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 [...]
Posts under ‘Duke University’
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, [...]
Preserving a human rights history
An effort at Duke I’m really proud of is the Archive for Human Rights, run by Patrick Stawski. We’re collecting the institutional papers of (primarily) US-based human rights groups. We;re also looking for private collections, like the one held by Coletta Youngers, for many years (and counting) a human rights advocate on the Andes, in [...]
Michael Tigar on human rights
Mike Tigar resently joined Duke’s law faculty and is on the Duke Human Rights Center steering committee. This is his talk before the election: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT56wVUt5Ho[/youtube]
Caught in the Middle, Called a Traitor
A student at Duke University, Grace Wang has become embroiled in a controversy stemming from the vigil held last week to bring attention to human rights violations in Tibet. Her story, published today in the Washington Post, underscores the passions involved as well as the dangers of speaking out. She tells her story beautifully, so [...]
Tibet vigil at Duke University
Although there were many more counterprotestors than protestors, today’s vigil, organized entirely by students, was a big success. Some pictures follow. More are available at Flickr.
Abortion: a human right?
This week, my “Human Rights Activism” class welcomed Verónica Cruz Sánchez, a human rights activist from Guanajuato, Mexico. With Las Libres, the group she helped found, Cruz works not only to stop domestic and sexual violence, but specifically and energetically to guarantee access to safe abortion as a human right for all women. Key human [...]
Bush’s brain meets opposition
Waterboarding Originally uploaded by FabiolaPal Protestors outside and in Duke University’s Page Auditorium met Karl Rove’s visit with a reminder of what the Bush Administration has done to human rights. One person simulated the torture technique known as “waterboarding,” when a captive is drowned just short of death. Inside the auditorium, Rove fielded soft ball [...]
The New Germans
Christina Cowger, Maher Arar and Steve Watt Originally uploaded by FabiolaPal On September 26, the Duke Human Rights Center sponsored an event called “Unheard Voices in the ‘war on terror,’” featuring Canadian Maher Arar (seen on live video from the University of Ottawa, left) who was subjected to extraordinary rendition in 2002. To summarize, Arar [...]
