2007 May 15

Announcement of Human Rights course development awards.

Read more about the Human Rights Curricula Incentive Grants here

2007 Apr 16

Application deadline for 2007 Scholars at Risk Internships.

Read more about the Scholars at Risk Internships here

2007 Apr 15

Deadline for submission of Human Rights course development proposals.

Read more about the Human Rights Curricula Incentive Grants here

2007 Apr 13

Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Play and Party

April 13, 2007 - Richard White Auditorium - Free and open to the Public

7 pm: PLAY - "What To Do With a Brick"

8 pm: Post-Performance COMMUNITY CONVERSATION

9-11 pm: RELEASE PARTY, in the Pink and Blue Parlours of the East Duke Building

2007 Apr 4

RASH, a highly acclaimed one woman solo play about Rwanda after genocide

Wednesday, April 4th, 7:30 pm at 136 Social Sciences Building, >>see map
For parking, please use the Bryan Center lot, >>see map

RASH is the story of a Scottish woman's trip to Rwanda as UN human rights observer, written performed by Jenni Wolfson and directed by Jen Nails. The play lasts one hour is free and open to the public. For more informaiton about the play see rashsolo.blogspot.com

"The best one person show I've ever seen" -- www.uncoolkids.com

The performance will be followed by a discussion with Jenni Wolfson facilitated by Duke's Center for Race Relations.

The event is free and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center, Duke Human Rights Consortium, Cultural Anthropology, International Law Society, Center for Race Relations.

2007 Mar 27

"Hometown Human Rights::
What 9/11 took from us and how to get it back" - Robin Kirk

Robin Kirk, coordinator of the Duke Human Rights Center, will draw on her experiences in South America, Turkey and North Carolina to speak on the subject of human rights.

Tuesday, March 27 at 7:30pm in the Perkins Library Rare Book Room at Duke University

Free and open to the public - Free parking on the quad in front of the Duke Chapel Fee parking at the Bryan Center lot, by Duke Chapel - A parking map is available at map.duke.edu

Her talk is part of the Engaging Faculty Series, which is sponsored by the Friends of the Duke University Libraries.

For more information, contact Ilene Nelson at ilene.nelson@duke.edu.

2007 Mar 27

"An End to Silence:
Ariel Dorfman Speaks on the Global Human Rights Struggle and Its Connection to Farmworkers"

Presenting his "Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark" video clip, (featuring an all-star cast, including Lorraine Bracco, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Wright Penn, Gloria Reuben, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, and Sigourney Weaver) and followed by live Latin music and dance.

7-9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27, at the Richard White Lecture Hall on Duke University's East Campus.

The event is sponsored by the Center for Documentary Studies' course "Who Cares & Why: Social Activism and Its Motivations" and cosponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center.

2007 Mar 21

First Annual Rev. Peter Storey Conversation
Truth and Reconciliation: Lessons of Caution and Promise from Greensboro and South Africa for Durham Free and open to the public

Wednesday March 21, 2-3:30 pm in Goodson Chapel, Duke Divinity School

Free and open to the public

Please contact Margaret Mathes (mmathes@div.duke.edu) or Catherine Admay (admay@duke.edu) for further information

Sponsored by COSA, the Concilium on Southern Africa, the Duke Divinity School, Duke Chapel, the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Working Group and the Duke Human Rights Center.

2007 Mar 19

"Human Rights and National Security Post 9/11"
Michael Posner: Sanford Inst. of Public Policy

Mon., March 19, 2007 - 5:30 p.m. Sanford Bldg., Rhodes Conference Room

Free and open to the public - A parking map is available at map.duke.edu

Contact: Allison Rosenstein, allison.rosenstein@duke.edu.

Co-sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center

2007 Feb 28

"Making It Matter: Contextualizing the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission"

Wednesdays at the Center
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 - Noon to 1:00pm
Room 240, John Hope Franklin Center

Allen Johnson, Greensboro News & Record; Joyce Johnson, Jubilee Institute of the Greensboro Beloved Community Center; Emmanuel Katongole, Duke Divinity School; Caroline Yezer, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Duke

Sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center & the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute

For more information, contact Christina Chia by phone at 919-668-1902 or by email.

2007 Feb 16

"Turkey Today: A Roundtable Discussion"

Friday, February 16, 4 pm-6pm, 133 Social Sciences.

Hakan Altinay, Director, Open Society Foundation, Turkey
Ayşe Gul Altinay, Cultural Studies Program, Sabanci University
Sibel Irzik, Cultural Studies Program, Sabanci University
Gurol Irzik, Philosophy Department, Boğazici University

A reception will follow the event.

Sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center.
For more information, contact Rocio Trinidad at ret6@duke.edu

2007 Feb 15

"The next Iran or the next Spain? Turkey at the crossroads,"
Hakan Altinay, executive director, The Open Society-Turkey

NOTE TIME: Noon-1:30 pm (lunch provided), free and open to the public - Franklin 240 (Franklin Humanities Center)

This talk is co-sponsored by the Duke University Center for International Studies and the Islamic Studies Center

2007 Feb 1

Sit in at the Sit in

Please join us to kick off Black History Month with a special screening of the documentary "February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four"

Von Canon A at the Bryan Center on Duke's West Campus
Noon-1 pm: Screening of "February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four"
Contact person is Gretchen Bellamy at gretchen.bellamy@law.duke.edu

1 pm-2 pm: Discussion with Cynthia Brown, Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner, principal consultant to The Sojourner Group, former Durham City Councilwoman, and a 2002 candidate for the US Senate.

2006 Nov 20

Discussion with Mandira Sharma, Human Rights Watch 2006 Global Award Recipient

6.00 pm - Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Room 05
Directions: www.jhfc.duke.edu/about/map.php

2006 Nov 14

Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report "Reading Club"

7:00-9:00 pm - John Hope Franklin Center, Room 130-131
Directions: www.jhfc.duke.edu/about/map.php
RSVP by Nov 12: dawn.peebles@duke.edu

Dinner provided

Open to all staff, graduate, faculty & undergraduate students
Blog: duke-greensboro.blogspot.com/
Although this is the third meeting of the GTRC Reading Club,
new members are encouraged to join.

2006 Oct 24

Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report "Reading Club"

7:00-9:00 pm - John Hope Franklin Center, Room 130-131
Directions: www.jhfc.duke.edu/about/map.php
RSVP by Oct 21: dawn.peebles@duke.edu

Dinner provided

Open to all staff, graduate, faculty & undergraduate students
Blog: duke-greensboro.blogspot.com/
Although this is the second meeting of the GTRC Reading Club,
new members are encouraged to join.

2006 Oct 17

A Conversation With Ben Majekodunmi
    United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
"UN roles and responsibilities in the context of ongoing human rights violations
     - confrontations with political will, sovereignty and capacity"

6.30 pm - Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Room 03

2006 Sep 28

Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report "Reading Club"

6:30-8:30 pm - John Hope Franklin Center, Room 028
Directions: www.jhfc.duke.edu/about/map.php

Dinner provided

Open to all staff, graduate, faculty & undergraduate students
RSVP by Sept 21: dawn.peebles@duke.edu

2006 Sep 21

"Against the Grain: An Artist's Survival Guide to Peru"
A documentary film

7:00-9:00 pm - Social Psychology 130 - West Campus

2006 Sep 21

Meet director Ann Kaneko
A lunch and conversation with Ann Kaneko

12:15-1:15 pm - Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies [www.duke.edu/web/las]

If you wish to attend, please RSVP to leigh.campoamor@duke.edu

2006 Sep 20

"Overstay"
A documentary film

7:00-10:00 pm - Richard White Auditorium - East Campus

2006 Aug 26

The Civil Rights Legacy of Duke and Durham
A Walking Tour for incoming Duke freshmen and their families

Please register through the orientation process for freshmen.

GTRC Report Play and Release Party - April 13, 2007 - Richard White Auditorium - Free and open to the Public

7 pm: PLAY - "What To Do With a Brick"
8 pm: Post-Performance COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
9-11 pm: RELEASE PARTY, in the Pink and Blue Parlours of the East Duke Building

The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission is Greensboro's most recent response to the events of November 3rd, 1979, and the first application of the Truth and Reconciliation model in the United States. Initiated in 2004 by Greensboro community members, the Commission issued its final report just last year. In Fall 2006, the GTRC Working Group formed as a group of faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students at Duke to discuss the meaning of the TRC in Greensboro and to bring attention in the broader Duke Community to this important process.

Written and directed by a Duke senior, the performance piece "What To Do With a Brick" will use the voices of various stakeholders in the process - from those whose stories make up the history being examined, to those with a hand in structuring and funding the commission itself. It operates at two levels, interspersing primary interviews and dialogue from the commission's hearings and the published report with an imagined exploration of the GTRC's longer-term impact.

The play will be followed by a reflection and community discussion about the long-term impacts of the report, featuring two of the commissioners, Angela Lawrence and Bob Peters, and the GTRC Executive Director, Jill Williams. Prof Catherine Admay of Public Policy will moderate.

Following the play and discussion, we invite you to joing us for a reception following the featuring music by famed gospel singer Mary Williams. Mix, mingle and enjoy food and wine compliments of the GTRC Working Group.

Sponsored by the GTRC Working Group, Critical US Studies Institute, the Concilium on Southern Africa (COSA), the Duke Human Rights Center, the Duke University Center for International Studies, and the Living Policy Forum

Directions to Richard White Auditorium on East Campus. - Where to Park - Parking in East Lot is free after 5 pm.

*For more about the GTRC Working Group, see the story in Duke Today

Tuesday, March 27, 7:30pm in the Perkins Library Rare Book Room at Duke University

Free and open to the public - Free parking on the quad in front of the Duke Chapel - Fee parking at the Bryan Center lot, by Duke Chapel - A map is available at map.duke.edu/?bid=7704

Robin Kirk, coordinator of the Duke Human Rights Center, will draw on her experiences in South America, Turkey and North Carolina to speak on the subject of human rights.

Kirk is the author of two books, most recently "More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs and America's War in Colombia." A long-time researcher for Human Rights Watch, she has also been a consultant to the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission and an investigator in capital punishment cases.

Her talk is part of the Engaging Faculty Series, which is sponsored by the Friends of the Duke University Libraries.

You can read about Robin Kirk's work on behalf of defendants charged with first-degree murder and defendants who are appealing death sentences in an award-winning essay published in the November 2005 issue of Glamour magazine. The essay, "Murderers I Have Known," has been reprinted online at http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2006/02/murderers.html.

Kirk's 29 June 2006 Charlotte Observer article, "Seeking Truth in Greensboro," appears at www.duke.edu/web/rightsatduke/writings3.html.

For more information, contact Ilene Nelson at ilene.nelson@duke.edu.

Presenting his "Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark" video clip, (featuring an all-star cast, including Lorraine Bracco, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Wright Penn, Gloria Reuben, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, and Sigourney Weaver) and followed by live Latin music and dance

Tuesday, March 27 7-9 p.m. Richard White Lecture Hall Duke University East Campus, 113 Campus Drive - Map: map.duke.edu/?bid=7213 - Free and open to the public

Sponsored by: Who Cares & Why: Social Activism and Its Motivations at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

Co-Sponsors: Duke Human Rights Center, Duke University Libraries, Durham Human Relations, El Pueblo, International House, Latino/a Studies at Duke, SURGE, UNC Center for the Study of the American South

Suggested Donation: $20 ($10 students)

For more info: Denise VanDeCruze, safinfo@duke.edu, 919-660-3652

Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean American novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist, and human rights activist. Dorfman has taught at Duke University since 1985, where he holds the Walter Hines Page Chair. His books, written both in Spanish and English, have been translated into more than 40 languages and his plays staged in over 100 countries. He has received numerous international awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award (for Death and the Maiden, which was made into a feature film by Roman Polanski). He has recently published a collection of journalism, essays and poetry in Other Septembers, Many Americas. He has been active in the defense of human rights for many years, and his play "Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark" has been performed around the world and used in hundreds of classrooms to celebrate the courage of human rights defenders against overwhelming odds.

Donations to benefit Student Action with Farmworkers (www.saf-unite.org), a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring students and farmworkers together to learn about each other's lives, share resources and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change.

This event is a part of Farmworker Awareness Week (FAW), a SAF-called, nationwide week of action for students and community members to raise awareness about farmworker issues on their campuses and in their communities.

The Concilium on Southern Africa at Duke University is pleased to invite you to attend The First Annual Rev. Peter Storey Conversation

March 21, 2-3:30 pm in Goodson Chapel, Duke Divinity School - Free and open to the public

• Rev. Peter Storey, Professor Emeritus of Duke Divinity School, former Methodist Bishop of South Africa, member of the selection committee for the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, advisor to the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Rev. Dr. William Barber II, President, NAACP-NC
• Cynthia Brown, Commissioner of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, principal consultant to The Sojourner Group, former Durham City Councilwoman, and a 2002 candidate for the U.S. Senate
• Moderated by: Jay Kameron Carter, National Humanities Center Fellow 2006-07, Assistant Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies

Sponsored by COSA, the Concilium on Southern Africa, the Duke Divinity School, Duke Chapel, the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Working Group and the Duke Human Rights Center.

Please contact Margaret Mathes (mmathes@div.duke.edu) or Catherine Admay (admay@duke.edu) for further information

Michael Posner, president of Human Rights First, has been at the forefront of the human rights movement for nearly 30 years.

In 2004, as executive director of Human Rights First, he launched the End Torture Now Campaign. The campaign challenges the U.S. policy framework that allows coercive interrogation techniques and unlimited, secret detention of those in U.S. custody.

After joining Human Rights First in 1978, Posner has become a national and international leader in the effort to protect refugees, advance a rights-based approach to national security, challenge crimes against humanity, and combat discrimination.

Contact: Allison Rosenstein, allison.rosenstein@duke.edu.

Co-sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center

In his work with OSI, Altinay has worked to expand civil initiatives in Turkey, promoting the country's accession to the European Union and greater respect for human rights. Altinay has also served as the Caspian and Black Sea Coordinator of International Research & Exchanges Board and the Asia and the Near East Director of Pathfinder International. In these positions, Altinay worked in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Viet Nam.

NOTE TIME: Noon-1:30 pm (lunch provided), free and open to the public - Franklin 240 (Franklin Humanities Center)

This talk is co-sponsored by the Duke University Center for International Studies and the Islamic Studies Center

February 1st, 2007 at Von Canon A at the Bryan Center on Duke's West Campus

Noon-1pm: Screening of "February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four"

1pm-2pm: Discussion with Cynthia Brown, Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner, principal consultant to The Sojourner Group, former Durham City Councilwoman, and a 2002 candidate for the US Senate.

LUNCH PROVIDED - FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Parking available near the Bryan Center - Map: map.duke.edu/
Contact person is Gretchen Bellamy at gretchen.bellamy@law.duke.edu

On February 1, 1960 dressed in their Sunday best, four 17 and 18 year old men sat down at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They were refused service. Within just a few days, students were sitting in at lunch counters in 54 cities around the South.

The movement to undo separate accommodations for blacks and whites hinged on the courageous acts of four college students that day, and became an important part of the Civil Rights Movement. On February 16, 1960 Martin Luther King came to Durham, in support of those sitting down at the Woolworths counter.

On November 3rd 1979 Klan and Nazi members killed five labor organizers at a rally. Twenty years later, in 1999, Greensboro made history by becoming the first community in the United States to employ the Truth and Reconciliation model, made famous in South Africa, as a way of addressing past wrongs and moving from a past of racial injustice and prejudice violence to a positive future that includes a collective ownership of the past.

Sponsored by The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report Working Group, duke-greensboro.blogspot.com

Co-Sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center, Duke Human Rights Coalition, The Living Policy Forum and The Concilium on Southern Africa

Each year, Human Rights Watch issues an award to an individual who has made a special contribution in the area of human rights in the face of great risk and challenges. This year, Mandira Sharma is the award recipient. Mandira is the founder of Advocacy Forum, a widespread network of human rights attorneys that have conducted investigations and filed cases on behalf of thousands of victims of human rights abuses during Nepal's 10-year civil war. Mandira's innovative, grassroots and volunteer-based model of human rights support has had a far-reaching impact on the international community, the national judiciary and administration, and at the village level. This ground-breaking activism, combined with her genuine humility and dedication, combine for an ideal model of human rights advocacy that is unparalleled in Nepal and elsewhere.

Since 1996, Nepali people have been caught in the brutal civil war between Maoist insurgents and the Nepali government, during which more than 13,000 Nepalis were killed, most of them by government troops. The Royal Nepali Army engaged in killing noncombatants, torturing prisoners, and illegally detaining more than 1,200 Nepalis, gaining Nepal the sorry distinction of having the highest number of reported "disappearances" in the world. The Maoists have forcibly recruited children as soldiers, engaged in public execution of their enemies and brutal torture of those they viewed as traitors or collaborators.

Sharma, who grew up in the remote western region of Nepal and was the first woman in her village to become a lawyer, founded Advocacy Forum in 2001. In the face of entrenched ineptitude and corruption in the Nepali court system, Sharma continues to file and win cases on behalf of victims who have been arbitrarily detained, tortured, and "disappeared."

"Mandira and her colleagues showed remarkable personal courage by standing up to forces with horrendous records of abuse," said Sam Zarifi, Asia Research Director for Human Rights Watch. "They faced the threat of personal persecution and physical violence, but never stopped their work on behalf of the Nepali people."

Sharma's visit to North Carolina provides an unprecedented opportunity to learn first-hand about the process of defending human rights and seeking peace while pursuing justice and accountability.

Human Rights Watch Press Release: hrw.org/english/docs/2006/11/02/nepal14398.htm

Sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center, the Duke Human Rights Consortium, the Duke International Law Society, the Human Rights Working Group, and the Sanford Program in International Development
Contact: Dawn Peebles, rights@duke.edu
Parking: parking.duke.edu

Mandira will also be speaking at the Duke Law School, time/date TBA and at UNC School of Law on Tuesday November 21, 12-1 pm, Room 4085. The discussions at the law school events will be focusing on mechanisms of international human rights law.

Just a fast half-an-hour down I-40 from Duke is Greensboro, famous in the American civil rights movement for the defiance the community showed in the face of racist laws and social practices. It was here that four university students - all first year students at NC A&T - sat down at the "whites-only" Woolworths lunch counter insisting on the right to be served lunch at the general store where they purchased all their school supplies. It touched off a campaign around the country of college student lunch counter sit-ins. At the time, Greensboro became a watchword for the determination of young people to change their world.

Greensboro is back in the limelight for another step its community has taken to change their world. Over the last 2 years it has hosted the first American experiment with a truth and reconciliation commission process. The TRC as an institutional framework for promoting conflict resolution and community reconstruction has been innovated upon since the 1980's. From Argentina to Zimbabwe, with varying levels of legitimacy and success, communities have sought to make peace with their histories of violence, corruption and large-scale criminality. In setting up the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission (GTRC), Americans have for the first time adapted a model made famous outside this country. This is an important moment for the US human rights movement: the GTRC actively learns from and credits the experience and ideas of other countries and it provides a possible model for other citizen-based movements in the United States and elsewhere.

What sparked the GTRC?: Almost 27 years ago, five people were killed in Greensboro by the KKK while assembling for a march to protest the Klan. That same day American hostages were seized in Teheran and very few people ever heard of the "Greensboro Massacre" or saw the TV tape clearly capturing tall bearded men opening fire on--and killing--marchers. What happened that day was never satisfactorily established despite the fact that there were three legal trials and a number of bereaved friends and widows pushing hard to get at the truth. Nor was there any reconciliation, whether at the micro level of the parties before the court, or at the macro level of the community of Greensboro at large. Fast forward 20 years: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa is holding hearings and producing a report, news of which reaches Greensboro. A number of citizen groups get together to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Greensboro. It would be the first TRC in the United States, an idea adapted from a model made famous outside our country. If it proved workable, it might have application in many other American communities - places like Oxford NC (about which Div. School Prof. Tim Tyson has written in Blood Done Sign My Name) and Tulsa, Oklahoma (the story of which our own Prof. John Hope Franklin has tried to tell in court pleadings as well as in a statutorily commissioned report).

Through a community-based process and with the help of the International Center for Transitional Justice that helped bring people associated with South Africa's TRC to Greensboro to consult with and encourage the process, a commission and staff was formed in 2004. It was their mandate to foster a process that would explore the truth around what happened before and after the day five people died in the streets. Community volunteers and partners rallied: There were three large public hearings in which every sort of interested party participated - the Klan, the fellow marchers, the cops, the widows, the kids from the neighborhood, the lawyers, the cameramen, the journalists, even one of the judges. There were many "listening" events and numerous arts-based mobilization efforts (film screenings, music galas, poetry readings). Over a year, the staff investigated and took statements and helped the Commission write a report.

At the end of May, a couple weeks after Duke's graduation, the Commission held a release ceremony in the Chapel of Bennett College (the alma mater of the student body president who was one of the marchers killed) to report on its findings. It asked the community to be a formal "receiver of the report." It would be up to the community, many speakers that night said, to "make something" of the report.

Is Duke part of that community? Three of the people killed in Greensboro were Duke-connected. Two were Duke Medical School graduates and one was a computer operator on the staff of Duke University. A number of people at the march had driven there from Durham. The issues at the time were thought to be relevant to all of NC. When the Commission was established, Duke Professor and former South African Bishop Peter Storey helped get it off the ground. Several Duke professors with specialties in the history of civil rights were asked to testify or give statements and others served as consultants. In the Fall of 2005 more than 50 graduate and undergraduate students joined a team to help the GTRC staff finish their investigation.

If Duke University wanted to make something of the report, what would that mean?
What would we do if a group of us came together to be an official report receiver?
We propose hosting a Working Group-come-Book Club that would get together to
-- read selections from the GTRC's report
-- engage with it in person and on a blog
-- act on it in some concrete way

It is our ambition to make this a collaborative group that includes students, faculty and staff. We'll have three meetings in the Fall, the first on Thursday Sept 28, over dinner.

For further information, contact Co-Convenors:
-- Catherine Admay (Visiting Prof of Public Policy and Steering Committee Member for the Duke Human Rights Center and the Concilium on Southern Africa) admay@duke.edu
-- Dawn Peebles (Duke Human Rights Center, Graduate Student in Cultural Anthropology) dawn.peebles@duke.edu
-- Scott Sorrell (Undergraduate Student in Cultural Anthropology and Art History) scott.sorrell@duke.edu
-- Anita Wright (Undergraduate Program Coordinator for Public Policy, graduate of NC-A&T/Greensboro and Duke University) anita.wright@duke.edu

6.30 pm - Sanford Institute of Public Policy - Room 03

Ben Majekodunmi's first position as a human rights officer was in Rwanda in 1994, where he arrived with the first UN human rights team one month following the April massacre. He has since worked in Burundi, Nepal, and most recently, Lebanon, where he has served as the UN's sole human rights presence in July and August, during the period of conflict. Upon returning to Geneva, he recently briefed the High Commissioner and served as the interim head of the High-Level Commission of Inquiry into the situation in Lebanon, established by the Human Rights Council on August 11. This event provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the successes, failures, and transitioning role of international human rights instruments based on the insights of an individual with 12 years of experience working as a human rights monitor for the United Nations.

Sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center, the Duke Human Rights Consortium, the Duke International Law Association, Duke Center for International Development/Sanford Institute of Public Policy and the Human Rights Working Group

Contact: dawn.peebles@duke.edu or rights@duke.edu - Parking Info: parking.duke.edu

7:00-9:00 pm - Social Psychology 130 - West Campus

This documentary is about how four artists in Peru struggle to maintain a voice under a repressive political regime. The stories of two artists, Alfredo Marquez and Claudio Jimenez, are particularly significant with regard to human rights. In 1994, Alfredo was wrongfully imprisoned for being a Shining Path sympathizer, and spent four years as a political prisoner. At the time, under Alberto Fujimori's presidency, he was not tried properly and was imprisoned based on circumstantial evidence. In 1998, he was pardoned by the government and released. Claudio was a victim of the violence in Ayacucho during the 1980s and fled to Lima to escape the turmoil. Although never imprisoned, he fell victim to the intimidation and torture of both the Shining Path and the police.
(a fuller description is available at www.annkaneko.com/againstthegrain/).

The film will be followed by a reception with refreshments and a discussion.

For more information, contact leigh.campoamor@duke.edu.

Co sponsored with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Duke Human Rights Center, the Asia/Pacific Studies Institute, the Department of Cultural Anthropology and the Asian and African Languages and Literature department.

12:15-1:15 pm - Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies [www.duke.edu/web/las/]
2114 Campus Drive

If you wish to attend, please RSVP to leigh.campoamor@duke.edu

Ann Kaneko is a Los Angeles-based independent filmmaker. "A Shortness of Breath," a candid documentary/narrative short film that chronicles her aunt's battle with breast cancer has been screened widely at film festivals in major cities and was honored with a Bronze Apple at the 1993 National Educational Film and Video Festival. In addition to her film work, Ann has produced several video documentaries. She directed a segment for Kansai Television on the Tonari no Gaipi series, dealing with Japanese Peruvians, working in Japan. Her 90-minute piece on Vietnam and her half-hour segment on Japanese cosmetology students living in Los Angeles were broadcast on Eisei Channel, a Tokyo cable station. Ann received an MFA degree in film production from UCLA.

For more, see www.annkaneko.com/overstay/crewbios.htm

7:00-10:00 pm - Richard White Auditorium - East Campus

This documentary is an intimate exploration of migrant workers seeking a better life in Japan. "Overstay" is that rare documentary that seamlessly combines personal narrative and social commentary. Leaving families, friends, and cultural identity behind, six young people share their unique stories: three men escape familial responsibilities in Pakistan for the opportunity to reinvent themselves; a young Peruvian flees tradition in search of her independence; an Iranian turns discrimination he encounters into passionate activism; and a Filipina woman is seduced by the promise of easy money, only to find herself demeaned as a hostess. Alive with the colors and sounds of modern-day Japan, "Overstay" is a compelling, vibrant film that captures the human side of a timely, universal issue. A tale of sacrifice, loneliness, and courage, "Overstay" deftly parallels the story of immigrants living in the U.S. while examining a little-seen side of Japan.
(A fuller description is available at www.annkaneko.com/overstay/).

The film will be followed by a reception with refreshments and a discussion with film director Ann Kaneko, Simon Partner (Department of History), and Noah Pickus (Associate Director, Kenan Institute for Ethics).

For more information, contact leigh.campoamor@duke.edu.

Co-sponsored with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Duke Human Rights Center, the Asia/Pacific Studies Institute, the Department of Cultural Anthropology and the Asian and African Languages and Literature department.

Explore Duke and Durham's Civil Rights legacy with a walking tour led by experts from Duke University's Human Rights Initiative and Preservation Durham. This exciting tour focuses on many of the sites in downtown Durham that were important during the 1950s and 60s Civil Rights movement, including the Durham County Courthouse, the Arts Center (originally Durham High School and later City Hall), and the Kress and Woolworth buildings, sites of sit-in protests. Learn about the contributions of ordinary Durham residents and Duke faculty and students to the struggle for equality as well as national leaders based in Durham, including Floyd McKissick, the national director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

Please register through the orientation process for freshmen. Space is limited, so sign up early. Participants need good walking shoes, sun block, water and umbrellas if it rains.

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