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 at7:30 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. |