Role of Leadership in Promotion of Human Rights in Africa: Future Prospects and Obstacles

The UNESCO Chair & Institute of Comparative Human Rights invites you to a public lecture by His Excellency António Mascarenhas Monteiro, former President of the Republic of Cape Verde on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Union Room 304 A/B. 

As the first multi-party elected President of the Republic of Cape Verde, His Excellency played a crucial role in making Cape Verde one of the more viable democracies on the continent of Africa. He served as President from 1991-2001 and during his term in office, was active in the international arena as well. He was Chairman of the Third Conference on Regional System of Human Rights Protection in Africa and Europe and participated in the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Goodwill mission to Angola following the country’s first free elections in 1992.

In 1993, he was Chairman of the Colloquium on Constitutional Transition in Africa, held at the Catholic University of Louvain, and from 1994 to 1997 he served as President of the Inter-State Committee for Struggle Against Drought in Sahel (CILSS). In his role as Deputy President of the OAU Ad-Hoc Committee for Southern Africa, he attended the signing of the Lusaka Protocol on Peace in Angola in 1994. He was elected President of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) in 1998.

Lecture is co-sponsored by the African American Cultural Center.

For more information, please call 486.0647 or visit www.unescochair.uconn.edu

Kay Warren, Distinguished professor of anthropology at Brown University will present the Robert G. Mead, Jr. lecture entitled, “When Numbers Count: The Practice of Combating Human Trafficking from Colombia to Japan.”

Transnational Women’s Movement Colloquium

Speakers:
Manisha Desai, Amanda Gouws & Zakia Zalime
Friday, November 2, 2007
2:30 – 5:00 PM

Women’s Center, Student Union Room 421
Reception following the Colloquium
For more information, click here

Manisha Desai, Director of Women’s Studies at the University of Connecticut will give an introduction on “Notes on a Transnational Perspective.” 

Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, will speak on “Changing Opportunity Structures:  The Women’s Movement in South Africa.” 

 Zakia Salime, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University will speak on, “The Subjects of Democracy:  Women’s Perspectives on War and Reform in the Middle East.”

The colloquium is organized by the Women’s Studies Program and Co-sponsored by the Institute for African American Studies, Institute for Asian American Studies, the Human Rights Institute, the Department of Political Science, the Institute for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, the Department of Sociology, the UNESCO Chair and Comparative Human Rights Program, and the Women’s Center. 

In addtion to the two films on Wednesday, the campus group “Love146,” which advocates to end child sex slavery and exploitation, is sponsoring a screening of Stop the Traffick tonight, October 15, at 8 PM in Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.  Stop the Traffick exposes the aftereffects of the Khmer Rouge’s regime and genocide in Cambodia which has left children vulnerable to exploitation through the sex trade.

A couple of important human rights documentaries are being screened on campus this week:  Lumo, and Walking the Line.  The producers of each film will be on campus as well for discussion and Q & A. 

Lumo is a documentary about a young Congolese woman on an uncretain path to recovery at a unique hospital for rape survivors. 

The film will be shown on Wednesday, October 17 at 7:30 PM in St. Thomas Aquinas, the UConn Catholic Campus Ministry.  Co-director and producer of the film Nelson Walker III, will lead a Q & A session following the film. 

Lumo has won numerous awards and aired on PBS in September.  More information on the film is available here. 

See also the recent New York Times article on the brutality of rape in the Congo. 

Also on Wednesday, October 17, there will be two events surrounding the documentary, Walking the Line, which explores U.S. vigilantes, undocumented migrants, and human rights. 

At 4 PM in Batterson Multipuporse Room, there will be a meet and greet with the film’s producers, Jeremy Levine & Landon Van Soest.

At 7 PM in the Andre Schenker Lecture Hall (behind Montieth Hall) there will be a screening of the film followed by discussion on U.S. border protection and human rights with the film makers.