Human Rights Program

Human Rights Program

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What are human rights? How are human rights secured and protected? At the University of Chicago, research and teaching in human rights integrate exploration of the core questions of human dignity with critical examination of the institutions designed to promote and protect human rights in the contem…

The University of Chicago


    • Nov 1, 2012 LATEST EPISODE
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    • 28 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Human Rights Program

    The Transformation of Modern International Human Rights Regime

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2012 65:28


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Part of the series Human Rights: Ideas + Institutions, this lecture is by Professor Elizabeth Borgwardt, 2012 Richard & Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights at the University of Chicago and Associate Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis. Borgwardt is an acclaimed international law and human rights historian whose research focuses on human rights ideas and institutions. Borgwardt’s first book, A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights, was published in 2005 by Harvard University Press and received several awards, including the Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians.

    Constitutionalizing" Human Rights

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2012 74:06


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. This lecture is a part of the series “Human Rights: Ideas + Institutions” given by Professor Elizabeth Borgwardt, 2012 Richard & Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights at the University of Chicago and Associate Professor of History at Washington University in St Louis. Professor Borgwardt is an acclaimed international law and human rights historian whose research focuses on human rights ideas and institutions. Borgwardt’s first book, “A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights”, was published in 2005 by Harvard University Press and garnered the Merle Curti book award from the Organization of American Historians as the best book in the history of ideas, among other awards.

    Challenges in Combating Torture: A Conversation with Juan E. Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2012 73:40


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Juan Méndez discusses his work as UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in this public lecture.

    Reconnecting in the Aftermath of El Salvador's Civil War: The Joys and Challenges of Finding Family

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2012 80:08


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Margaret Ward, Emerita Professor, Wellesley College, is the author of Missing Mila, Finding Family: An International Adoption in the Shadow of the Salvadoran Civil War, the story of her son’s adoption from El Salvador and their later connection with his birth family through Asociación Pro-Búsqueda. Nelson Ward de Witt, Margaret’s son, is now a film-maker. He will present excerpts from Identifying Nelson/Buscando Roberto in which he tells the same story from his perspective. Asociación Pro-Búsqueda was founded by the late Dr. Robert Kirschner and Salvadoran colleagues to reunite Salvadoran families with children adopted abroad during the war years. It was a 1997 call from Dr. Kirschner to the de Witt-Ward family that set in motion this remarkable reunion.

    Rage Against the Machine: Torture, Bystanders, and the Failure of Journalism

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2011 77:06


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. The Robert H.. Kirschner, M.D., Memorial Human Rights Lecture "Rage Against the Machine: Torture, Bystanders, and the Failure of Journalism" with John Conroy: The Robert H. Kirschner, M.D., Memorial Human Rights Lecture series honors the life and work of Robert H. Kirschner, M.D., noted forensic pathologist and a founder of the University of Chicago Human Rights Program. Bio of speaker: John Conroy is the author of two books, Belfast Diary: War as a Way of Life and Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture. His writing has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Boston Globe, Mother Jones, Granta, the Village Voice, The Nation, and the Chicago Reader, and he is also the author of My Kind of Town, a play set against the backdrop of the Chicago police torture scandal, which he was instrumental in exposing. He now works as senior investigator for the Better Government Association, a Chicago-based, privately-funded, nonpartisan agency that investigates government misconduct, corruption, and waste. He lives in Oak Park with his wife and two children. This event is free and open to the public.

    The Confessions of a Special Rapporteur: the United Nations and the Search for Justice

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2011 90:00


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. April 20, 2011 A lecture series by Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Richard and Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights, University of Chicago, and Professor Emeritus in Sociology, El Colegio de México. Professor Stavenhagen has had a notable career in both the academy and in the protection of international human rights. He has been a member of the faculty of the Colegio de Mexico since 1965 and a visiting professor at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Paris. He has served as President of the Latin American network of social science research institutions FLACSO (Facultad LatinoAmericano de Ciencias Sociales) and on the board of the Social Sciences Research Council. He has received numerous recognitions for his academic work from institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In the field of human rights, in addition to his period as Special Rapporteur, he has served on various commissions for the United Nations and other international organizations including the International Labor Organization. He has served on the boards of many NGOs and has advised intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, and philanthropic foundations on the rights of the indigenous. He was a founding member and first President of Mexico's first human rights NGO, the Mexican Human Rights Academy, and has also served on the governmental Human Rights Commission.

    Are universal human rights for everybody? The Nation-State and the Vanishing Indians

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2011 83:50


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. A lecture series by Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Richard and Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights, University of Chicago, and Professor Emeritus in Sociology, El Colegio de México. Professor Stavenhagen has had a notable career in both the academy and in the protection of international human rights. He has been a member of the faculty of the Colegio de Mexico since 1965 and a visiting professor at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Paris. He has served as President of the Latin American network of social science research institutions FLACSO (Facultad LatinoAmericano de Ciencias Sociales) and on the board of the Social Sciences Research Council. He has received numerous recognitions for his academic work from institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In the field of human rights, in addition to his period as Special Rapporteur, he has served on various commissions for the United Nations and other international organizations including the International Labor Organization. He has served on the boards of many NGOs and has advised intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, and philanthropic foundations on the rights of the indigenous. He was a founding member and first President of Mexico’s first human rights NGO, the Mexican Human Rights Academy, and has also served on the governmental Human Rights Commission.

    Anti-Colonialism and the Struggle for Indigenous Rights

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2011 82:20


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. A lecture series by Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Richard and Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights, University of Chicago, and Professor Emeritus in Sociology, El Colegio de México. Professor Stavenhagen has had a notable career in both the academy and in the protection of international human rights. He has been a member of the faculty of the Colegio de Mexico since 1965 and a visiting professor at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Paris. He has served as President of the Latin American network of social science research institutions FLACSO (Facultad LatinoAmericano de Ciencias Sociales) and on the board of the Social Sciences Research Council. He has received numerous recognitions for his academic work from institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In the field of human rights, in addition to his period as Special Rapporteur, he has served on various commissions for the United Nations and other international organizations including the International Labor Organization. He has served on the boards of many NGOs and has advised intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, and philanthropic foundations on the rights of the indigenous. He was a founding member and first President of Mexico’s first human rights NGO, the Mexican Human Rights Academy, and has also served on the governmental Human Rights Commission.

    Drawings of Genocide: Darfur through the eyes of its children

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2010 62:13


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. In June and July of 2007 a Waging Peace researcher conducted a three week fact-finding mission in Eastern Chad about the crisis in Darfur. While collecting testimonies, she gave children aged 6-18 paper and pencils and asked them about their dreams for the future and their memories from the past. Drawings of Genocide is a collection of these children's drawings and testimonies, which depict memories of the shocking atrocities committed against these young witnesses. Waging Peace is a UK-based human rights organization which campaigns against the systematic human rights abuses and genocide in Darfur. The drawings are children's witness statements and have been accepted by the International Criminal Court as contextual evidence of the crimes committed in Darfur.

    Tock Tick: The Working of a Judge's Mind

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2010 60:32


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Justice Albie Sachs is the first Richard & Ann Silver Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights. He will be on theUniversity of Chicago's campus for a two-day residency on January 26 and 27, 2009, as a preview of his return toteach in the College in Winter 2010. Justice Albie Sachs' career in human rights activism started at the age of seventeen,when as a second year law student at the University of Cape Town, he took part in the Defiance of Unjust LawsCampaign. The bulk of his work at the Cape Bar involved defending people charged under racist statutes and repressivesecurity laws. After going into exile in 1966, he spent eleven years in England and eleven years in Mozambique as lawprofessor and legal researcher. In 1988 he was blown up by a bomb placed in his car in Maputo by South African securityagents, losing an arm and the sight of an eye. During the 1980s working closely with Oliver Tambo, leader of theANC in exile, he helped draft the organization's Code of Conduct, as well as its statutes. In 1990 he returned home andas a member of the Constitutional Committee and the National Executive of the ANC took an active part in the negotiationswhich led to South Africa becoming a constitutional democracy. After the first democratic election in 1994 he wasappointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court. In addition to his workon the Court, he has travelled to many countries sharing South African experience in healing divided societies. He hasalso been engaged in the sphere of art and architecture, and played an active role in the development of the ConstitutionalCourt building and its art collection on the site of the Old Fort Prison in Johannesburg.

    Prevention, Peacemaking and Transitional Justice

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2010 71:57


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Argentinean advocate Juan E. Mendez has devoted his career to the defense of human rights throughout the Americas. His work onbehalf of political prisoners of Argentina's military dictatorship in the 1970s resulted in his torture and administrative detention forover a year, during which time Amnesty International adopted him as a "Prisoner of Conscience."After his release in the late 1970s, Mr. Mendez helped found Human Rights Watch, becoming the organization's general counsel in1994. Mr. Mendez was the Executive Director of the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (1996-99) and Professorand Director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana (1999-2004). He was Argentina'srepresentative on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States from 2000-2003,serving both as Special Rapporteur on Migrants and as President. In July 2004, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan appointedhim as a Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide. He currently serves as the President of the International Center onTransitional Justice.

    Neoliberalism's Global Workforce: The End of a Dream?

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2010 86:13


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. The neo-liberal ideology of economic efficiency and shared prosperity masks the exploitation of labor on a global scale, backed by the political and military power of the sole super-power. The neo-liberal dream is dualistic: a cosmopolitan, mobile world for elites; a world of barriers, exploitation and security controls for the rest. How has this dream stood up to the shock of the economic crisis? Long-term economic, social and demographic factors make it likely that migrants will not be willing to leave destination countries, even in the event of job-loss and reduced income. Migrants have developed forms of collective resistance (through social movements) and individual and community resistance through livelihood strategies that undermine top-down migration management. The crisis may well give added impetus to the shift from a mono-polar form of globalization, to a multi-centred one, in which new economic powers will play a much greater role. Stephen Castles is Research Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney and Associate Director of the International Migration Institute (IMI), University of Oxford. He is a sociologist and political economist, and works on international migration dynamics, global governance, migration and development, and regional migration trends in Africa, Asia and Europe. His recent books include: The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (2009); Migration, Citizenship and the European Welfare State: A European Dilemma (2006); and Migration and Development: Perspectives from the South (2008). This event is the first in the 2010-2011 series of events entitled Migrant Rights in an Age of Globalization, which will culminate in a symposium at the School of Social Service Administration on April 12-13, 2011. This lecture is sponsored by the University of Chicago Human Rights Program, the Undergraduate Program in International Studies, the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT), and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture.

    The Practice of Human Rights: The Next Generation Speaks

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2010 62:24


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. To mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, the University of Chicago Human Rights Program will present a teach-in on Thursday, November 20, 2008. Chicago faculty and students will present historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives on the context and legacy of the UDHR.

    The United States, Chicago, and Global Rights Talk in the 1940s

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2010 67:00


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. To mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, the University of Chicago Human Rights Program will present a teach-in on Thursday, November 20, 2008. Chicago faculty and students will present historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives on the context and legacy of the UDHR.

    Keynote Address

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2010 40:02


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. To mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, the University of Chicago Human Rights Program will present a teach-in on Thursday, November 20, 2008. Chicago faculty and students will present historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives on the context and legacy of the UDHR.

    Introduction & Welcome

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2010 11:28


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. To mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, the University of Chicago Human Rights Program will present a teach-in on Thursday, November 20, 2008. Chicago faculty and students will present historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives on the context and legacy of the UDHR.

    Conversation

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2010 31:39


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. To mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, the University of Chicago Human Rights Program will present a teach-in on Thursday, November 20, 2008. Chicago faculty and students will present historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives on the context and legacy of the UDHR.

    Literature and Individual Sovereignty

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2010 54:54


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. This lecture series honors the life and work of Robert H. Kirschner, M.D., noted forensic pathologist and a founder of the University of Chicago Human Rights Program. The 2010 Lecture by Aleksandar Hemon is titled "Literature and Individual Sovereignty".

    The New Reality of Mexico-US Migration

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2010 97:13


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. A presentation by Douglas Massey with comments from Hon. Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, Artemio Arreola, and Xóchitl Bada.

    Social and Economic Rights as Fundamental Human Rights

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2010 98:19


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Albie Sachs, Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, delivers a lecture entitled, "Social and Economic Rights as Fundamental Human Rights"

    Does the Law Have a Sense of Humor?

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2010 42:19


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Albie Sachs, Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, delivers a lecture entitled, "Does the Law Have a Sense of Humor?"

    Punitive Justice vs. Restorative Justice

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 27, 2010 81:51


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Albie Sachs, Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, delivers a lecture entitled, "Punitive Justice vs. Restorative Justice"

    Terrorism, Torture and the Rule of Law

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 27, 2010 87:19


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Albie Sachs, Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, delivers a lecture entitled, "Terrorism, Torture and the Rule of Law"

    Collateral Damage: Human Rights and US Foreign Policy in the 21st Century

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2009 50:03


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Samantha Power's book, A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. She was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia as a reporter for U.S. News and World Report, The Boston Globe and The Economist.

    Truth, Lies, and Duct Tape

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2009 61:30


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Sara Paretsky is the author of the bestselling V. I. Warshawski novels, including, most recently, Fire Sale and Blacklist. She is the winner of many awards, including the Cartier Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement from the British Crime Writers Association. This lecture series honors the life and work of Dr. Robert Kirschner, noted forensic pathologist and international human rights activist, who was a founder of the University of Chicago Human Rights Program.

    Human Rights Alumni Weekend Interviews: Jacob Haar

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2009 5:23


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Former students of the Human Rights Program at The University of Chicago talk about their experience in the program. They talk about their Human Rights Internships and how those have impacted their lives.

    Human Rights Alumni Weekend Interviews: Rohini Jonnalagadda

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2009 3:32


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Former students of the Human Rights Program at The University of Chicago talk about their experience in the program. They talk about their Human Rights Internships and how those have impacted their lives.

    Human Rights Alumni Weekend Interviews: Ben Kolak

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2009 9:19


    If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Former students of the Human Rights Program at The University of Chicago talk about their experience in the program. They talk about their Human Rights Internships and how those have impacted their lives.

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