human-rights related collections and archives:  adjudication of World War II era crimes against humanity in Europe and Asia. 
  • CRL collections supporting human rights research on:  Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

To view this and past issues of FOCUS, visit: http://www.crl.edu/focus/toc.asp

To download FOCUS in PDF format, go to: http://www.crl.edu/PDF/pdfFocus/Winter2007-08.pdf

Searching for Human Rights Materials on the Internet

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I’ve received more questions about finding human rights articles online.

For those conducting academic research (UConn Human Rights Minors, this means you!)  subcription databases, available through the library’s website, such as Gale Academic OneFile, Lexis Nexis, and CIAO, are the best places to look for human rights articles.  Another option is to browse through peer-reviewed human rights journals, such as the Journal of Human Rights, Human Rights Quarterly, etc.  You can find a listing of human rights journals and databases available through UConn’s library on the Journal Articles page of the Human Rights Subject Guide, http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/bysubject/humanrights/hrdatabases.html

For those who do not have access to the subscription resources of a university, there are some great places to look for journal articles and human rights information online.  The Key Websites page on the Human Rights Subject Guide has a listing of good places to start your online search. I’ve listed just a few examples here.  Individual NGOs often provide information and publish reports as well. 

The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library includes a wide array of human rights documents, treaties, and other information. 

The HuriSearch Portal is a search engine designed for human rights activists, students, and educators, and it searches over 4, 000 human rights websites for information. 

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international non-governmental organization that supports human rights learning and has information on a variety of human rights themes.

For a more comprehensive listing of places to look on the internet for human rights information, please check the Key Websites page on the University of Connecticut Libraries Human Rights Subject Guide .

Christopher Gunness Lecture and “Pentecost” Performance

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Christopher Gunness, spokesperson for the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, will lecture on “Chaos, Refugees, and Gaza Today” on Thursday, December 6 at 4 p.m. at Jorgensen Gallery, prior to a 7:30  p.m. performance of the play, Pentecost.  Pentecost, written by Tony Award-winning playwright David Edgar  is being performed November 29 through December 7 at Jorgensen.   A brief synopsis of the play is below:

Tony Award-winning playwright David Edgar’s (Nicholas Nickleby) epic play Pentecost  is one part artistic whodunit and one part hostage thriller.  The authenticity of a newly-discovered painting, found in an Eastern European church, presents a tantalizing puzzle that could permanently alter our concepts of art.  Cultures clash in the debate among a curator, art historian, church official and even tourists who are then suddenly taken hostage by a group of asylum-seeking refugees from a variety of world trouble spots.  David Edgar’s extraordinary language is often compared to Bernard Shaw’s in this incendiary collision between art and politics that New York Times critic Alvin Klein said, “sets the brain spinning in the highest gear; there’s no controlling where wonderment will fly or land.” Contains adult sexual content and male nudity.

Gunness is a former BBC News reporter and served as UN spokesman in Sarajevo during the Balkan Wars. He will speak on chaos, refugees, and US foreign policy in today’s Gaza.  His talk will be followed by a reception. 

 The lecture is free and open to the public.  Tickets for the performance of Pentecost are $16.50- $28.  Tickets and information are available at the Jorgensen box office. 

The lecture and performances are sponsored by the Foundations of Humanitarianism program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Human Rights Institute, and the Humanities Institute.

World Freedom Atlas

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The World Freedom Atlas is a new geo-visualization tool designed for human rights researchers, activists, and others to provide a visual map of democracy, human rights, and good governance around the world.  The maps covers the years 1990- 2006. 

It maps datasets by Cingranelli and Richards, Freedom House, Evans and Rauch, the International Country Risk Guide, and many others, and includes topics such as Civil Liberties, Women’s Rights, Amnesty International’s Political Terror Scale, Freedom of the Press, Torture, and many other variables on governance and human and civil rights. 

It’s a fantastic resource, so definitely check it out!  http://www.freedom.indiemaps.com/

Human Rights Archival Collections at UConn

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Recently I’ve been asked where archival collections relating to human rights can be located in the US. I’ve compiled collections here at UConn below, and will post collections from other repositories in a separate post. Please bear in mind that some of these collections are recent acquisitions and are not yet open for public research. Before you visit the archives to look at the materials, make sure to email or call ahead to be sure that the materials you want to look at are accessible. Materials which have not yet been organized, or which have sensitive materials, may be restricted.

Human Rights Manuscript Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut

African National Congress Collection (a small collection of memorabilia collected as part of the UConn ANC Partnership in 1999)

African National Congress Oral History Transcripts Collection (133 transcripts of oral history interviews with leading anti-apartheid activists conducted between 2000 and 2006.)

Alternative Press Collections (independent and counter-culture newspapers and publications from activist movements for social, cultural, and political change. The collection contains thousands of newspapers, serials, books, pamphlets, ephemera and artifacts documenting activist themes and organizations.)

Center for Oral History Interviews Collection (includes interviews with Holocaust survivors in the Connecticut Region conducted in 1980-1981, as well as “Witnesses To Nuremberg, An Oral History Of American Participants At The War Crimes Trials.”

Dodd (Thomas J.) Papers (include materials from the Nuremberg war crimes trial before the International Military Tribunal from 1945-46)

Ho (Fred) Papers (accounts of Asian American culture and experience in the United States)

Mikhailov (Georgi) Collection (photographs and articles regarding Mikhailov’s experiences in Soviet Labor camps in Northeast Siberia from 1980-1983)

Human Rights Internet Collection (the publications library of Human Rights Internet, a Canadian NGO which collected human rights publications from around the world, including materials which are not found in any other libraries in North America.)

Impact Visuals Photographic Collection (photographs and slides which document the anti-apartheid movement and 1994 democratic elections in South Africa)

Malka Penn Collection of Children’s Books on Human Rights (over 140 children’s books and young adult literature dealing with a variety of human rights themes including slavery, the Holocaust, war, and discrimination.)

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Archive (over 100 linear feet of materials including holdings on human rights, politics, and socio-economic conditions in Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and other parts of Central America.)

Refugee Case Files of the International Rescue Committee (records of the New Jersey office of the International Rescue Committee– some materials in the collection are restricted.)

Stolen Childhoods Image Gallery (Collection of noted photographer Robin Romano’s gripping images of child labor from around the world. Access available to the UConn community through HuskyCT; contact the curator for access.)

Tambo (Oliver) Papers (microfilm copies of the papers of anti-apartheid activist, Oliver Tambo; original documents are located at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa)

Xuma (A.B.) Papers (microfilm copies of the papers of anti-apartheid activist, A.B. Xuma; original documents are located at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa)

Other Collections at the University of Connecticut

African American Studies Institute, Archives and Video Collection (contains The Stanley Lawson Collection of Denver Post Clippings on African-American Life, History, and Music from 1986-2001, as well as selected newspapers and magazines.

Asian American Studies Institute, Japanese American Internment Resource Library (contains oral histories, books, videos and other materials documenting the internment of Japanese Americans during the second world war.)

Candlelight Vigil and Concert for Burma, Tuesday November 13, 2007

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Tonight, 6:00pm at Hillel, the UConn chapter of Amnesty International will be hosting a candlelit vigil for the victims of Burma. All are encouraged to come show support and learn more about the issue. There will be a donation bin for “Dolls for Refugee Children” in Burma.

Following the vigil, Insense will be putting on a concert (7:00pm at Hillel) in an effort to “wage musical war against the military junta that continues to oppress new pro-democracy protest in Myanmar (formerly Burma)”. The bands include:

-My Heart to Joy
-The Gracies
-The Purse Snatchers
-Joseph Stalin and the Island Dreamers

Between sets, activists will be sharing poetry and facts to raise awareness on the atrocities occurring in Burma and what you can do to help. The COST for the concert is $5.00 or a non-perishable food item. All proceeds from the concert go to the Covenent Soup Kitchen in Willimantic.

For more info, visit the facebook event page for Hungry for Democracy (a.k.a. Burma-Stock): http://uconn.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5908154301