This morning, the Summer Institute began with a presentation by Jason Cross on health and human rights. Soon to be a PhD in cultural anthropology, Jason is also a lawyer (Duke Law) and a veteran activist with experience in Europe and Latin America. He described health as a “gateway” human right and perhaps one of [...]
Posts under ‘Robin Kirk’
Outlawed
Christina Cowger from North Carolina Stop Torture Now gave a wonderful presentation to Duke University’s Summer Institute on Human Rights about the state’s role in extraordinary rendition and torture. She used this Witness video, which has footage of German citizen Khaled el-Masri recounting his experience being tortured in Morocco. It’s hard to watch. But more [...]
The story behind “Straight 18″ on child soldiers
Duke University’s Summer Institute on Human Rights was lucky enough to have Jo Becker speak today, about how she approaches advocacy and teaching. A long-time veteran of Human Rights Watch, she heads the Children’s Rights Division and is writing a book that collects stories of how advocates work for human rights around the world. She [...]
The Saville Inquiry
Thirty-eight years after the tragedy known as “Bloody Sunday” in Londonderry, a second official inquiry contains one crucial word: “innocent.” The thirteen men who died that day (another died of his wounds four months later) posed “no threat” and were engaged in no activity that would justify their shooting Prime Minister David Cameron said that [...]
Tipping point for sectarianism?
One of the most confusing things about Northern Ireland is the contrast between what people say they want and what is. For instance, a report was released yesterday asserting that 80 per cent of people polled in Northern Ireland would prefer to live in “mixed” neighborhoods: i.e. Protestants and Catholics together. Yet 90 percent of [...]
Wild Belfast
In a recent issue of The Nation, Ari Kelman writes about the quickening pace of extinction. Kelman writes that when Thomas Jefferson wrote his encyclopedic Notes on the State of Virginia, he believed that extinction was biologically impossible. Since God made the world, he thought, he would not let his creations vanish. There was no [...]
“Recreational rioting” in West Belfast
One of the most interesting phrases we learned about the conflict in West Belfast is “recreational rioting.” Daniel, who lives on the (Nationalist) Falls, is part of a mobile phone network that acts as rapid response to any trouble. If a neighbor reports stones thrown from the Shankill (Unionist) side, he’ll call his Unionist counterpart, [...]
Bearing Witness
Yesterday, I was included in a panel with James Dawes, who teaches literature at Macalester College. This was at Elon College, hosted by Safia Swimelar, who is teaching a human rights class and helping her students put on a performance of Ariel Dorfman’s Speak Truth to Power. Dawes’ book, That the World May Know: Bearing [...]
A friend shared with me Glenn Greenwald’s post on Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol’s sickening new ad campaign. Don your Hazmat suit, gloves, helmet and goggles and watch it here. In the ad, they describe Eric Holder’s Department of Justice as the “Department of Jihad.” Reason? The DOJ employs nine lawyers who previously represented Guantanamo detainees (including [...]
