New UNESCO Report on Historical and Contemporary Slavery

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.

New UDHR Website

The United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library has launched a new web site, Universal Declaration of Human Rights : An Historical Record of the Drafting Process (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/udhr/) as part of the commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration.  The site provides access to early United Nations documents related to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The new web site is a joint digitization project of the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva.

Human Rights & Human Welfare (HRHW) Launches new blog

Remember to go vote today!

Human Rights & Human Welfare (HRHW) is pleased to announce the launch of their new interactive blog, http://www.hrhw.org/

Human Rights & Human Welfare (HRHW) is an online journal published through the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. HRHW posts content in five sections, all unique forms of literature review: Review Essays, Book Notes, the Roundtable, Topical Research Digest and Working Papers. All of the content, since inception in 2001, is archived on the website and all is available free of charge. Please visit Human Rights & Human Welfare online at www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw. To subscribe to receive HRHW‘s monthly update newsletter, click here.

Online Encyclopedia of Peace Education

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)

Upcoming Human Rights Events

 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.

The dinner, film, and panel discussion will take place on Thursday, October 2, 5:00-8:00PM at the Patterson Auditorium at the UConn Medical School Campus in Farmington, CT.

 

 

 

New Collections

Summer is a wonderful time here in the archives.  Since there are fewer instruction sessions to teach and reference questions to answer, it means that I am able to spend more time processing archival collections, and making materials available for researchers.

Here are just a couple of new collections at the Dodd Center which pertain to human rights themes: 

A DVD-ROM of Basic Documents and Case Law from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The DVD-ROM was compiled by the ICTR legal library in 2007 and contains 4,262 searchable PDF documents, including Case Law Decisions, Orders, Indictments, and Judgements; ICTR Basic Documents, Rules of Procedure and Statutes; UN Documents on Human Rights in Rwanda, ICTR Annual Reports, and documents regarding the operation, finances, and personnel of the ICTR.

The Poras Collection of Vietnam War Memorabilia

This collection contains materials from the American Vietnam War era, including American and Vietnamese propaganda, posters from the pro-war and anti-war movements, as well as artifacts from American soldiers who served in the war.

 

New Books at Babbidge Library on War Crimes and Nuremberg

A lot of human rights themed books have been purchased for Homer Babbidge Library in the past few months.  This entry deals with books on war crimes and Nuremberg.  Check back for lists on other topics. 

DOCUMENTS ON THE TOKYO INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL: CHARTER, INDICTMENT AND JUDGMENTS, edited by Robert Cryer.  Oxford, 2008.

LAW, WAR AND CRIME: WAR CRIMES TRIALS AND THE REINVENTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, by Gerry J. Simpson. Cambridge, 2007.

MISSING ITALIAN NUREMBERG: CULTURAL ANMESIA AND POSTWAR POLITICS, by Michelle Battini.  Palgrave MacMillan, 2007. 

WAR CRIMES TRIBUNALS AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE: THE TOKYO TRIAL AND THE NUREMBERG LEGACY, by Madoka Futamura.  Routledge, 2008.

NUREMBERG LEGACY: HOW THE NAZI WAR CRIMES TRIALS CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY, by Norbert Ehrenfreund.  Palgrave MacMillan, 2007.

PERSPECTIVES ON THE NUREMBERG TRIAL, edited by Guenael Mettraux.  Oxford, 2008. 

ATROCITIES ON TRIAL: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE POLITICS OF PROSECUTING WAR CRIMES, by Patricia Herberer.  University of Nebraska, 2008.

TOKYO INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL: A REAPPRAISAL, by Neil Boister.  Oxford, 2008.

TOKYO WAR CRIMES TRIAL: THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE IN THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR II, by Yuma Totani.  Harvard East Asian Series, 2008. 

CIVIL WAR AND THE RULE OF LAW: SECURITY, DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, edited by Agnes Hurwitz.  Lynne Rienner, 2008.

NO EASY FIX: GLOBAL RESPONSES TO INTERNAL WARS AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, by M. Patricia Marchak.  McGill/Queens University, 2008.

HUMANITARIAN OCCUPATION, by Gregory H. Fox.  Cambridge, 2008.

I’ll be posting more new book lists in the next few days. 

 

New NGO Search Engine

A great new resource is now available for helping with internet searches.

There are currently 1026 NGO sites indexed. The project is described on the godort wiki:

 

“The NGO Search indexes local, regional and international NGOs from sources as diverse as AARP, Earth Watch Institute, International Crisis Group, OXFAM, the World Agricultural Forum. Sites were chosen based on their consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and also collated from University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, Duke University Libraries’ NGO Research Guide, and the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO).”

“Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Transforming Ideas Into Practice” — Notes and Materials

Notes and materials from the symposium, “Human Rights Archives and Documentation:  Transforming Ideas Into Practice,” hosted by the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut in March 2008, and co-sponsored by the Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research at Columbia University Libraries and the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network, are now available on the Dodd Center’s website.  Click here for minutes, notes, and outcomes. 

A recurring theme of the symposium was the need for increased communication and collaboration among archivists working with human rights materials.  To help meet this need, the University of Connecticut and symposium participants have initiated several projects:

  1. A listserv designed for archivists working with human rights collections
  2. An online Human Rights Archives Information Portal, which will include information about human rights archival collections, repositories currently collecting human rights materials, resources for organizations and governments working to preserve their own records, and a calendar of upcoming conferences events pertaining to human rights library and archival collections. 

The Human Rights Archives Listserv is open to anyone working with human rights collections, or interested in human rights and archives.  The listserv is hosted by the University of Connecticut.  The link to subscribe is here. 

 

Human Rights Awareness Week at UConn, April 14-19

Idealists United, a human rights advocacy and awareness group founded at UConn, is hosting its second annual Human Rights Awareness Week with events on campus from April 14-19, 2008. 

Each day of the week has a different theme, and events range from lectures, to concerts, to films to rallies.

Monday, April 14:  Genocide Awareness
Tuesday, April 15:  The Environment
Wednesday, April 16:  Women’s Rights
Thursday, April 17:  Labor Rights
Friday, April 18:  Anti-Discrimination
Saturday, April 19:  Human Rights Music Festival

For a full schedule and information, see the Idealists United Homepage, or join their Facebook Group.