CALL FOR PAPERS:  “Human Rights: Ideals and Realities”

Saturday, April 4, 2009

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT, STORRS

* DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: FEBRUARY 16, 2009 *

The second annual multidisciplinary Graduate Human Rights Conference will be held on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at the Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut. The conference aims to bring together graduate students interested in human rights, from multiple disciplines, to present and share their research interests. The conference will include a keynote address as well as complimentary breakfast and lunch.

Keynote Speaker: Joshua Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International USA and Associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Eurasian and Russian Studies. 

Panel Themes: The conference encourages interdisciplinary social science, law, and humanities approaches to understanding human rights issues. Panel themes may include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:

• Economic Rights
• Education and Human Rights
• Environmental Rights
• Foundations of Human Rights
• Gender and Human Rights
• Group Rights
• Human Rights and International Law
• Humanitarianism

If you would like to present a paper, please submit the following information to the Human Rights Institute at humanrights at uconn.edu by February 6, 2009:

– YOUR FULL NAME

– INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION

– E-MAIL, POSTAL ADDRESS, and TEL. NO.

– PAPER TITLE

– 300-WORD PAPER ABSTRACT

Please feel free to contact humanrights at uconn.edu if you have any further questions regarding the conference.

The Connecticut Coalition for Human Rights is pleased to present…

Fulfilling the Promise of Human Rights: the Universal Declaration at 60

a statewide conference marking the 60^th anniversary of the UDHR

Featuring…
U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr.

Saturday, December 6^th from 8:30 to 4pm  
Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT

The CT Coalition for Human Rights is honored to have U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. of the 14^th District of Michigan deliver the keynote address on December 6^th in honor of the 60^th Anniversary of the UDHR.  Representative Conyers has devoted 43 years in the U.S. House of Representatives for “jobs, justice and peace” for the people of Michigan’s 14^th District and the country as a whole.  He has long been a champion for civil rights as one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus and as Chairman of the pivotal House Committee on the Judiciary.  His legislative accomplishments include: the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the Motor Voter Bill of 1993, the Martin Luther King Holiday Act of 1983, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. 

Register now at http://www.udhr.net 

Please join the Coalition on December 6^th at Quinnipiac University to celebrate the 60^th Anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and continue the statewide effort to promote and implement human rights as enshrined in the UDHR throughout Connecticut and throughout the United States. 

Organizational Sponsors of the CT Coalition for Human Rights

AFL-CIO, Albert Schweitzer Institute, Quinnipiac University; American Civil Liberties Union of CT; American Friends Service Committee; American Immigrant Lawyers Association; Amistad Committee; Amnesty International, CT; City of New Haven Peace Commission; Connecticut Bar Association, Connecticut Center for a New Economy, Connecticut Citizen Action Group; Connecticut Communist Party; Connecticut Education Association; Connecticut Federation of Teachers; Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty; Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women; Connecticut State Conference – American Association of University Professors; Connecticut United for Peace; Connecticut Women’s Educational and Legal Fund; Eastern Coalition for Peace and Justice;  Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba; Greater New Haven Central Labor Council; Greater New Haven Peace Council; Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut; Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services; Love 146; Love Makes a Family; NAACP-New Haven; National Association of Social Workers; National Organization for Women; Northeast Connecticut for Peace & Justice; Pax Educare; Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, Promoting an Enduring Peace; Third Sector New England; Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut; United Nations Association, CT Division; Vecinos Unidos; We Refuse to Be Enemies; Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom

For more information about the CT Coalition for Human Rights please visit http://www.udhr.net or email rebecca.lenn@ppct.org.

Zakes Mda, a South African novelist and playwright, will give the Visiting Gladstein Professor of Human Rights Annual Lecture on “The Fiction of Reconciliation.”

4 pm at Konover Auditorium

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center  

A reception will follow

Dear All,

My apologies for the delay in updates, but there has been a flurry of activity lately with the start of the academic year and little time left for writing!

Here is a brief update:

The UConn Libraries are currently revising their strategic plan, so if you have comments about ways in which the library can improve, things you like, things you don’t like, please let us know!  Feel free to leave your comments here on this blog!

Also, the Human Rights Film Series is kicking off this week!  The 2008-2009 theme is, “A Cinematic Exploration through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” in celebration of the 60th Annivesary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948-2008

The film series is sponsored by the Human Rights Initiative

Text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Film Series Poster (Adobe PDF; 148 KB)

All films are free, open to the public, and held at 4:00 pm in the Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Article 1: Freedom and Dignity

Film: The Kite Runner (2007)

Chronicles the lives of two boys, Amir & Hassan, in a divided Afghanistan on the verge of war.

For more information, go to the Dodd Center’s website, or see the film series’s Facebook page. 

 The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, The Human Rights Institute and The UNESCO Chair in Comparative Human Rights invite you to join us for a talk by Thulani Mabaso. 

“Struggle and Forgiveness in the South African Anti-apartheid Movement”
A Conversation with Thulani Mabaso

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center Public Lounge
Monday, April 21, 2008
4:00 PM
Reception to Follow

Thulani Mabaso will speak on his experiences in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and his imprisonment at Robben Island. Mabaso was imprisoned in 1984 for sabotage and was a contemporary of Nelson Mandela, Patrick Chamusso, and other important figures jailed during the struggles against apartheid.  Originally from Vryheid in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, Mabaso currently resides in the township of Khayaletsha in Cape Town, and tells his story on a regular basis as a tour guide at the Robben Island Prison Museum.

For more information, please visit the Dodd Center’s website.

The Dodd Center has a number of archival collections relating to South Africa and the anti-apartheid movement.  They include:

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.)

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

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)

The Department of History invites everyone to attend the 90^th Foreign Policy Seminar on Friday, March 7 at 5:00 PM in the Konover Auditorium.  Guest lecturer Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, will present “Sowing Crisis: The United States and the Cold War in the Middle East.”  The lecture and reception are free. 

The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut are hosting a symposium, “Human Rights Archives and Documentation:  Transforming Ideas into Practice” on March 3-4, 2008.