Clean energy has become one of the key strategies to mitigate and reduce the effects of climate change, reduce oil dependency, improve the quality of our environment, and reduce household expenses on energy. However, the benefits from energy production and distribution have not been equally experienced by all communities. And the negative social and environmental consequences have not been equally shouldered. The clean energy transition may be an opportunity to redress some of those inequalities.

Please join us for an event aimed at fostering dialogue among community representatives, researchers, and policymakers interested in the equity implications of solar energy and electric mobility. Together, we’ll explore the sustainability and human rights challenges and opportunities that the clean energy revolution might bring to these sectors. We’ll focus, in particular, on the situation of historically underserved communities in Connecticut.

Faculty members from the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering and Human Rights Institute will share their research and all participants will engage in active discussion. In-person and hybrid options for participation are available.

More information & register here: http://s.uconn.edu/just-energy-transition-event

This event is sponsored by the Engineering for Human Rights Initiative, a partnership between the School of Engineering and the Human Rights Institute.

Once per month, we invite graduate students in Human Rights to a quiet space in the Dodd Center to focus on their writing. This quiet time allows for space to concentrate or collaborate with other Human Rights grad students, develop paper topics, work products, or writing assignments.

Due to last week’s inclement weather predictions, we’ve scheduled an additional time next week on Wednesday, February 1 from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm.

Light refreshments are provided. Come and go as you please!

About This Event:

We welcome you to join us for a closing reception to celebrate and discuss the most recent exhibition in the hall of The Dodd Center for Human Rights with the photographer. Madeline Baird's 'Embodied Borders' reveals the human toll of the exportation of U.S. border enforcement through a series of captivating photographs.

Madeline Baird is a PhD student in Anthropology at UConn. Prior to enrolling at UConn, Madeline earned an MSc from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and worked for a decade supporting public health program design and community-based research. Her current research employs ethnographic methods to explore constructions of health inequity, human rights, and healing in Latin America.

About the Exhibition:

In recent decades, the extension of U.S. immigration and border enforcement policies to countries in Central America increasingly pressures migrant populations seeking refuge in the U.S. to travel the most remote and dangerous passages to the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2022, more than 200,000 migrants traversed the Darien Gap known to be one of the most dangerous sections of the journey through Central America. This series of photographs documents the embodied impact of the exportation of U.S. border enforcement 2,500 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border for migrants in transit through Panama.

We're thrilled to have the support of numerous co-sponsors including the Department of Anthropology, El Instituto, the Research Program on Arts & Human Rights, and the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC).

Join us! This event is in-person only in the lounge of The Dodd Center for Human Rights. You can find more information at http://s.uconn.edu/embodied-borders-exhibition-reception

Light snacks & refreshments will be served.

No registration is necessary. All are welcome!

Sustainability of the Global Order and the Human Rights Jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Hosted by the Connecticut/Baden-Wuerttemberg Human Rights Research Consortium

Thursday, February 2, 2023
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Eastern
Virtual Event

About this Event:
In my presentation, I will discuss the role of human rights in the jurisprudence of the ICJ as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. The Court does not decide disputes between states and individuals, but interstate disputes where the applicant claims that the respondent has perpetrated serious violations of international human rights law. This happens in particular in situations of armed conflict, where the Court usually does not have jurisdiction to decide on the legality of the use of force. The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) was invoked by Georgia and by Ukraine against the Russian Federation, and by Armenia and Azerbaijan against each other. The Genocide Convention has been the legal basis for the Court’s jurisdiction in the cases Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia, Croatia v. Serbia and The Gambia v. Myanmar. In the recent case Ukraine v. Russian Federation on ‘Allegations of Genocide’, the applicant invoked the Genocide Convention in reverse: Ukraine argued that Russia had wrongfully claimed that Ukraine had perpetrated genocide in the region of Donbass in order to legitimize the invasion of 24 February 2022. In the case Qatar v. United Arab Emirates, the Court disconnected the CERD from migration policies and ruled that the Convention was not applicable in instances of differential treatment based on current citizenship. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda case, the Court formulated for the first time in its jurisprudence the applicable principles and practices for the award of war reparations. Human rights law has taken center stage in the ICJ jurisprudence. The Court decides taking into account the geopolitical environment, the function of the United Nations to preserve and restore international peace and security and the effectiveness of its judgments. In this sense, the relevant jurisprudence defines the fundamental principles of world order.

Speaker:
Achilles Skordas (Public International Law/International Relations, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg)

For more information or to join us, please go to https://hrrc.bwgermany.uconn.edu/events/

This event is part of the Monthly Salon series of the Connecticut/Baden-Wuerttemberg Human Rights Research Consortium.

COMMUNITY DIALOGUE INITIATIVE

SAFETY & JUSTICE FOR ALL.
*Engage in dialogue with other
UConn students
*Help create a vision for Public Safety, Justice, and Policing in the Greater Hartford Region
*Develop action ideas and plan
for implementation including
direction to policymakers
*Participants will receive a $50 stipend

Register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SJAComDiUConn

In this Human Rights Research and Data Hub Workshop, Dr. Evan Perkoski will present his research on state-led mass killings. Why do some state-led mass killings end quickly while others endure for over a decade? And why do some states murder millions of constituents during the course of mass killings, whereas other states seem to retreat from the brink after killing hundreds? A large body of work has focused on the important role played by civil society and non-governmental actors in initiating different forms of rescue, evasion, and assistance in the midst of different cases of mass killings, as well as the political pressure they have applied in bringing about the ends of civil conflicts. Despite many inspiring and hopeful cases of collective action under systems of intense repression, other research finds civil society can accelerate or exacerbate mass killings. In this paper, we test some basic mechanisms that emerge from the literature on the connection between civil society and mass killings, and we find that a complex albeit meaningful relationship exists. We find that, in general, a relatively participatory and autonomous civil society is correlated with shorter mass killings. However, we also find that active civil societies are associated with higher rates of lethality, particularly when those civil society sectors exist in highly unequal polities. Because most mass killings are relatively short, our findings suggest that civil societies in states with uneven access to power are more commonly correlated with longer, deadlier spells of government violence. This conclusion seemingly supports the view of civil society skeptics, at least in highly unequal contexts where mass killings have already begun.

This event is hybrid in modality. We welcome you to join us in the Dodd Center for Human Rights, Room 162, or online by Zoom. We kindly ask that you register to attend in either modality.

For more info & to register, go to http://s.uconn.edu/a-source-of-escalation-or-a-source-of-restraint

The Human Rights Graduate Research Forum provides an opportunity for graduate students in any discipline or school doing human rights-related work to receive feedback from peers and faculty in an informal and supportive environment. These forums occur once per month during the academic year. Each session is split between the student researcher's presentation and time reserved for questions and feedback.

For our first session, Imge Akaslan, Ph.D. student in Political Science, will present "Global Labor Rights Enforcement in Small and Medium-Sized Textile Firms."

For more information and registration: http://s.uconn.edu/hri-graduate-research-forum

Grit & Grace: The Fight for the American Dream is a groundbreaking documentary-style film produced by the 117th Congress's House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth and directed by Oscar Guerra, Associate Professor of Digital Media & Design at UConn Stamford. Narrated by EMMY® award-winning actress Sarah Jessica Parker, this first-of-its-kind movie features three true stories from across the country of what it means to find economic security in America, as well as the diverse paths people are taking to get there.

The event will begin with a reception and remarks by UConn President Radenka Maric, former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, U.S. Representative Jim Himes, and Grit & Grace director Oscar Guerra. A full screening of the film will follow. After, community leaders from across Connecticut will join Representative Himes for a panel discussion and Q&A.

More information and registration (required) is available here: http://s.uconn.edu/grit-and-grace

This event was made possible by Dodd Human Rights Impact, the Department of Digital Media & Design, and UConn Stamford.