Time to Rethink: The ‘Women’s Dilemma’ and Public Policy

By Yasmine Ergas, Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights The ‘women’s dilemma’ is center stage – again. I call it that even though the impossible balancing of family life and professional life that Anne-Marie Slaughter recently dissected in a widely debated article in The Atlantic affects many men too. It still is primarily a women’s issue, and it will take some time before it can be characterized in gender-neutral terms. A recent workshop promoted by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, with the financial support of ISERP, and the co-sponsorship of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, analyzed many of the new terms of the ‘motherhood’ issue. The following remarks are informed by that debate but do not seek to summarize it. Instead, I focus on some of the issues that Slaughter’s article raises. Slaughter has been much criticized for lamenting that “women still can’t have it all.” In truth, the “having it all”...
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Summer Update

Hello RightsViews readers! While things have slowed down on campus for the summer semester, we’ve been busy working behind the scenes at RightsViews and have many updates to share with you. First of all, we bid a big farewell to our founding co-editor, Tanya O’Carroll. It was Tanya’s vision for an interactive, digital forum for human rights students and scholars that got this blog up and running. Since graduating from Columbia’s Human Rights Studies MA program, Tanya has moved back to London where she is working at the Amnesty International Secretariat on a project that collaborates with the technology community to help build solutions to human rights challenges. She will remain a member of our editorial board, but is handing the reigns over to Eve and two new members of our team. Good luck Tanya, and don't forget to tweet about us!! This summer, Laura Reed will join RightsViews as an Editor, and Jessica Eaton will be joining us as an Assistant Editor. Bringing together...
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The Human Rights Council and Libya: an historic precedent and missed opportunity

The Human Rights Council and Libya: an historic precedent and missed opportunity

By Deborah Brown, former student at Barnard College Late last year, with little fanfare, the UN General Assembly voted to reinstate Libya’s membership to the Human Rights Council (HRC). Libya was suspended from the body last winter amid the mass killings of protestors and other egregious human rights abuses perpetrated by Muammar Qaddhafi’s regime and credible threats of continued violence. For human rights advocates interested in reforming and improving the HRC, the way in which Libya’s membership was restored represents a lost opportunity to build the credibility of the institution by creating stronger criteria for reinstating suspended members. An unprecedented step On March 1, 2011, the General Assembly unanimously took the bold step of suspending Libya’s membership from the Council for committing “gross and systemic violations of human rights.” This action was historic as it marked the first time that a member state was suspended from either the HRC or its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, for violating human rights. It also helped to...
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Happy Holidays!

As everything is wrapping up for Christmas, we wanted to say a MASSIVE  thank you to everyone for contributing to the first successful semester of RightsViews! We have had a great response from students and faculty. An especially big thank you to those who have started blogging with us - there have been some fascinating posts this semester reflecting the diversity of interests and passions within the Columbia human rights community. Thanks also to all of our readers - we have lots planned for the blog in the new year so stay tuned for some great content, and more of it! For anyone who is not tucked up at home for Christmas (like ourselves), then we leave you with this and maybe we'll catch you down at Zuccotti... Occupy Wall Street Plans To Occupy Christmas (VIDEO link) See you in January, Tanya and Eve, The editors  ...
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Field Notes: Lebanon’s Home of Hope

My experience filming for OCHA's Global Humanitarian Day Campaign By Dâna Barakat, student at Columbia University In an attempt to get some preliminary research done for my thesis, which looks at the challenges faced by street children in Lebanon, I decided to spend a few weeks there this past summer. As soon as I arrived, I read an email that was going to change my summer. It was from David, a Public Information Officer at the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), asking me if I was interested in producing a short film for their global humanitarian day campaign. I had met David only a day earlier, through a wonderful adjunct Professor at CU, and he decided to give me a shot at this great opportunity. OCHA was looking to showcase 5 humanitarian workers from around the world who are making a significant difference in their respective communities. After meeting with aid workers from orphanages and NGOs all over the country,...
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Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

An Interview with Filmmaker Pamela Yates By Jennifer Wilmore, student at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs  Pamela Yates is an American documentary filmmaker and co-founder of SkylightPictures, a company dedicated to creating films and digital media tools that advance awareness of human rights and the quest for justice.  In 1982, at the age of 24, she traveled to Guatemala to shoot footage of the hidden war unfolding there between the military government and guerrilla forces. While in Guatemala, Yates also witnessed the government’s genocidal campaign being carried out against the Mayan people mostly, in which at least 200,000 individuals were killed, “disappeared” or forced into exile.  Skylight Pictures used this footage to create a film called When the Mountains Tremble, which won the Special Jury Award at the 1984 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, Yates has created films on a variety of issues, including poverty and homelessness in the United States, terrorism, and the International Criminal Court. Her current Sundance offering, Granito: How To Nail a Dictator, takes viewers...
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