The United Nations has recently launched two new human rights related Web sites. According to the U.N., Lessons from Rwanda: The United Nations and the Prevention of Genocide the program;

“Focuses on learning the lessons of the Rwanda genocide in order to help prevent similar acts in the future, as well as raising awareness of the lasting impact of genocide on the survivors and the challenges that they still face today”

1540 Committee is devoted to and provides detailed information on Resolution 1540 which;

“Imposes binding obligations on all States to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and their means of delivery, including by establishing appropriate controls over related materials. It also encourages enhanced international cooperation on such efforts, in accord with and promoting universal adherence to existing international non proliferation treaties.”

”Image, Memory and the Paradox of Peace: Fifteen Years after the El Salvador Peace Accords”

April 17 & 18, 2008
The fourth annual conference of the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice will be organized around the recent acquisition by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of a historic collection of photojournalistic work documenting El Salvador’s twelve-year civil war. In coordination with the UT School of Journalism’s Donna DeCesare, the Rapoport Center is planning what will undoubtedly be a stimulating and unique forum for discussion and debate concerning human rights, engaged from a variety of perspectives ranging from foreign policy to the visual arts.

The conference will include the opening of the exhibition “Inside El Salvador” at the Ransom Center with some of its featured photographers in attendance, as well as a closing session on the legacy of martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero led by representatives of The Rothko Chapel in Houston. In addition, a number of panels will offer perspectives on El Salvador’s civil war, focusing particularly on the ways images have created a narrative on violence and human rights that informs our understanding of the country’s past, present, and future.

Check back regularly for further information

Here are the current speakers scheduled for spring 2008. All events will be held on Tuesdays in the Eidman Jury Room at the University of Texas School of Law from 3:30-5:00 PM unless otherwise stated.

January, 22 Itty Abraham: A Genealogy of Caring: A Long View of the Figure of Refugee

February, 5 Alvaro Restrepo:

February 19 Jennifer Harbury:

March 4 Barbara Harlow: Tortured Thoughts: The Example Set by Ruth First from her Interrogation in 1963 to her Assassination in 1982

April 2 (Wednesday) Alejandro Moreno:

New York Times Editorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/opinion/08mon3.html

ABC News on the Latest Developments:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3607991

El Tiempo (in Spanish):

http://www.eltiempo.com/economia/2007-10-10/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-3759410.html

On Monday, October 8th, Daniel Bonilla will discuss of his paper, “Legal Pluralism and Extra-Legal Property: Class, Culture and Law in Bogotá.” Daniel is an Associate Professor at Universidad de los Andes School of Law in Bogotá, Colombia . Professor Bonilla graduated from Universidad de los Andes School of Law in 1994. He earned his L.L.M. from Yale Law School in 1998 and his J.S.D. degree from the same university in 2005. He is the Director of the Public Interest Law Group of Universidad de los Andes . La Constitución Multicultural (The Multicultural Consitution) and Hacia un Nuevo Derecho Constitucional (Toward a New Consitutional Law) are among his most recent publications. As the Director of G-DIP, Daniel works with students to bring cases before the Constitutional Court relating to a broad range of issues including racism, discrimination, indigenous rights, and the environment. Current projects include securing collective land rights for Afro-Colombians on the Islas de Rosario and a public action claim based on the unconstitutionality of Law 100 which currently does not provide social security benefits for same sex pairs. Areas of interest: Philosophy of law, constitutional law, public interest law and multiculturalism.

Where: The University of Texas School of Law, Sheffield Room
When: Monday, October 8: 3:30-5:30 PM

This year’s winning paper entitled “The Path to Gender Justice in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,” submitted by Patricia Palacios Zuloaga, examines the absence of positive case law regarding women’s rights by Latin America and the Caribbean ’s highest human rights tribunal.

Abstract

The paper examines the alarming absence of positive case law regarding women’s rights by Latin America and the Caribbean’s highest human rights tribunal. After a brief overview of the relevant case law to date, both theoretical and practical considerations are taken into account to identify the causes of such an absence. Particular attention is paid to the lack of female representation in the Inter-American human rights system’s organs and the political and jurisdictional effects of such a gender imbalance in the composition of those organs. Recent developments in case law that indicate the start of a shift by the Court towards gendered reasoning are then analyzed and their causes are determined. In addition, the consequences of the Court’s recent controversial decision to render justiciable the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women are examined in detail. Finally, after a brief preview of the upcoming gender relevant case load that the Court may be called upon to address, strategies for improvement are suggested based on the paper’s prior conclusions as to the causes of the initial scarcity and the causes of the Court’s incipient perceived change of direction with regards to women’s rights issues.