

HUMAN RIGHTS AT UCONN
Examining the most pressing human rights questions and preparing the next generation of human rights leaders.


Human Rights Close to Home
Summer Institute
July 17-28, 2023 • Storrs, CT
Human Rights Close to Home (HRCH) engages K-12 educators and youth in the development and implementation of human rights education for civic action with the aim of strengthening democracy and respect for human rights in our Connecticut communities and beyond.
Teachers across all grades and subjects explore human rights issues, learn teaching tools and strategies, develop curriculum materials/educational initiatives that support civic engagement, and receive professional development. High school students gain human rights knowledge and civic engagement skills in order to implement their own civic action plans in their local communities.

Human Rights Summit
Human Rights and the Global Assault on Democracy
October 25-27, 2023 • Storrs, CT
The Human Rights Summit at The Dodd Center for Human Rights brings together scholars, activists, policymakers, artists, and business leaders from across the world to examine the key human rights challenges of our time and generate new ideas to promote global justice and human dignity.
Through a mix of high-profile lectures, practical workshops, and roundtable discussions, the Human Rights Summit will serve as a critical venue for sharing insights, building relationships, and inspiring action.
Human Rights for the Next Generation
On October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its verdict, convicting 19 Nazi leaders of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Seventy-five years later, as the world faces new challenges to democracy and rule of law, we dedicate The Dodd Center for Human Rights, extending the legacy of Nuremberg for the next generation.
Learn more about the event we hosted on October 15, 2021 featuring Senator Chris Dodd and President Joe Biden.


Evolving Landscapes of Human Rights
Celebrating 20 Years of Interdisciplinarity & Innovation
March 29-31, 2023 • Storrs, CT



Human Rights and the Global Assault on Democracy
October 25-27, 2023
The Human Rights Summit at The Dodd Center for Human Rights brings together scholars, activists, policymakers, artists, and business leaders from across the world to examine the key human rights challenges of our time and generate new ideas to promote global justice and human dignity.
Through a mix of high-profile lectures, practical workshops, and roundtable discussions, the Human Rights Summit will serve as a critical venue for sharing insights, building relationships, and inspiring action.
UConn Today News
In the News
Many Global Corporations Will Soon Have to Police Up and Down their Supply Chains as EU Human Rights ‘Due Diligence’ Law Nears Enactment
Rachel Chambers (HRI & the School of Business) and David Birchall write about the potential impacts of a new EU law requiring businesses to reduce human rights abuses and environmental damage in their supply chains.
[Read More]International Law & 21st Century Financial Warfare
A new article by Stephen Park of HRI & the School of Business explores the difficulty of assessing how financial sanctions comply with international law and human rights goals, and whether that risks legitimizing their growing use.
[Read More]Evolving Landscapes of Human Rights
Celebrating 20 Years of Interdisciplinarity & Innovation March 29-31, 2023 • Storrs, CT Register Now
[Read More]Upcoming Events
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Sep
29
Encounters - Destigmatizing Intimate Partner Violence 5:30pm
Encounters - Destigmatizing Intimate Partner Violence
Friday, September 29th, 2023
05:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Western Connecticut State University
Domestic Violence is a pervading issue across our world. During the fiscal year of 2021, over 38,989 people sought domestic violence services in our state of Connecticut alone. This number is not reflective of all those who endure domestic violence, as violence often goes unreported. We need to shatter the silence. Through education, engagement, and empowerment, this program will shed light on domestic violence and create social change.
Join us as we learn, listen, and reflect through small group discussions with facilitators, and engage with experts in domestic violence services about this critical issue.
This event is hosted by the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, a program of Dodd Human Rights Impact, and The Alyssiah Wiley Program at Western Connecticut State University.
A light dinner will be provided.
Contact Information:
Saah Agyemang Badu, Graduate Assistant
Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, Gladstein Family Human Rights InstituteMore -
Sep
29
Encounters - Destigmatizing Intimate Partner Violence 5:30pm
Encounters - Destigmatizing Intimate Partner Violence
Friday, September 29th, 2023
05:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Western Connecticut State University
Domestic Violence is a pervading issue across our world. During the fiscal year of 2021, over 38,989 people sought domestic violence services in our state of Connecticut alone. This number is not reflective of all those who endure domestic violence, as violence often goes unreported. We need to shatter the silence. Through education, engagement, and empowerment, this program will shed light on domestic violence and create social change.
Join us as we learn, listen, and reflect through small group discussions with facilitators, and engage with experts in domestic violence services about this critical issue.
This event is hosted by the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, a program of Dodd Human Rights Impact, and The Alyssiah Wiley Program at Western Connecticut State University.
A light dinner will be provided.
Contact Information:
Saah Agyemang Badu, Graduate Assistant
Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, Gladstein Family Human Rights InstituteMore -
Oct
3
We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age - Discussion with Author Wendy Wong 2:00pm
We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age - Discussion with Author Wendy Wong
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023
02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Our data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy, community, dignity, and equality? In We, the Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we cannot allow that to happen. Exploring the pervasiveness of data collection and tracking, Wong reminds us that we are all stakeholders in this digital world, who are currently being left out of the most pressing conversations around technology, ethics, and policy. This book clarifies the nature of datafication and calls for an extension of human rights to recognize how data complicate what it means to safeguard and encourage human potential.
This event is sponsored by the Economic & Social Rights Program, Business & Human Rights Initiative, Engineering for Human Rights Initiative, and Human Rights Research & Data Hub at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, as well as the UConn School of Law.
Contact Information:
Alex Branzell, Events & Communications Coordinator, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut
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Oct
5
Due Diligence Laws: Scope, Content, and Implications 11:00am
Due Diligence Laws: Scope, Content, and Implications
Thursday, October 5th, 2023
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Abstract
Professor Krajewski will speak on experience(s) with German law, the status quo of the European Union’s EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and the complementarity of human rights due diligence laws (HRDD) and UN treaty processes.
Professor Shareen Hertel will discuss the implications of due diligence legislation globally – both in countries where it originates and in the global South – using a “stakeholder” framework for understanding obligations and participation in norms development and implementation.
Speakers:
Markus Krajewski is University Professor at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and holds the Chair in Public Law and Public International Law. He is one of the programme directors of the MA in Human Rights and chairperson of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN). Professor Krajewski also chairs the Board of Trustees of the German Institute for Human Rights and is Secretary-General of the German Branch of the International Law Association. He is coeditor of the European Yearbook of International Economic Law (EYIEL) and routinely advises international governmental and non-governmental organizations on European and international economic law. Krajewski holds degrees in law, economics and political science from the University of Hamburg (Germany) and Florida State University, and has held previous positions at King’s College London, University of Potsdam, and the Collaborative Research Centre Transformations of the State at the University of Bremen.
Shareen Hertel is the Wiktor Osiatyński Chair of Human Rights and Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute. Her research focuses on changes in transnational human rights advocacy, with a focus on labor and economic rights issues. Her most recent book (Tethered Fates: Companies, Communities and Rights at Stake – Oxford University Press 2019) explores these themes. Hertel has served as a consultant to foundations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies in the United States, Latin America and South Asia. She is editor of The Journal of Human Rights, serves on the editorial boards of Human Rights Review as well as Human Rights and Human Welfare, and is co-editor of the International Studies Intensives book series of Routledge.
Moderator:
Janne Mende is Senior Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, where her Research Group MAGGI (“The Multiplication of Authorities in Global Governance Institutions”) analyzes the governance authority of state, inter-state and non-state actors in the United Nations and the European Union. She also heads several projects in the issue area of business and human rights. She holds degrees from the University of Kassel, University of Giessen, and Free University Berlin, and has served previously in positions at the Technical University of Darmstadt, the University of Giessen and the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences. In her latest publication (Der Universalismus der Menschenrechte utb 2021), she develops a contextual and normatively open universalism of human rights.
For more on the Connecticut/Baden-Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium (HRRC), visit our website.
Contact Information:
Sebastian Wogenstein
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Associate Professor, German Studies, UConn
Co-Director, Connecticut/Baden-Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium (HRRC)
Senior External Fellow, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies. -
Oct
5
Journalism Under the Taliban: Understanding the Lived Experience of Journalists in Afghanistan 2:00pm
Journalism Under the Taliban: Understanding the Lived Experience of Journalists in Afghanistan
Thursday, October 5th, 2023
02:00 PM - 03:15 PM
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Media is under heavy censorship under the Taliban in Afghanistan. Many Afghan journalists have been forced to flee the country. Those remaining face the Taliban’s oppressive restrictions on free expression, including widespread political imprisonment and targeted violence. Based on extensive fieldwork and data collection in Afghanistan, we will examine how journalists navigate these risks and challenges under the Taliban regime.
This event is a collaboration between the Human Rights Research & Data Hub and the Graduate Research Forum at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.
About the Speaker
Ahmadullah Archiwal is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of Connecticut. He is interested in state collapse, informal institutions, democratization, nonviolence, and social movements. His research is specifically focused on the question of how the Afghan elites failed the nation in August of 2021.Contact Information:
Alex Branzell, Events & Communications Coordinator, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, UConn
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Oct
10
Injuries of Empire: Detention and Debilitation in South Florida 9:30am
Injuries of Empire: Detention and Debilitation in South Florida
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023
09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Between 2016 and 2019, Dr. Emma Shaw Crane worked with migrant and asylum-seeking children who were detained at the Homestead Temporary Shelter, a detention camp just south of Miami, Florida. Though ostensibly a place of humanitarian refuge, detained children were separated from their families and exposed to harmful sounds and toxic debris from an adjacent military base. This talk takes up racialized hazard at the detention camp in relation to the adjacent military base, a crucial node in the hemispheric circulation of weapons, soldiers, and military expertise.
Sponsor
This event is presented by the Research Program on Global Health & Human Rights at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, and co-sponsored by El Instituto, the Department of Anthropology, and American Studies.
Associated Seminar
Following this lecture, a seminar with Dr. Emma Shaw Crane will take place down the hall from 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm. See Research Justice Against Migrant Detention for more information. Lunch will be served; please register to attend.
Contact Information:
Alex Branzell, Events & Communications Coordinator, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, UConn
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Oct
10
Research Justice Against Migrant Detention 12:30pm
Research Justice Against Migrant Detention
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023
12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
This lunchtime conversation will reflect on collaborative social movement research, with a particular focus on ethnographic and spatial research with movements for the abolition of migrant detention. We will explore the principles and practices of “research justice,” an approach to knowledge production that seeks to be accountable to movements for freedom and self-determination.
Sponsor
This event is presented by the Research Program on Global Health & Human Rights at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, and co-sponsored by El Instituto, the Department of Anthropology, and American Studies.
Associated Lecture
This workshop follows a lecture by Dr. Emma Shaw Crane earlier in the morning. See Injuries of Empire: Detention and Debilitation in South Florida at 9:30 am in the nearby Konover Auditorium.
Lunch will be provided.
Please register below so we may order an appropriate amount of food.
Contact Information:
Alex Branzell, Events & Communications Coordinator, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, UConn
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Oct
11
Unlocking the Art of Moderation 10:00am
Unlocking the Art of Moderation
Wednesday, October 11th, 2023
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Gain insights into the role of a moderator as a guide to structured dialogues. Moderators serve as the event’s emcee, ensuring the flow and timing of dialogues while supporting facilitators.Learn to navigate challenging conversations and dialogue management with ease. Dive deeper into the theory and practice of effective moderation and objective question formulation, leading to productive dialogues in the classroom, workplace, and/or the community. Join us now and take your moderating skills to another level!This event is hosted by the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, a program of Dodd Human Rights Impact.Contact Information:
Saah Agyemang Badu, Graduate Assistant
Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, Gladstein Family Human Rights InstituteMore -
Oct
11
Encounters - Possessing Harriet 5:00pm
Encounters - Possessing Harriet
Wednesday, October 11th, 2023
05:00 PM
Carriage House Theatre, Hartford
Please join us for Encounters: Possessing Harriet, a special dialogue event that features small group discussions, on critical questions about the play, as well as specialist feedback and engagement.
This conversation model will dive deeply into the themes of Possessing Harriet through facilitated, small-group dialogues followed by a “question and answer”-style conversation with our community partners. Readings from the play are provided beforehand to better encourage informed and informal dialogue within conversations that often prove to be polarizing, and thus unproductive. HartBeat Ensemble will collaborate with Human Rights Impact using their patented Encounters model to provide our audiences an opportunity to take a deeper dive into the intersectionality of abolition and suffrage in the 19th century and what it means in today’s battles around reparations and voting rights.
This event is hosted by the Hartbeat Ensemble and the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, a program of Dodd Human Rights Impact.
Please register for this event through the Hartbeat Ensemble portal.
Contact Information:
Saah Agyemang Badu, Graduate Assistant
Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, Gladstein Family Human Rights InstituteMore -
Oct
11
Encounters - Possessing Harriet 5:00pm
Encounters - Possessing Harriet
Wednesday, October 11th, 2023
05:00 PM
Carriage House Theatre, Hartford
Please join us for Encounters: Possessing Harriet, a special dialogue event that features small group discussions, on critical questions about the play, as well as specialist feedback and engagement.
This conversation model will dive deeply into the themes of Possessing Harriet through facilitated, small-group dialogues followed by a “question and answer”-style conversation with our community partners. Readings from the play are provided beforehand to better encourage informed and informal dialogue within conversations that often prove to be polarizing, and thus unproductive. HartBeat Ensemble will collaborate with Human Rights Impact using their patented Encounters model to provide our audiences an opportunity to take a deeper dive into the intersectionality of abolition and suffrage in the 19th century and what it means in today’s battles around reparations and voting rights.
This event is hosted by the Hartbeat Ensemble and the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, a program of Dodd Human Rights Impact.
Please register for this event through the Hartbeat Ensemble portal.
Contact Information:
Saah Agyemang Badu, Graduate Assistant
Democracy & Dialogues Initiative, Gladstein Family Human Rights InstituteMore -
Oct
12
InCHIP Lecture Series: Theresa S. Betancourt, ScD, MA, Boston College School of Social Work 12:30pm
InCHIP Lecture Series: Theresa S. Betancourt, ScD, MA, Boston College School of Social Work
Thursday, October 12th, 2023
12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Hybrid Lecture - InCHIP, J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Room 204 (top floor)
In Recognition of World Mental Health Day
Theresa S. Betancourt, ScD, MA, Boston College School of Social Work
“The Mental Health of Children Affected by Armed Conflict: A Call to Action”
October 12, 2023 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM
Theresa S. Betancourt is the inaugural Salem Professor in Global Practice at the Boston College School of Social Work and Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA). Her primary research interest is to understand the protective processes that contribute to risk and resilience in the mental health and development of children and adolescents facing adversity in a variety of cultures and settings. Dr. Betancourt has led initiatives to adapt and test evidence-based behavioral and parenting interventions for children and families facing adversity; she additionally focuses on strategies for scaling out these interventions using implementation science approaches. She is Principal Investigator of an intergenerational study of war/prospective longitudinal study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone, a scale-up Family-Strengthening Intervention for children and families in Rwanda, and community-based participatory research on prevention of emotional and behavioral problems in refugee children and adolescents resettled in the U.S.
Join In-Person: J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Room 204
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Oct
17
Bringing Politics into Engineering Education 12:00pm
Bringing Politics into Engineering Education
Tuesday, October 17th, 2023
12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
While engineering has been taught to depict engineering methods as neutral and objective, there is little evidence that engineering exists outside the political sphere. The curriculum is an opportunity to instill sociotechnical ways of thinking such that students can bring their whole selves into the field. Sociotechnical engineering education refers to an engineering paradigm that values the social, political, and economic considerations just as much as the technical (Cech, 2013).
In this talk, Dr. Desen Özkan will describe a qualitative research project that examines the experiences of minoritized engineering students enrolled in a sociotechnical curricular revision. She will then describe an engineering project that emphasizes the social, economic, and political contexts into a case of engineering decision-making for an offshore wind project in Connecticut. Ultimately, political engagement in engineering is not new and reflects the changing sociopolitical landscape (Wisnioski, 2012). By depicting the curriculum as sociotechnical, engineering educators can adapt to the changing climate in ways that attract and inspire people who historically have been excluded from engineering.
This event is sponsored by the Engineering for Human Rights Initiative, a collaborative venture between the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and the School of Engineering.
Contact Information:
Alex Branzell, Events & Communications Coordinator, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, UConn
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