RightsViews – Page 28 – Opinion and research from the human rights community at Columbia University

Sexual Violence, Human Rights and the Media

March 8, 2014March 6, 2016 by editor2 Comments

By Maria Hengeveld, graduate student of human rights at Columbia University _____________________________________________________________________________ Sexual violence is usually not covered as a human rights issue. As the archetypical normalized, invisible, overlooked and structural human right violation, it is more often treated as an everyday, normal problem rather than a violation of women’s rights to health, life, bodily integrity, education, and more. The culture of impunity that surrounds sexual violence, and the fact that rape is notoriously underreported, can hardly be detached from the media’s failure to communicate to people that they actually can report these as crimes. It is a missed opportunity, and a troubling one, because the way the media chooses to frame sexual violence influences how people think about rape. They can shape, challenge and perpetuate dominant perceptions or illuminate harmful misconceptions and shed a light on the contestations and anxieties that surround the topic. Moreover, they can channel the outrage and disgust towards, for example, child-rapists into anger and calls for accountability towards our governments. Making sexual...

Putin’s Calculus in Ukraine

March 8, 2014July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights, Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights _____________________________________________________________________________ Crimea is more than a flash-point for conflict between Ukraine and Russia. War between Ukraine and Russia has potential regional and global implications. While supporting Ukraine's sovereignty, the Obama administration must be careful not to escalate tensions. It may be possible, however, to change President Vladimir Putin's calculus through a combination of carrots and sticks. Events are fast-moving and volatile. On Friday, Russian Special Forces and helicopter gunships invaded Crimea. They closed the main airport and set-up check-points, seizing key buildings. On Saturday, the Russian Duma authorized the deployment of armed forces to Crimea, which has a majority ethnic Russian population. By Sunday, 6,000 Russian forces established complete control of Crimea. Russia may escalate the conflict by deploying forces in the ethnic Russian belt between Donetsk and Khirkiv. Will Putin take steps to "liberate" other ethnic Russian territories in the so-called near abroad? Pro-Western countries in Baltic...

“Justice is given to whomever is louder”

February 5, 2014March 22, 2016 by editorNo Comments

By Jenna Wallace, graduate student of human rights at Columbia University _____________________________________________________________________________ Penelopa Gjurchilova, a former Macedonian diplomat and visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) quoted this popular Macedonian proverb during her opening remarks at a symposium entitled “Foreign Policy Makeover: Women’s Roles and Rights in Diplomacy,” held on November 14, 2013 at Columbia University. ISHR and the Gender and Public Policy Specialization at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) hosted this symposium, consisting of two panels of former and current ambassadors and foreign policy professionals from around the world. The panelists discussed personal experiences within the field of diplomacy and shared their professional perspectives on the issue of including women’s rights in diplomatic affairs. Chaired by Yasmine Ergas, Associate Director of ISHR and Director of the Gender and Public Policy Specialization at SIPA, the symposium created a unique opportunity for women and men to be heard on the role of gender and women’s rights...

The Super Bowl: What’s Trafficking Got To Do With It?

January 26, 2014July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Caroline Miller, graduate student at Columbia University's School of International and Political Affairs & Mailman School of Public Health _____________________________________________________________________________ Super Bowl Sunday is right around the corner. It’s time for the annual gathering of family and friends to eat large quantities of junk food, watch captivating television commercials, and cheer on the two best NFL teams as they face off. So what does human trafficking have to do with this festive football day? It turns out that the Super Bowl has a dark side associated with a high prevalence of human trafficking activities. And this year, it will be right in our backyard, across the river in East Rutherford, New Jersey (NJ). With the influx of thousands of people to the host city, experts contend that the number of men looking to pay for sex surges and the immense crowds associated with the game make victims fall under the radar.[1] Sex workers are brought in to meet the demand of fans...

Universality When it Suits Us: Human Rights Priorities in The Netherlands

January 24, 2014July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Maria Hengeveld, graduate student in Human Rights at Columbia University ____________________________________________________________________________ About thirty years ago, at a point where Dutch colonialism had recently ended, the Netherlands felt it was time to rebrand itself as a true champion of human rights. And not just any champion. Envisioning itself as a world leader in human rights, it began to strongly push for universal human rights norms and international monitoring mechanisms. Thus, when the left-wing leader of the Radical Political Party, Bas de Gaay Fortman, expressed his belief in 1973 that the Netherlands was capable of taking on this pioneering role, many shared his vision and confidence. No more than two years later, this aspirational ideal had already turned into a self-perceived truth. In 1975, the same year in which the Netherlands granted independence to its colony Suriname, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Max van der Stoel, boldly claimed that the Netherlands was the most active human rights defender worldwide. Four years later, universal...

UNEARTH -United Nations Exhibit Opens Door to the Past and Gives Hope to the Future

January 23, 2014March 6, 2016 by editorNo Comments

By, Amy Sall, graduate student of human rights at Columbia University ____________________________________________________________________________ The UNEARTH exhibit, hosted by the Gabarron Foundation, is a multimedia exhibit based on four main themes: human rights, development, humanitarian assistance, and peace and security. The exhibit creates a dialogue centered on the humanity of people through the use of archival footage and posters that evoke the spirit of the United Nations (U.N.) reflected in the organization’s principles of promoting peace, security and the protection of human rights. Not only does the exhibit celebrate the efforts of the U.N., but its closing in 2015 will also commemorate the 70th anniversary of the organization’s existence. Speaking on the ethos behind the exhibit, CEO and Vice President of the Gabarron Foundation, Juan Gabarron says the exhibit is about “creating awareness through the arts.” A task that was spearheaded by Chaim Litewski, Chief of the U.N. Television Section, and Antonio da Silva, Chief of the U.N. Multimedia Unit. Litewski and da Silva, along...

Chitwan National Park & the Displacement of Tharu Peoples

November 17, 2013July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Erica Bower, student at Columbia College ____________________________________________________________________________ The following Photo Essay is an excerpt from a post I wrote on my blog while studying abroad through Cornell Nepal Study Program (CNSP) in the spring of 2013. Our stay in Chitwan National Park was truly a once in a life time experience—a scene straight from the discovery channel. However, as incredible as this experience was from the perspective of a tourist, as a student of Human Rights and environmentally-induced displacement, Chitwan has an incredibly dark side. In many ways, the case of Chitwan is the inverse of most instances of the environment-displacement under study in Nepal given that efforts for environmental protection, rather than environmental degradation, have caused massive displacement. The brutal reality is that in order to create such a pristine National Park, the Nepali government has forcibly removed all of the Indigenous communities in the district. The Tharu peoples have lived in the Chitwan region for hundreds of years, and have a rich cultural history...

Towards Sumak Kawsay (Good Living) in Ecuador: Fundación Pachamama visits Columbia University

November 13, 2013July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Milagros Egas Villacres, human rights graduate student at Columbia University __________________________________________________________________ “The land we inhabit is the land where our spirits live and we want future generations to have enough resources, clean land, and a better life standards in order to stay on the land that has always been our home.”- Narcisa Mashiento On October 15, the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Program at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights hosted an event with the Fundación Pachamama from Ecuador that is part of the Pachamama Alliance. The event featured talks by Belén Páez, President of Fundación Pachamama; Carolyn Buck-Luce, co-founder of Imaginal Labs and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University; and Narcisa Mashiento and Robin Fink, Program Directors of the Jungle Mamas program. Speakers presented the work they do in order to protect the cultural and biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest. Some of these efforts include: changing the Ecuadorian Constitution to recognize environmental rights, working with the government to change measures of...

EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, visits Columbia University

November 3, 2013July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Jillian Carson, Program Coordinator, ISHR ___________________________________________________________________________ On Thursday October 3rd, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR), the Blinken European Institute and the Harriman Institute hosted Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s first appointed Special Representative for Human Rights at Columbia University. Mr. Lambrinidis is an attorney who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece. He also previously held the post of Vice-President of the European Parliament, and from 2004 to 2009, served as Vice-President of the Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee. Mr. Lambrinidis graduated from Yale Law School and, early in his career, served as Chairman of the Committee for Human Rights in the Bar Association of Washington, D.C.. Mr. Lambrinidis took office on September 1, 2012 and his mandate will run until June 2014. He and the EU delegation to the United Nations visited New York for the opening of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly. Challenges in Human Rights and Foreign Policy Mr....

“They Are Also Human:” An Afternoon with Human Rights Defenders from Burma

November 3, 2013July 1, 2016 by EditorNo Comments

By Michelle Eberhard, graduate student of human rights at Columbia University ___________________________________________________________________________ Burma is complicated. Not only is it also known as Myanmar, the name it was given following a 1988 coup d’état that ushered in two additional decades of military rule, but this Southeast Asian nation is home to a population of over fifty million people belonging to more than one hundred and thirty-five different ethnic groups. Rather than embracing the diversity of its citizens, however, the Burmese government has instead systematically exploited ethnicity for economic gain and facilitated the creation of destructive divisions between peoples in order to further its own agenda. A particularly vivid example of this is found in the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law, which permits the government to “decide whether any ethnic group is national or not,” thus condoning arbitrary discrimination against peoples it would prefer to marginalize. While the international community has praised the progress Burma has made in recent years, specifically following its 2010 democratic...