2010 Advocate Andrea Nuila announced:

“ I'm proud to say that Hollaback Honduras has finally made it to the international media. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqmqdMDKdtc&feature=player_embedded.” Andrea and other 2010 advocates met Hollaback as part of HRAP’s networking program.

Humanity, volume 2 issue 1, coedited by ISHR board members Samuel Moyn and Joseph Slaughter was published this month. The issue features a dossier on piracy, which includes an interview as well as related contributions from Daniel Heller-Roazen, Roland Marchal, and Mateo Taussig-Rubeo; also appearing are pieces by Brigitte Sion, Isaie Dougnon, Nick Heavican, Fabian Klose, and Jean L. Cohen.

Humanity is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to publishing original research and reflection on human rights, humanitarianism, and development in the modern and contemporary world. An interdisciplinary enterprise, Humanity encourages relevant contributions from anthropology, economics, law, literature, history, philosophy, politics, public health, and sociology, as well as those contributions which seek to foster intersections between and among these disciplines.

At a brown bag discussion on April 20, 2011, ISHR Visiting Scholar Katja Kurz presented her research on the use of autobiographical narratives in human rights activism.  Ms. Kurz’s work explores case studies of autobiographies that have achieved significant transnational media impact and that are embedded in thematic campaigns on women’s, children’s, indigenous peoples’, and prisoner’s rights.

Bearing in mind that human rights advocates stress the importance of literature and the arts alongside legal efforts in legitimizing the idea of human rights, Ms. Kurz contextualized how genres of life writing, and autobiography in particular, have become established vehicles for testimony that many activists utilize as a transnational currency to gather public support for their work. She found that NGOs have been creative in exploring new ways of using life narratives in their campaigns, incorporating innovations in audiovisual technology and social networking.

2010 Advocate Andrea Nuila has been appointed to the Honduras Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

2008 Advocate Peter Mulbah of Liberia has been appointed by the Office of the President of Liberia to serve as civil society representative to the National Climate Change Steering Committee of Liberia.

On April 7, 2011, The School of  International and Public Affairs- Human Rights, the Institute of the Study for  Human Rights, the Institute for African Studies, and the Human Rights Program  at Barnard College invited Sierra Leonean human rights activist John Caulker, conflict  resolution educator Libby Hoffman, and journalist Sara Terry to talk about the  amazing story of an African journey in forgiveness.

A 2007 human rights advocate at Columbia’s Institute for the  Study of Human Rights (ISHR), John, like thousands of  ordinary people in Sierra Leone, knew the reconciliation process in his country  was doing little to heal the real wounds of the civil war that plagued the  country from 1991-2002. By 2007, millions of dollars had gone into a Special  Court that was prosecuting nine men; and the Truth and Reconciliation Committee  – while it served to help catalogue the broader story of the war – never  reached beyond the district capitals to the ordinary villagers most impacted by  the war. As national chairman of the Committee’s Working Group, John knew what  he was talking about and had a vision for the kind of reconciliation really  needed at the community level. And as a long-time human rights activist in  Sierra Leone, and founder and Executive Director of human rights NGO “Forum of  Conscience (FOC)”, he had established networks and community connections  throughout the country that could facilitate this kind of a process. Then, in  2007, he met Libby Hoffmann, founder of the Catalyst for Peace” foundation and  peace educator for more than 20 years. Together, they established “Fambul Tok  International (FTI)”, a face-to-face community-owned program that builds upon  Sierra Leone’s “family talk” tradition of discussing and resolving issues within  the security of a family circle.

Fambul Tok  International originated in the realization that peace can’t be imposed from  the outside, or the top down. Nor does it need to be. It thus works at the  village level to help communities organize ceremonies that include  truth-telling bonfires and traditional cleansing ceremonies—practices that many  communities have not employed since before the war in the nineties. John and  Libby believe that communities have within them the resources they need for  their own healing.  Following this  belief, FTI does not prescribe a particular way of reconciliation but consults  first with and later helps give space to victims, perpetrators and the wider  community to rebuild trust and a sustainable peace. As John says, “they walk with communities to help them find  their own answers”.

Through drawing on  age-old traditions of confession, apology and forgiveness, this distinctly  Sierra Leonean initiative has provided Sierra Leoneans with an opportunity to  come to terms with what happened during the war, to talk, to heal, and to chart  a new path forward, together. In doing so, this model presents a radical  alternative to the Western world’s emphasis on punitive justice at the  expensive of restorative justice. It has merited the attention of communities  in countries as geographically wide-spread as Columbia, the Democratic Republic  of Congo, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

    On April 7, 2011, John and Libby  released the book and movie “Fambul Tok” that relates the amazing story of an  African journey in forgiveness. For more, see www.fambultok.org.

— Timo Mueller, ISHR Intern

Recent ISHR visiting scholar Kei Hiruta published a short opinion piece on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Oxford University's Practical Ethics blog. Read it at http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2011/01/joking-about-the-unluckiest-man-in-the-world/

Another article by Hiruta can be found in the April 2010 issue of ISHR’s RightsNews.

2009 Advocate Nazibrola Janezashvili was recently named the Executive Director of Article 42 of the Constitution. Based in Georgia, Article 42 of the Constitution is a human rights advocacy organizations whose lawyers provide free legal assistance to victims of human rights abuses in local and international courts.

Download the press release (in English) and listen as Nazibrola discusses her organization on Georgian TV (in Georgian):

2010 Advocates Susan Aryeetey (Ghana) and Colette Lespinasse (Haiti) were interviewed by the Carnegie Council about their work. Please visit the Carnegie Council’s website to listen to the audio and/or read the transcripts.

2009 Advocate Akinyi Ocholla recently reported on the success she had at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Intersex Association Conference (ILGA) in Brazil in December 2010. She wrote that she and her organization, Minority Women in Action (Kenya), were invited to run for the post of ILGA Women’s Secretariat Representative. After consultation with MWA and her African counterparts at the conference, she decided to run for the post and was elected. Congratulations, Akinyi!

The Society for International Development—Washington, DC hosted four of the 2010 advocates at a lunchtime panel discussion on November 3^rd.

It is with sadness that we learned yesterday of the death of Professor Louis Henkin, who embodied human rights at Columbia and beyond. Following are a few words from Paul Martin.

Elazar Barkan
Director, Institute for the Study of Human Rights

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In August, the United States ambassador to Uganda, Jerry P. Lanier, and the acting USAID mission director, John Mark Winfield, visited 2009 Advocate Evelyne Achan and other officials of the Northern Uganda Development of Enhanced Local Governance, Infrastructure, and Livelihoods (NUDEIL) project in Gulu, Northern Uganda. Evelyne Achan runs the the NUDEIL project, which is at the forefront of USAID’s new endeavor to change the way the United States delivers aid to developing nations.

Read more in Winrock International's newsletter (scroll to bottom of page).

ISHR is pleased to announce its new membership in the Research Network of The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.  The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions and, in the process, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism. Working in partnership with governments, international and regional organizations, civil society groups, foundations, and the private sector, the Alliance supports a range of projects and initiatives aimed at building bridges among a diversity of cultures and communities. Membership in the Alliance’s Research Network will assist ISHR in achieving its own goals of pursuing interdisciplinary research and promoting dialogue among scholars and practitioners.

In their new partnership, ISHR and the Alliance will collaborate on the exchange of expertise and joint research among participating institutions in the areas of intercultural dialogue and cross-cultural relations, and sponsor and disseminate research about these issues within and beyond the network, particularly among policy makers, government departments, civil society organizations and the media.  As a member of the Research Network, ISHR will also have a role in providing input into the development of Alliance projects.

After political debate and public criticism of Martin's lifestyle as a Rastafarian and his personal image, Martin took oath of office as the 17th Cabinet Minister in President Desi Bouterse's administration in Paramaribo, Suriname on August 26, 2010. Martin has been acclaimed as a skilled human rights advocate. For the last several years, he has been an active human rights lawyer in Suriname.