MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Leopold at (847) 491-4890 or w-leopold@northwestern.edu

March 23, 2004

Human Rights Confab Features Talk by Holbrooke, Mock Crisis

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Richard Holbrooke, chief negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords, and Romeo Dallaire, commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan massacres, will be among the speakers at a free, public conference on human rights taking place on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus April 15 through April 18.

Dallaire’s presentation will take place 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 15; Holbrooke’s will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 16. Representatives of Human Rights Watch, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the director of Northwestern’s world-renowned Program of African Studies will be among scholars, human rights activists and others making presentations on human rights issues. (See schedule below for further details).

The Northwestern University Student Conference on Human Rights, which will be attended by selected student delegates from more than 20 universities and colleges across the country, will include an exercise in which the student delegates will be asked to develop solutions to a mock human rights crisis.

Details of that mock human rights crisis will unfold Saturday, April 17. Working in groups representing various actors in the U.S. policymaking community, the students will generate policy recommendations Saturday and present them Sunday, April 18, in the conference’s final session.

Although only student delegates can participate in the simulated policymaking exercise that will take place from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. April 17 in the basement of Annenberg Hall, 2120 Campus Drive, the public is invited to witness the process.

A schedule, including the presentations by Holbrooke, Dallaire and others, follows:

THURSDAY, APRIL 15

8 to 9:30 p.m., The Failure of the West in Rwanda, Romeo Dallaire, UN peacekeeper during the 1994 Rwanda massacre and author of “Shake Hands with the Devil,” a book exposing failures to stop the Rwandan genocide despite timely warnings, in Room 107, Harris Hall, 1881 Sheridan Road.

FRIDAY, APRIL 16

9 to 10:30 a.m., Rwanda Remembrance Presentation, Alison Des Forges, MacArthur fellow and senior research associate in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, in the Louis Room of Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Drive.

11 to 12:30 p.m., Human Rights in Africa: Can the U.S. Practice What It Preaches?, Richard Joseph, director of Northwestern University’s Program of African Studies and former director of the African Governance Program at the Carter Center, in the Louis Room, Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Drive.

2 to 3:30 p.m., U.S. Intervention in Asia, Ben Kiernan, Genocide Studies Program at Yale University; Mickey Speigel, China/Tibet division of Human Rights Watch; Carla Natan, Northwestern University Law School, in the Louis Room of Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Drive.

7:30 to 9 p.m., Keynote Address by Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, in Ryan Auditorium, Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road.

SATURDAY, APRIL 17

9 to 11a.m., New Frontiers in Human Rights: Extending US Participation, Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan, former US ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and Mirna Adjami, Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center, in the Abbott Laboratories Auditorium, Arthur and Gladys Pancoe-Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Life Sciences Pavilion, 2200 Campus Drive.

Noon to 1:30 p.m., The US and International Human Rights Law, Professor Douglass Cassel, Northwestern University Law School, and John Hagan, MacArthur Professor of sociology and law, Northwestern University, in the Abbott Laboratories Auditorium, Arthur and Gladys Pancoe-Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Life Sciences Pavilion, 2200 Campus Drive.

1:30 to 5:30 p.m., Human rights crisis simulation with efforts by students to solve it take place in the basement of Annenberg Hall, 2120 Campus Drive. Although only student delegates can take part in the simulation, members of the public are invited to watch the process.

SUNDAY, APRIL 18

9 to 11:30 a.m., Final human rights crisis session. Delegates will present their position paper and policy recommendations on the mock human rights crisis, basement of Annenberg Hall, 2120 Campus Drive.

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Closing ceremonies, basement of Annenberg Hall, 2120 Campus Drive.
The Northwestern Student Conference on Human Rights is sponsored by the American Studies Program at Northwestern University with support from the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Office of Student Affairs.

For further information about the conference, call the American Studies Program office at 847-491-3525.