International – Page 10

From the Field: Building a Plurality of Memories in Spain

September 8, 2017November 9, 2017 by EditorNo Comments

By Zina Precht-Rodriguez, Columbia College '19 The story of Spain’s traumatic history is compelling because it is continuously unfolding. One of my most memorable experiences in Barcelona this summer was my visit to an air raid shelter that was designed during the Spanish Civil War to protect thousands of civilians during the fascist bombings of Barcelona. The existence of the shelter was only discovered a couple of years ago by a cable company. The company intended to build an underground landline to connect more people throughout Spain, but the irony of the situation is that something much deeper connects the people of Spain: a traumatic memory that tells the story of a vicious divide within Spain, as well as within Europe, of those who risked their lives for progressive change and those who compromised their own morality. In 2017, these casual rediscoveries of a traumatic Spanish past are triggering an outpouring of civilian, intellectual and political inquiry. The European Observatory for Memories (EUROM) addresses...

Trump and Erdogan: Too Much in Common

July 10, 2017November 9, 2017 by EditorNo Comments

By Ariella Lang, Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University In President Trump’s recent meeting with Turkey’s President Erdogan, Trump said nothing about the authoritarian crackdown currently underway in Turkey, nor did he condemn the attack by armed members of Erdogan’s security team on protestors outside the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C., in which American Diplomatic Security officers were assaulted and nine people were hospitalized. President Erdogan apparently watched the melee unfold from the embassy steps. The same week that these events unfolded in D.C., the summary judgement and sentencing was handed down in a Turkish court with regard to the case against Murat Celikkan, a journalist and prominent Turkish human rights activist. Celikkan had been accused of spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization because of his involvement in the campaign to protest the crackdown and ultimate closure of the Özgür Gündem daily newspaper. Özgür Gündem was one of 15 media outlets that had to shut their doors after a...

Viktor Orbán’s Hungary: A Nationalist Government Within the European Union

June 22, 2017November 9, 2017 by EditorNo Comments

By Bárbara Matias, an M.A. student in human rights In late May, thousands of Hungarians marched against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s educational reform laws subduing foreign universities and non-governmental organizations. The educational reforms were the latest in a series of clashes between the right-wing Hungarian government and the European Union (EU); the protests yet another manifestation of civil society's mobilization against Orbán’s opposition to EU frameworks. On May 1, the 13th anniversary of Hungary’s accession to the EU, for example, thousands took to the streets in a pro-EU rally, suitably called "We Belong to Europe.’’ This past April, Prime Minister Orbán and Hungary's parliament passed an amendment to Hungary’s national law on higher education, tightening regulations on independent and foreign-funded universities. Specifically, the law targets the Central European University (CEU), a Budapest-based university founded by Hungarian-born American financier George Soros and accredited in the United States and Hungary since 1993. The current government under Orbán sought legal means to shut the university down, viewing...

Roma Communities in the EU Continue to Lack Access to Equal Education Opportunities

April 10, 2017November 9, 2017 by EditorNo Comments

By Claudia Kania, guest blogger from Reavis high school The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released a statement in 2000 that acknowledged “the place of the Roma communities among those most disadvantaged and most subject to discrimination in the contemporary world.” Such socially and institutionally-accepted xenophobia is perhaps most clearly epitomized by the European school system. Although academic institutions are often portrayed as “the great equalizers,” a system founded on the principles of ignorance and prejudice frequently separates Roma, one of the largest minority groups in Europe, from reaping the benefits of education. The right to education is universally established as a fundamental guiding principle within international human rights discourse. It is recognized as a human right by Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as Articles 28, 29, and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. To further contextualize the premise of academic equity, UNESCO put...

Can the Permanent Members of the Security Council Lead the World’s Journey to Sustainable Peace and Gender Justice?

January 24, 2017January 25, 2017 by EditorNo Comments

By Marina Kumskova, Program Associate at WILPF/PeaceWomen and guest blogger Katie Krueger, Program Associate for WI-HER Since the adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), the world has slowly come to understand that the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda has transformative potential to create positive change. The WPS agenda is a tool for moving from conflict, militarization, and violence, to peace, inclusive decision-making, and gender justice, while increasing the number of women meaningfully involved in decision-making processes. However, this important tool remains under-utilized. Innovative new research carried out through the WPS Scorecard project identifies several gaps in the holistic implementation of the agenda, especially in the areas of conflict prevention, demilitarization, and disarmament. In the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration, now is an ideal time to reflect on these major gaps in the WPS agenda's implementation, and promote advocacy and action amongst the grassroots. Civil society has an important role to play in ensuring that women’s rights are...

Trump, the Other, and Human Rights in Society

November 30, 2016November 30, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Inga Winkler, a lecturer at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights Without downplaying the potential impact of a Trump presidency on foreign policy, renewed acceptance of torture as well as the potential impact on climate change, I fear for society at large. A president-elect who ridicules and denigrates migrants, Muslims, Hispanics, women, persons with disabilities and others sets an example. He gives the impression that such behavior and such attitudes are acceptable. His remarks promote ideas of the superiority of some and inferiority of others, based on a socially constructed divide between “us” and “them”. There is nothing new about racism, sexism and fear of the “other” in US society. It is deeply entrenched. What is new is that the man elected to the highest office institutionalizes and formalizes such attitudes. He legitimizes “othering” and stigmatization. One of the possible explanations for the misleading polls is that voters who declared they were undecided were in fact planning to vote for Trump....

A Place for an Unexpected Guest at the Table of the UN Business and Human Rights Working Group

September 27, 2016September 28, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Aleydis Nissen, guest blogger and PhD candidate at Cardiff University "Savoir critiquer est bon, savoir créer est mieux." To know how to criticize is good, to know how to create is better. (Henri Poincaré) In May 2016, Hong Kong City University Professor Surya Deva took up his function in the United Nations Human Rights Council as the Asia-Pacific representative of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In this position, he contributes to the mandate of the Working Group in disseminating and implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a United Nations-endorsed template organized around a three-pillar framework: the State’s duty to protect human rights, the responsibility of corporations to respect human rights, and access to remedy for those whose rights have been violated. Deva’s appointment was not without controversy, according to the President of the Human Rights Council, Choi Kyonglim. Given Deva’s previous, highly critical stance on the Guiding Principles themselves,...

Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda at the 60th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

May 3, 2016July 1, 2016 by Editor1 Comment

By Marina Kumskova, an MA student in Human Rights The 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York this past March, with a view to highlight the link between women’s empowerment and sustainable development. Human rights activists, civil society organizations, and local leaders expressed their demand for a change in the current priorities of Member States, using the CSW60 as a platform to call for greater investment in women’s participation within peace processes, and a parallel divestment from militarism. If safeguarding political economies of gender justice and peace are prioritized over economies of inequality and war, the outcomes of CSW60 will have a positive impact on the lives of women, men, girls, and boys around the world. Demanding the stigmatization and elimination of militarization, as well as the creation of space for women’s participation in peace processes, various organizations and NGOs* hosted a symposium titled, “Implementing the Women, Peace...

Failures of the Responsibility to Protect: Selectivity, Double Standards and an Assault on State Sovereignty

May 1, 2016July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Shayna Halliwell, an M.A. student in human rights This article is Part Two of a two-part op-ed series exploring the different sides of the R2P debate. --------- “You don’t care about my country more than I care about my country!” This sentence punctuated a statement made by a representative of the Syrian Arab Republic in the United Nations General Assembly debate in February 2016 on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). A contentious emerging norm, R2P is meant to protect vulnerable populations from experiencing mass atrocities, in the event that their governments are unable to do so. However, this statement on behalf of the Syrian government can be seen as the very crux of why R2P has not made the difference it was intended to make at its inception over fifteen years ago, at the behest of previous Secretary-General Kofi Annan. While R2P is noble in its goals—to protect a country’s population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and/or crimes against humanity—it has proved to...

Prevention, Assistance and Intervention: How the Responsibility to Protect has Made a Difference in Situations of Mass Atrocities

April 26, 2016July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Shayna Halliwell, an M.A. student in human rights This article is Part One of a two-part op-ed series exploring the different sides of the R2P debate. ------ “The atrocity crimes that stain humanity’s conscience make it imperative that leaders transform R2P from a vital principle into visible practice.” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made this statement in an informal dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in September 2015. R2P officially celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, and has achieved major successes since its unanimous approval by UN Member States at the World Summit in 2005. Created at the urging of the Secretary General at the time, Kofi Annan, as a response to the mass atrocities committed in Rwanda and Srebrenica, the concept of R2P exists first and foremost to prevent mass atrocities from occurring. It does so by supporting the state in protecting its populations from four major crimes: genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Only when states...