The Center for Global Studies at George Mason University, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), and the Lima-based Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL) announce a new online publication, “Human Rights Tribunals in Latin America:  The Fujimori Trial in Comparative Perspective.” 

http://cgs.gmu.edu/publications/hjd/OSI2009RappReportEngl.pdf

The report provides an overview of a symposium of the same name held in Washington, DC, on October 2, 2008.

Fifteen distinguished speakers from Latin America and the United States evaluated the efforts of governments, human rights organizations and civil society groups more broadly, as well as international actors, to combat impunity and to strengthen the rule of law and democracy.  The rapporteur’s report highlights the symposium’s central themes and is an important resource for understanding the role of human rights tribunals in promoting truth, justice and reconciliation in Latin America.  The report is also available in Spanish.

The trial of former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori, is nearing conclusion. Fujimori, who ruled Peru between 1990 and 2000, is being prosecuted for human rights violations, and faces further charges for corruption and abuse of authority.  The trial began on December 10, 2007, shortly after Fujimori was extradited to Peru from Chile. 

Fujimori had evaded justice since 2000, when he fled Peru after a series of corruption scandals came to light.

Prosecutors and the lawyers representing survivors and family members of victims made their closing remarks in February.  Fujimori’s defense attorney is now concluding his arguments, after which Fujimori will have the opportunity to address the court himself.  The Supreme Court judges hearing the case are then expected to reconvene in late March or early April to announce their verdict.

Several participants in the October 2 symposium have also produced working papers, which analyze in greater depth different aspects of the Fujimori trial, as well as the other human rights trials underway in Latin America.  We invite you to access the working papers available at the CGS website: http://cgs.gmu.edu/publications/ wphjd.html.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND RESPONSIBILITY IN THE AGE OF PROPAGANDA AND GENOCIDE:

A Workshop with Mr. Keith Harmon Snow

Thursday, March 19, 2009

12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Castleman Room 212

How does the mass media operate? How does one interpret information and determine if, when and how the news is slanted? How do you “read” information that passes your way? What is the value of information and when is information being used against us? Should one be reading the mass media at all?

Join Keith Harmon Snow for a workshop exploring the western mass media system. Using specific case studies based in his human rights work and media analyses, Keith will offer insights into the media, including structural deceptions, political agendas, racial biases, stereotypes and corporate seductions. The workshop will address ethical and moral issues and will challenge participants to evaluate truth, justice, equality and what it means to pursue right livelihood in the present era.

Keith Harmon Snow is the 2009 Regent’s Lecturer in Law & Society at the University of California Santa Barbara.  Over the past decade, he has been recognized for his work in contesting official narratives on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.  He has also worked as a genocide investigator for the United Nations. 

Please visit www.unescochair.uconn.edu for more information, or call 486.0647.

African Activist Archive Project at Michigan State University

The African Studies Center with MATRIX digital humanities center at Michigan State University’s announce the launch of the new African Activist Archive Project (http://africanactivist.msu.edu).

This project is preserving records and memories of activism in the United States that supported the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s. This is one of the most significant modern American movements having defeated the foreign policy of a sitting President (Ronald Reagan), whose veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 was overturned by Congress, signaling the end of U.S. government support for the apartheid government. And it was based in more than 100 local community, university, religious, NGO, and labor organizations as well as city, county, and state governments.

The project is assembling excellent materials for teaching about community mobilizations, including:

• an online archive of historical materials – pamphlets, newsletters, leaflets, buttons, posters, T-shirts, photographs, and audio and videorecordings
  
• personal remembrances and interviews with activists
  
• a directory to the many archives of organizations and individuals deposited in libraries and historical societies that are available for further research

The earliest documents on the website are about the 1962 American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa which included Martin Luther King, Jr. and other key civil rights leaders of that time. The website also includes documents of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement, Winnie Mandela Solidarity Coalition, and the Pan-African Liberation Committee at Harvard University. Among the audio materials is Harry Belafonte welcoming African National Congress President Oliver Tambo to a 1987 reception in New York.

The website now contains 1350 items of all types of media, including

• more than 800 documents
  
• 19 streaming videos and 11 streaming audio files
  
• a new T-shirt collection – with up to four images of each (with more T-shirts coming in the months ahead)
  
• galleries of posters, photos, and buttons

There is representation from many organizations from across the country – 74 US organizations, most of them local groups, in 21 states and the District of Columbia. We have newsletters from 18 organizations, brief descriptions of more than 100 US organizations, and information about many physical archives.

There are many ways to navigate around the site. You can start from Galleries (including Remembrances or types of media, e.g. photos, documents, video) or begin on the Browse page with the organization name, a U.S. state, or the African country that is the focus of organizing. The Advanced Search page allows you to search across all types of media. Also, from each page displaying an item (e.g. photo, document, video), you can link to other items of the same organization or of the same African country of focus.

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres has released its annual report of Top 10 Humanitarian Crises of 2008.  The full report is available online at MSF’s website.

The Top 10 of 2008 are:

1.  Somalia
2. Myanmar
3.  Zimbabwe
4.  Democratic Republic of Congo
5.  Childhood Malnutrition
6.  Ethiopia
7.  Pakistan
8.  Sudan
9.  Iraq
10.  HIV/TB

A New UNESCO/WISE publication: Unfinished Business: A Comparative Survey of Historical and Contemporary Slavery

By Dr Joel Quirk, Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), University of Hull. 

The full report is avaliable as a free pdf download at

http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=38451&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Abstract:

Interest in contemporary slavery has increased dramatically over the last ten years, but there remains a widespread tendency to view slavery in the past and slavery in current society as independent fields of study. This publication moves beyond this artifical divide, providing the first ever comparative analysis of historical slave systems and modern forms of human bondage. From this standpoint, recent concerns over human trafficking, debt-bondage, child labor and other related problems are analyzed in view of the historical strengths and weaknesses of the legal abolition of slavery. By bringing together a range of studies on different aspects of slavery, both past and present, this publication provides an innovative platform for promoting dialogue about ways of addressing both contemporary slavery and the enduring legacies of historical slave systems.

The ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PEACE EDUCATION is now accessible.

http://www.tc.edu/centers/epe/ 

The online Encyclopedia of Peace Education provides a comprehensive overview of scholarly developments in the field to date as well as new insights from across the globe from various actors involved in advancing peace education. This online resource serves as a living reference guide that traces the history and emergence of the field, highlights foundational concepts, contextualizes peace education practice across international and disciplinary borders, and suggests new directions for peace educators. From core conceptual perspectives to the moral and spiritual foundations of the field to the role of the United Nations, the Encyclopedia grounds peace education in a solid theoretical and practical framework through the writings of some of the field’s most renowned scholars and its emerging voices. This online resource targets undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars and practitioners working in international and non-governmental organizations in the field of peace education.

Present entries include:

* A History of Peace Education in the U.S. (Aline Stomfay-Stitz)
* Access to Peace Education (Surya Nath Prasad)
* American Friends Service Committee and Peace Education (Charles F. Howlett)
* American School Peace League and the First Peace Studies Curriculum (Charles F. Howlett)
* Andrew Carnegie’s Educational Efforts For World Peace (Charles F. Howlett)
* Baha’i Faith and Peace Education (Marie Gervais)
* Brookwood Labor College and Peace Education (Charles F. Howlett)
* Caring and Peace Education (Nel Noddings)
* Coexistence Education (Daniel Bar-Tal)
* Comparative and International Education and Peace Education (Robin J.
Burns)
* Conceptual Perspectives in Peace Education (Magnus Haavelsrud)
* Countering Militarism through Peace Education (Carl Mirra)
* ‘Critical’ Peace Education (Monisha Bajaj)
* Elise Boulding and Peace Education (Mary Lee Morrison)
* Environmental Peacemaking, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (Patricia Mische)
* Form and Content of Peace Education (Johan Galtung)
* Futures Education (David Hicks)
* Global Citizenship Education (Lynn Davies)
* History of Peace Education (Ian Harris)
* Human Rights Education (Felisa Tibbitts)
* International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) & Community-Based Institutes on Peace Education (CIPE) (Tony Jenkins)
* Islam and Peace Education (Mustafa Köylü)
* Jane Addams and the Promotion of Peace and Social Justice Among the Masses (Charles F. Howlett)
* John Dewey and Peace Education (Charles F. Howlett)
* Learning to Communicate Peacefully (Francisco Gomes de Matos)
* Learning to Live Together (Margaret Sinclair)
* Maria Montessori’s Contribution to Peace Education (Cheryl Duckworth)
* Merle Curti and the Development of Peace History in American Thought and Culture (Charles F. Howlett)
* Multiculturalism: Critical Reflections (Zvi Bekerman)
* Nonviolence and Peace Education (Barry L. Gan)
* Paulo Freire and Peace Education (Lesley Bartlett)
* Peace History Society (Charles F. Howlett)
* Philosophy of Peace Education (James Page)
* Schools, Violence, and Peace Education (Clive Harber)
* The Moral and Spiritual Foundations of Peace Education (Dale T. Snauwaert)
* The United Nations and Peace Education (James S. Page)
* UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) and Peace Education (Lynn Davies)
* Unity-Based Peace Education (H.B. Danesh)
* Youth and Peacebuilding (Roshan Danesh)

 The Human Rights Reception will take place on Tuesday, September 23 from 4-6PM at the Dodd Center Lounge.

Namaste, the student run human rights journal at UConn, is currently looking for an editor. This is a great opportunity, especially for those interested in the position and are looking for a HR internship for the Spring semester.   Namaste is also now accepting essays, artwork, poetry, creative fiction, photography and much more for the next issue of the journal.  This is an excellent opportunity to get published as a college student and a great resume builder! If you would like to learn more about the journal or submit your work, please contact Namaste at namastejournal@gmail.com or join the Namaste Journal on Facebook.

The Global Health and Human Rights Film Series is showing A Walk to Beautiful, a documentary about five women with obstetric fistula in Ethiopia.