Past Speakers & Events
2006-2007 | 2007-2008 | 2008-2009 | 2009-2010 | 2010-2011
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010
MINING AND MAPPING THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: REFUTING THE INEVITABILITY OF THE RESOURCE CURSE
12:15 – 1:10 pm
JGH 105
This presentation will discuss the Human Rights Clinic’s work over the past year in crafting tools to support civil society efforts to address mining issues in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This project aims to facilitate transparency in the mining sector by examining relevant legislation and contracts, considering tax and revenue issues, and identifying the sector’s key social concerns, including the relationship between industrial mining companies and artisanal mining communities.
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010
HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS ON THE BORDER OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
12:15 – 1:10 pm
JGH 103
The Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic has been actively involved in issues surrounding the treatment of Haitians and persons of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic for over a decade. Recent advocacy work has revolved around human rights abuses in the Dominico-Haitian border region and the establishment of a new Dominican border security force with support from the U.S. government. Come listen to Human Rights Clinic students discuss a human rights field work and factfinding trip to the Dominico-Haitian border in the months following the tragic Haitian earthquake of January 12.
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TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010
TOWARDS A GLOBAL BAN ON EXECUTING CHILDREN: WORLDWIDE PROGRESS IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS
12:15 – 1:10 pm
JGH 107
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court ruled that executing juvenile offenders (those who were under 18 when the crime was committed) violates the 8th Amendment of the Constitution. Activists noted that the United States was, at the time, one of only six countries that executed juvenile offenders. The others were Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Sudan.
While the decision in Roper was justly praised, there has been little follow-up on the practices of the other five countries. Through extensive international research, in collaboration with Human Rights Watch, members of the Human Rights Clinic have documented cause for cautious optimism in two of the countries, and evidence of continued human rights violations in others, despite denials from official sources. In addition, the Clinic has identified a number of nations that have sentenced children to death, even if they have not carried out the sentence.
Come hear clinic students present their findings, which will be published in an upcoming Human Rights Watch report.
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24
AMERICA INDICTED: NATIONAL SECURITY LITIGATION IN THE AGE OF OBAMA
Jerome Greene Hall 104
5:00 – 7:00 pm, Reception to Follow
Surveillance on U.S. citizens, extraordinary renditions and torture in U.S. detention facilities. For the last decade, litigators have faced serious hurdles to challenging these practices in U.S. courts, including invocation of the state secrets privilege, immunity provisions and expanded executive powers. As the Obama administration enters its second year, has the government changed course? Or do litigators face the same, recalcitrant challenges as under the Bush administration?
Leading counterterrorism litigators Steven Watt (ACLU), Katherine Gallagher (Center for Constitutional Rights) and Baher Azmy (Seton Hall) will discuss the evolution of their work on cases of national importance.
Part of the “Counter-Terrorism in the Age of Obama: Is There Still 'Hope' for Human Rights?” Speakers Series
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MONDAY MARCH 22, 2010
Advancing the Right to Education in Columbia
PROFESSOR SITAL KALANTRY
Cornell International Human Rights Clinic
Jerome Greene Hall 107
12:15 – 1:10 pm
HRI is pleased to present a talk by Professor Sital Kalantry, Associate Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School. Professor Kalantry will discuss Colombia’s international and regional obligations relating to the right to education, her work with local partners in Colombia to implement international human rights norms relating to the right to education, and her scholarly work on using indicators to enhance compliance with the right to education. In March 2008, Professor Kalantry testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in a thematic hearing on the right to education for minorities in the Americas. Subsequently, clinic students made a presentation in the Colombian Senate Building on Colombia’s international and regional obligations relating to the right to education. Most recently, in September 2009, together with local and international partners, her clinic organized a conference in Bogota and Cali in an effort to advance the right to education. Finally, in October 2009, she submitted an amicus brief in the Constitutional Court of Colombia challenging Colombia’s failure to provide free primary education in a case developed in her clinic.
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MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2010
National Security & "The Foreigner": The Impact of Counterterrorism Laws on Immigrant Communities
Part of the Counterterrorism in the Age of Obama Speakers Series
Jerome Greene Hall 102
6:00 – 8:00pm
The Human Rights Institute presents an evening panel on the intersection of national security and immigration in the United States. Since 9/11, immigrant communities have been profoundly affected by efforts to identify, detain and deport terrorism suspects. Broadly worded anti-terrorism provisions in immigration laws have permitted the deportation of asylum-seekers and other immigrants with no ties to terrorism, while material witness law and various policies have resulted in the prolonged detention of immigrants without charge. Leading immigration litigators and advocates Lee Gelernt (ACLU), Anwen Hughes (Human Rights First), Bryan Lonegan (Seton Hall) and an community organizer from New York City-based Families for Freedom will discuss the critical need to halt the mis-use of counterterrorism laws and address civil liberties and human rights concerns.
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2010
The Human Face of Counterterrorism: Letta Tayler, Researcher at Human Rights Watch
Jerome Greene Hall 940
12:15-1:10 PM
HRI presents a lunch time conversation with Letta Tayler of Human Rights Watch. Letta researches abuses stemming from terrorist acts and counterterrorism tactics abroad, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. She has conducted field research for Human Rights Watch on al Qaeda in Yemen, abuses of Muslim terrorism suspects in India, and the rise of the militant group al Shabaab in Somalia. Before joining the Terrorism/Counterterrorism Program in October 2008, Tayler was a journalist for more than two decades, most recently at Newsday, where she covered events including the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the bombings of Tora Bora, the London subway attacks and the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Tayler was one of the first reporters to detail allegations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and has written extensively about detainees at Guantánamo. A former rock music critic, she also has profiled stars from Lou Reed to Britney Spears. Tayler speaks Spanish, French and Italian. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Barnard College and lives with her husband in Brooklyn.
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2010
THE BATTLE OF DURBAN II: ISRAEL, PALESTINE & THE UNITED NATIONS
HRI & Rightslink Film Screening
Jerome Greene Hall 103
6:00 – 8:00pm
HRI and Rightslink are pleased to present a screening of the recent documentary film THE BATTLE OF DURBAN II: ISRAEL, PALESTINE & THE UNITED NATIONS (www.thebattleofdurbanii.com). The screening will be followed by a panel and Q&A session with Columbia Law School Professor Ted Shaw and the film’s director Rory O’Connor.
Instead of considering genocide in Darfur, ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, the plight of Dalit "outcastes" in South Asia, the status of homosexuals and women, or other examples of racism and discrimination worldwide, each conference (the first, at the turn of the century, in Durban, South Africa; the second in 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland) instead devolved into disarray and discord, charges and counter-charges, with Palestinian sympathizers denouncing Israel as a "racist, apartheid state" and supporters of Zionism responding with allegations of anti-Semitism and UN "demonization" of Israel.
The documentary features an incendiary appearance by controversial Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which led to strident protests and a walkout by the European Union -- as well as interviews with top UN officials and Ambassadors, key representatives of civil society, leaders in the America's human rights, Jewish, African-American and progressive communities, and victims of racism around the world.
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MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2010
Torture Then and Now: Lessons Learned from the Brazilian Experience and the Work of Amnesty International
12:15 – 1:10pm
Columbia Law School, Jerome Greene Hall 546
HRI is please to present a lunch time conversation on anti-torture advocacy strategies in the U.S. and Brazil with Jessica Carvalho Morris, Amnesty International USA board of directors member and Director of the International and Foreign Graduate Programs at the University of Miami School of Law.
Ms. Morris is originally from Brazil, where she earned a Bacharel em Direito degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte before earning a J.D. degree cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law. Since January 2004, she has been the coordinator for the Miami Chapter of Amnesty International. She also co-chairs the Civil Rights Committee of the Florida Bar and is a member of the board for the Florida International University Women's Center Advisory Council. Ms. Morris has published and lectured on international human rights and aspects of Brazilian and American constitutional law.
Ms. Morris’s talk will focus on the current administration’s position on torture and Guantanamo and on how Amnesty International’s work regarding these issues has evolved. She will draw from her personal experiences in the Brazilian context, and will discuss lessons learned from the use of torture in Brazil in the 1970s.
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2010
Careers in Human Rights: Bede Sheppard, Researcher, Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch
Jerome Greene Hall 502
12:15-1:10pm
HRI is pleased to present a lunch time talk with Columbia Law School alum Bede Sheppard. Bede graduated with a J.D. in 2005 and is the Asia-Pacific researcher in the children’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. Bede will discuss his career trajectory and his work at Human Rights Watch, which includes research and advocacy on child domestic labor and attacks on schools in armed conflict. For Human Rights Watch he has conducted field investigations and advocacy in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Previously, he has worked for the United Nations refugee agency in Croatia, and as a litigator on human rights cases in the United States and South Africa.
Part of the Careers in Human Rights Speakers Series.
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2010
“The Maguindanao Massacre”
Jessica Evans, Asia Division of Human Rights Watch
Jerome Greene 602
1:15-2:15pm
HRI presents a special lunch time conversation on the November 23, 2009 “Maguindanao massacre” with Jessica Evans, who works on the Philippines for the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. With the May 2010 elections fast approaching, international and domestic awareness of political killings raised by the Maguindanao massacre in which 57 people were killed, and one of the most powerful and abusive families from central Mindanao removed from office, the next six months provides human rights advocates with a unique opportunity to push for systemic reforms to address extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. During this talk, she will look at the underlying causes of the Maguindanao massacre, the failures of the central government that allowed it to occur, and the inadequacy of the central government’s response to this mass killing. She will also look at the problem of political killings more broadly in the Philippines and consider the Philippine government’s ongoing failure to effectively investigate these killings and prosecute perpetrators.
Prior to joining Human Rights Watch Jessica was a human rights lawyer in Fiji, monitoring human rights violations since the 2006 coup d’état and advocating for accountability and reform. Previously, Jessica has held a range of legal positions in Western Australia. Jessica obtained her BA (Politics and International Relations) and Law degree (Hons.) at Murdoch University in Western Australia. A Fulbright scholar, she obtained her Masters in Law focusing on human rights law at Columbia University. Upon graduation she was awarded the Henkin-Stoffel Human Rights Fellowship.
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2009
The Human Rights Institute & Rightslink: A CONVERSATION ON THE FUTURE OF SUDAN
The Human Rights Institute and Rightslink are pleased to present an in-depth lunch time conversation on the future of Sudan with Human Rights Clinic Professor Peter Rosenblum and Ms. Marti Flacks, North-South Team Leader in the Office of the US Special Envoy to Sudan at the U.S. Department of State.
Ms. Flacks’s work focuses on implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, elections, and preparations for the 2011 referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan and planning for post-referendum scenarios. She came to the Department through the Presidential Management Fellows program, after graduating with a Masters Degree in international affairs from the Fletcher School and a JD from Columbia Law School.
While in graduate school, Ms. Flacks focused on rule of law issues, such as natural resource revenue transparency in Sao Tome & Principe and Liberia. She has also worked for the UN Office of Legal Affairs, the South African Human Rights Commission, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, among other places. She received her Bachelors Degree in international politics from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and is originally from Solon, Ohio.
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009
The Right to Strike for Public Sector Workers in New York State: New York City Transit Workers in Global Context
4:00 - 6:30 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 102
Please join Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute, a distinguished panel of international experts, and local and state leaders, as we discuss the prohibition of public sector strikes in New York State and analyze alternative frameworks that could balance rights and order.
Background:
When NYC Transit Workers went on strike, after contract negotiations ground to a halt in December 2005, they were severely penalized under New York State's "Taylor Law." The law, which prohibits public sector strikes, is justified on the grounds that public health and safety will be imperiled if police, firefighters, sanitation workers and others in the public sector have the right to stop work. Unions point out however that the current system is broken, and that binding arbitration - which was intended to serve as a substitute for the right to strike - has simply not served its purpose.
This event asks: Can we envision a system for New York State that balances workers' rights and public order? Experts in public sector labor relations from around the world, as well as prominent state and local leaders, will offer their analysis.
Moderator: Professor Mark Barenberg, Columbia Law School
Panelists: Ramapriva Gopalakrishnan, Lawyer, Madras High Court; Claude Melancon, Lawyer, Melancon, Marceau, Sciortino and Grenier in Montreal; Professor Tonia Novitz, Bristol University School of Law; Professor James Pope, Rutgers Law School; Professor Cruz Reynoso, UC Davis Law School and former Justice of the California Supreme Court; Roger Toussaint, President of the Transport Workers Union, Local 100
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009
HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERIENCES: AN EVENING PANEL WITH HUMAN RIGHTS LLMS
7:00 - 8:30 PM, reception/mixer to follow
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 106
The Human Rights Institute, Columbia Rightslink, and the Graduate Legal Studies office are proud to present an evening panel with a selection of LLM students who worked in human rights prior to coming to Columbia. Join us for presentations on women’s rights in Malaysia, protection of children on the internet, refugee and immigrants rights, and protection of minority groups in Europe.
Panelists: Zarizana Abdul Aziz, Malaysia; Sandra Atler, Sweden; Marian Mandache, Romania; Sergio Suiama, Brazil; Njoya Tikum, Cameroon
Moderator:Sylvia Polo, Dean of Graduate Legal Studies; Introduction by: Peter Rosenblum, Lieff, Cabraser Clinical Professor in Human Rights
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009
Traditional Values and Traditional Practices: A Whole Bag of Badness?
12:15 - 1:10 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 105
The Human Rights Institute is pleased to present acclaimed novelist and former Botswana High Court Judge Unity Dow. She is a visiting professor at Columbia Law School and was the first woman appointed to Bostwana’s High Court. During her time at the Court, Dow heard civil and criminal appeals from magistrate, customary courts and sat as a court of first instance (trial) on capital and constitutional cases. She retired in April 2009. Dow is also a human rights activist, and co-founded various organizations for HIV/AIDS awareness and women’s rights, such as Aids Action Trust and Metlhaetsile Women’s Information Centre. She was the plaintiff in The Attorney General of The Republic of Botswana vs. Unity Dow (the Citizenship Case), which allowed the children of women by foreign nationals to be considered Batswana. In this talk Justice Dow will the tensions between conforming to and respecting traditional values while also respecting and adhering to international human rights standards.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009
Columbia Law School Guinea Alliance presents: Civil Unrest and Violent Response: Bearing Witness to the Atrocities in Guinea
Wednesday, October 28
12:10-1:10pm
JG 101
Panelists:
• Peter Rosenblum: Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein Clinical Professor in Human Rights and Faculty Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute.
• Unity Dow: Visiting professor at Columbia Law School, and the first woman appointed to Botswana’s High Court. Professor Dow is also a human rights activist, and co-founded various organizations for HIV/AIDS awareness and women’s rights.
• Abdourahamane Barry: Guinean activist from the Association of Guineans for the Promotion of Democracy
Columbia Law Guinea Alliance is a group formed by students to condemn the recent atrocities in Guinea.
Since the military junta illegitimately seized power, it has hired foreign mercenaries, killed scores of unarmed civilian protestors, and used rape as a weapon of political oppression.We draw the attention of Columbia University to these crimes and further appeal to the larger international community to take heed of these atrocities.
Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Institute
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2009
JESSICA GONZALES V. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
12:15 - 1:30 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 940
The Human Rights Institute is pleased to present a lunch time panel on the case Jessica Gonzales v. United States of America, filed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of Jessica Lenahan (formerly Jessica Gonzales) by Columbia’s Human Rights Clinic and the ACLU. Ms. Lenahan is the first U.S. domestic violence victim to bring a legal challenge against the U.S. for its response to violence against women before an international human rights body. She filed the international case after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her due process claims against the local police for failing to enforce a domestic violence restraining order in Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005). The discussion will focus on the significant challenges, themes, and tactics involved in litigating the case in the U.S. and before the Inter-American Commission. A decision from the Commission is expected in late 2009.
Panelists:
•Jessica Lenahan, Human Rights Clinic client
•Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, Clinical Staff Attorney and Lecturer-In-Law, Human Rights Clinic
•Katherine Franke, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Gender and Sexuality Law
•Ariela Dubler, Professor of Law
•Elizabeth Scott, Harold R. Medina Professor in Procedural Jurisprudence and Vice Dean
•Gillian Metzger, Professor of Law
Co-sponsored by: Amnesty International | Black Law Students Association | Center for Gender and Sexuality Law | Columbia Law Women’s Association | Domestic Violence Project | Rightslink.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2009
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
The Human Rights Institute and the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment present a lunch time conversation with Professor Peter Rosenblum and Peter Eigen, Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The EITI is a multi-stakeholder coalition that promotes transparency of company payments and government revenues in resource-rich countries. Rosenblum and Eigen will discuss the current status of EITI, the successes and obstacles of EITI's multi-stakeholder process, and the new challenges EITI faces as it prepares for the first wave of validated countries in early 2010.
Eigen has worked in economic development for 25 years, mainly as a World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America. In 1993, Eigen founded Transparency International (TI), an NGO promoting transparency and accountability in international development. In 2006, Eigen became Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). He is also on the board of the NGOs Kabissa, building the capacity of African non-profits, and the Center for International Environmental Law, providing environmental legal services. Since 2007, Eigen has been a member of Kofi Annan's Africa Progress Panel. In 2009, he joined the Management Board of the African Legal Support Facility of the African Development Bank.
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2010
Litigating in the European Human Rights System
12:15 - 1:10 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 105
The Human Rights Institute presents a lunch time talk with Professor Andrea Saccucci on the European human rights system. Professor Saccucci will discuss the differences between the European and American systems, as well as his work as a litigator before the European Court of Human Rights and UN committees. He is a Researcher and Adjunct Professor of International Law at the University of Naples II and Adjunct Professor of International Protection of Human Rights at the University of Urbino in Italy. He received his degree in law from the LUISS University of Rome. Professor Saccucci focuses on human rights protection, public and private international law, EC/EU law, transnational corporate law and arbitrations. He is one Italy’s leading litigators of individual and collective cases before the European Court of Human Rights and other international and national human rights bodies. In 2000, he was appointed as an expert by the Council of Europe and the OSCE on training activities and fieldwork for lawyers, judges, prosecutors and ombudsman throughout Europe (especially in the Western Balkans and Eastern European countries).
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010
The Right to Food and the Political Economy of Hunger
Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
12:15 - 1:10 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 104
The Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School is pleased to present a lunch time talk with Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. While we have spectacularly succeeded in raising levels of agricultural production during the 20th century, we have failed to combat hunger and malnutrition: over 1 billion people are hungry in the world, and more than 2 billion suffer from malnutrition. This talk will seek to examine the causes of hunger and discuss the role of the right to food—including accountability mechanisms—in combating it. We may not be able to legislate against hunger. But because hunger and malnutrition stem from discrimination and disempowerment of the poor, strengthening the legal entitlements of these victims is a first and vital step towards real change.
Mr. De Schutter is Professor of Law at the University of Louvain (UCL) and at the College of Europe (Natolin). He holds an LL.M. from Harvard University, a diploma cum laude from the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg) and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Louvain. He has taught at numerous universities in the UK, New York, France, Finland, Portugal, Benin and Puerto Rico. Prof. De Schutter is an expert on social and economic rights and on trade and human rights, who served between 2004 and 2008 as a Secretary General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). He was appointed Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food by the Human Rights Council in March 2008 and assumed his functions in May 2008.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2009
Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health
6:15 - 7:30 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 106
The Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School is pleased to present an evening conversation with Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.
Mr. Grover is a practicing lawyer in the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court of India. He is co-founder and Director of the Lawyers Collective in India where he has been a pioneer in the field of HIV and gay rights litigation, labor rights litigation and other areas. He was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health in June 2008 and took up his functions in August 2008.
Mr. Grover appeared in the first HIV case relating to the HIV activist Dominic D’Souza, the Lucy D’Souza case, challenging the isolationist Goa Public Health Amendment Act. Mr. Grover has also served as lead counsel in various public interest and human rights matters, including the first HIV case in India relating to employment law, the Bombay Pavement Dwellers case, several environmental cases including the Bhopal Gas Disaster case, various sexual harassment cases, and various animal rights cases. He has also acted as an advocate in many important cases regarding the right to marry and the rights of sex workers. He was most recently involved in successfully litigating the effective annulment of Penal Code Section 377 criminalizing homosexual sex between consenting adults in private. Mr. Grover filed the challenge to Section 377 on behalf of the Naz Foundation in Delhi High Court in 2001.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 **OFF CAMPUS**
Poverty and Welfare in the United States - A Human Rights Violation?
6:00 - 8:00 PM
The Association of the City Bar of New York
Stimson Room
42 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th avenues)
Open to the public.
A discussion by a panel of experts on poverty, welfare, and the application of human rights principles to issues of poverty and social welfare in the United States.
With: Catherine Albisa, Executive Director, National Economic and Social Rights Initiatitve; Martha Davis, Associate Dean and Professor, Northeastern University School of Law; Janet Gornick, Director of Luxembourg Income Study and Professor of Political Science & Sociology, CUNY-Graduate Center
For further information contact Risa Kaufman (risa.kaufman@law.columbia.edu).
To view the poster for the event, please click here.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010
Five to Rule Them All: David Bosco on the History of the UN Security Council
12:15 - 1:10 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 105
The Human Rights Institute is pleased to present David Bosco, Assistant Professor in the School of International Service at American University. Professor Bosco will discuss his recently released book Five to Rule Them All. From the Berlin Airlift to the Iraq War, the UN Security Council has stood at the heart of global politics. Five to Rule Them All tells the inside story of this remarkable diplomatic creation. Drawing on extensive research, including dozens of interviews with serving and former ambassadors on the Council, the book chronicles political battles and personality clashes as it opens the closed doors of its meeting room. What emerges is a revealing portrait of the most powerful diplomatic body in the world. In the lively, fast-moving, and often humorous narrative, Bosco illuminates the role of the Security Council in the postwar world, making a compelling case for the enduring importance of the five who rule them all.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
Human Rights and Detention
4:00 - 6:00 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 103
Reception to follow.
Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute and the ACLU's Human Rights Program are co-sponsoring a panel featuring Sir Nigel Rodley, whose book, Treatment of Prisoners Under International Law, was just published in its third edition. Nigel Rodley will provide opening remarks, discussing the importance of a human rights framework to protect the rights of those deprived of their liberty. Invited panelists will include David C. Fathi, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch, Scott Horton, contributing editor of Harper's Magazine & Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School, Mie Lewis, staff atorney for the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU, and Sunita Patel, staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights. They will then focus on the issues of detention in four different contexts, including prisoner's rights in the criminal justice system, immigration detention, prisoners in armed conflict (counter-terrorism) and juvenile detention, and the value that a human rights framework would provide in addressing rights violations in the United States. The panel will be held in conjunction with the fall meeting of the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers Network and followed by a reception.
Peter Rosenblum, Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein Clinical Professor in Human Rights and Faculty Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute (moderator); Sir Nigel Rodley, professor of law and Chair of the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex and member of the U.N. Human Rights Committee; David Fathi, Director, U.S. Program, Human Rights Watch; Scott Horton, contributing editor, Harper's Magazine and lecturer-in-law, Columbia Law School; Mie Lewis, staff attorney with the ACLU Women's Rights Project; Sunita Patel, staff attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
View the poster here.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2010
Contracts Confidential: Ending Secret Deals in the Extractive Industries
12:15 -1:15 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 940
Please join us for a lunch time conversation with Human Rights Clinic Professor Peter Rosenblum and Revenue Watch Fellow, Susan Maples, about their new report for the Revenue Watch Institute, Contracts Confidential: Ending Secret Deals in the Extractive Industries (Revenue Watch Institute). Maples and Rosenblum will discuss the background to their research, the conclusions and the implications for resource rich developing states.
Contracts between developing states and multinational corporations pose particular problems. They are commercial agreements that often have deep implications for the governments that enter them. In some ways they are more like treaties than contracts. In many contracts in the oil and mining ('extractive') sectors, for example, countries cede control of resources and people for decades; they freeze the application of national laws and take disputes away from local courts. From the perspective of commercial agreements—this may be perfectly reasonable. It would even be reasonable to keep the whole deal secret, which is exactly what happens most of the time. From the perspective of a treaty, the result would be absurd.
For the past several years, the Human Rights Institute has been involved in analyzing contracts and contracting in the extractive sectors. Students and fellows in the Human Rights Clinic have traveled to Peru, Liberia, Sao Tome e Principe, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo in collaboration with major NGOs and research institutions. We have worked with pro-bono lawyers and business students to study individual contracts and national practices.
One major problem confronted our work at all times: the widespread (but sometimes unsuccessful) effort to make contracts secret in the sector. The Revenue Watch Institute has just published our study of the phenomenon. It comes at a time when the campaign for transparency has been joined by elements of the World Bank, the IMF and other major institutions.
To download the report, please visit the Revenue Watch Institute site.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
Women's Link Worldwide: Promoting Gender Equality through the Development and Strategic Implementation of Human Rights Laws Worldwide
12:15 - 1:10 PM
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall 107
The Human Rights Institute is pleased to host a presentation by Women's Link Worldwide. Joining us will be Women's Link's Viviana Waisman, executive director and co-founder and Mónica Roa, program director.
Viviana is an attorney with a specialty in international human rights law. She holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a J.D. from Hastings College of Law. She also a holds a Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University. She has written policy papers and helped guide litigation for the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Federación de Planificación Familiar de España, and the United Nations Population Fund. Her publications include Bridging the Divide: Women's Access to Justice; Reproductive Rights 2000: Moving Forward (editor); and Women of the World Anglophone Africa: Laws and Policies Affecting their Reproductive Lives. Originally from Argentina, she resides in Madrid.
Mónica travels constantly, mostly in Europe and the Americas, promoting the exchange of ideas and strategies to promote and protect gender equality, and maintaining Women's Link's state-of-the-art global vision. Her publications include: "Bodies on Trial: Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Latin American Courts" (2002) and "What Role Can International Litigation Play in the Promotion and Advancement of Reproductive Rights in Latin America?" (in the Harvard Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, vol. 7, no. 1, 2003). She holds an LL.M. from NYU and a degree in law from the University of Los Andes, Bogotá. A native of Colombia, she resides in Bogotá.
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2010
Human Rights at Columbia Law School
12:10 - 1:10 PM
Jerome Greene Hall 105
The Human Rights Institute is pleased to present a lunch-time panel on planning your human rights trajectory at Columbia Law School. This annual panel, aimed primarily at first year law students, will introduce the many avenues for getting involved in human rights work and study at the law school. Panelists will discuss courses, pro bono and research opportunities, speaker series, student groups, journals, internships, and post-graduate fellowships.