Pandemics and Portals: Rights In An Era Of Tech Innovation

Posted on November 11, 2021August 16, 2022 by Biron, Alexa

Sushma’s ESRG Lecture will draw on her co-authored book (along with Bill Schulz, former executive director of Amnesty International USA and Carr Center Senior Fellow), The Coming Good Society: Why New Realities Demand New Rights (Harvard University Press 2020). Drawing on their vast experience as human rights advocates, the authors challenge us to think hard about how rights evolve with changing circumstances. To preserve and promote the good society – one that protects its members’ dignity and fosters an environment in which people will want to live – we must at times rethink the meanings of familiar rights and consider the introduction of entirely new rights.

Sushma Raman is the executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. She brings over two decades of global experience launching, scaling, and leading social justice and philanthropic programs and collaboratives, building capabilities of grassroots human rights organizations and their leaders, and teaching graduate courses in the public policy schools at UCLA, USC, Tufts Fletcher School, and Harvard Kennedy School. Sushma has worked at the Ford Foundation, where she helped launch and scale social justice and women’s funds around the world, and at the Open Society Foundation, where she was a Program Officer on the founding staff for US Programs on immigrant and refugee rights. She was a Fellow with the German Marshall Fund and the UCLA Luskin School, and is currently a member of the board of RFK Human Rights, established by the family of Bobby Kennedy. She has taught graduate courses on economic justice; inter-sectoral leadership; philanthropy and nonprofit management; global civil society, the NGO sector, and the state; and policy communications for decision-makers.

Contractual Deterrence and the Ethical Supply Chain

Posted on November 11, 2021January 20, 2022 by Biron, Alexa

Presenter: Robert Bird, University of Connecticut School of Business

Discussant: Gastón de los Reyes, Glasgow Caledonian New York College

A harmful byproduct of the global economy is the proliferation of abuses in global supply chains. Too often lead firms and suppliers do not effectively collaborate. Lead firms require human rights and sustainability standards while also demanding extremely low cost goods and fast production deadlines. Suppliers faced with the impossible choice of financial survival or compliance with ethical standards, attempt to evade lead firm demands. The result is an illusion of governance that prioritizes investigations over actual changes and perpetuates “slow violence” against local environments and vulnerable populations.

To respond to this problem, this manuscript proposes a new paradigm I call ‘contractual deterrence.’ Contractual deterrence leverages a centuries-old theory of criminal deterrence, reinterprets it to incorporate a modern understanding of sanctions and rewards, and applies the theory to the contractual context of the modern global supply chain. Contractual deterrence is based upon three prongs: that enforcement of ethical supply chain standards must be predictably certain, equitably significant, and swiftly implementable. This manuscript explores these prongs and shows how the theory advances sustainability and human rights literatures. This manuscript also argues for a new multistakeholder theory of social responsibility that challenges western-dominated thinking and encourages a joint and equal partnership between lead firm and supplier in order to address pressing problems facing supply chains today.

Human Rights Film+ Series: American Insurrection

Posted on November 11, 2021November 2, 2022 by Branzell, Alex

In advance of the discussion, please watch the film. American Insurrection is available to stream online, free through PBS FRONTLINE.

Virtual Discussion Event – February 10 at 4:00pm - 5:30pm

The Human Rights Film+ Series presents American Insurrection, a PBS Frontline production directed by Richard Rowley with correspondent A.C. Thompson. Join us for an insightful and provocative discussion about the film, the events of January 6th, and the violent movements that threaten to upend the foundations of American democracy.

Film Synopsis: American Insurrection (2021, 85 mins) examines the individuals and ideologies behind a wave of extremist violence that culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, and where the movement may be headed a year after the attack.

Discussants:

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, former U.S. Senator from Connecticut
A.C. Thompson, Senior Reporter with ProPublica and Frontline Correspondent
Aaron Hiller, Chief Counsel for the House Committee on the Judiciary
Emily Kaufman, Researcher for the Anti-Defamation League

Moderator:

Glenn Mitoma, Director, Dodd Impact

This Thought Experiment Captures Facebook’s Betrayal of Users’ Privacy

Posted on November 3, 2021November 8, 2021 by Alyssa Webb

This thought experiment captures Facebook’s betrayal of users’ privacy

We’re Already Barreling Toward the Next Pandemic

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Biron, Alexa

We’re Already Barreling Toward the Next Pandemic

UConn Filmmaker’s Documentary Telling Story of Connecticut Immigrant Family Stricken with COVID at Baby’s Birth Earns Emmy Nominations

Posted on September 28, 2021September 29, 2021 by Alyssa Webb

UConn filmmaker’s documentary telling story of Connecticut immigrant family stricken with COVID at baby’s birth earns Emmy nominations.

Human Rights for the Next Generation

Posted on September 20, 2021February 4, 2024 by Biron, Alexa

National Anthem
Nadia Aguila-Steinbert ’21 MM

Land Acknowledgement
Sage Phillips ’22 (CLAS)

Invocation
Rabbi Lazowski

Welcome
Dr. Andrew Agwunobi

Greetings on Behalf of the State of Connecticut
Honorable Ned Lamont

Human Rights at UConn | Video

Remarks
Senator Christopher J. Dodd

Remarks
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro

Greetings on behalf of UConn's Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees Chairman Dan Toscano

Introduction, President of the United States
Senator Christopher J. Dodd

Remarks
President Joe Biden

Closing Blessing
Rabbi Lazowski

The Dodd Center for Human Rights honors the public service and human rights legacies of Thomas J. Dodd and Christopher J. Dodd. Beginning with Thomas Dodd’s service as executive trial counsel to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and carrying through to Christopher Dodd’s leadership in the drafting and adoption of the Dodd-Frank Act and the Affordable Care Act, father and son have worked to advance justice and dignity for over 60 years.

The Dodd Center for Human Rights is home to the UConn's world-class human rights research, academics, and outreach programs. Dodd Human Rights Impact, which was recently created with the support of Senator Dodd, fosters a culture of human rights at UConn, in Connecticut, and around the world. Dodd Impact is part of the Human Rights Institute which supports interdisciplinary inquiry into the most pressing human rights questions and prepares the next generation of human rights advocates across a range of fields. HRI offers an undergraduate major and minor – the largest at a public university in the United States – and a graduate certificate and Master of Arts program. HRI supports research by over 40 faculty in the fields of law, social work, education, the humanities, social sciences, fine arts, and others.

In addition to its human rights focus, the Dodd Center for Human Rights will continue to house the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life and the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collection, further underscoring the dynamic, multidisciplinary nature of the space.

Learn More About The Dodd Center

The building was originally dedicated as Thomas J. Dodd Research Center in 1995 by President William J. Clinton and Senator Christopher J. Dodd to honor Thomas Dodd’s service as executive trial counsel in the International Military Tribunal, the first of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. In the year that followed, known as the Dodd Human Rights Year, UConn hosted an international conference examining the events surrounding the Holocaust and Nuremberg Trials and offered programming dedicated to human rights violations in Latin America, Tibet, and Cambodia, disability rights in North America, the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, and the plight of African Americans involved in the Tuskegee Study. The Dodd Year began with an address from Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and concluded with a speech from former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. Over the past 25 years, the building has become a center of archival research and UConn’s diverse human rights programs.