From the Consortium President
Message Posted February, 2007
Dear IHREC members,
Since my last message there has been a great deal of activity among our members. Before departing for a month long journey that will take me to Washington, India (Mumbai, Kerala), Albania (Tirana) and Bulgaria (Sofia), I wanted to provide you with an update as to Consortium activities.
New IHREC Members:
Nicolai Titulescu University of Bucharest, Romania
Nicolai Titutlescu University joined the Consortium in the spring of 2006. Regrettable due to some technical error the Secretariat was unable to post their information form until now.
Recently Catrinel Brumar a lecturer at Nicolai Titulescu sent a message to our membership requesting contributions for the Romanian Journal of International Law.
“The aim of the RJIL is to promote its own vision and, thus, to bring a relevant contribution of the Romanian school of international law to the general debate concerning the progressive development of contemporary international law, starting from the premise that the virtues of this branch of law are efficient instruments to successfully solve the most complex international issues. The RJIL, moreover, focuses on subjects of real significance for the ongoing international relations, large spaces being dedicated to comments of the most recent international courts' jurisprudence and to recent events regarding international law, including those of interest for Romania…
The Journal has a main section of articles, which are results of research projects in various areas of international law and can be submitted in a widely used foreign language (especially English/French). .. The editors are willing to receive your contributions for any of the sections of the journal in the following e-mail address of the editor-in-chief: bogdan.aurescu@mae.ro .”
Eralda (Methasani) Cani of Tirana, Albania
Eralda (Methasani) Cani, a lawyer, formerly working with the OSCE in Albania and a faculty member at the University of Tirana, is now on scholarship studying at George Washington University Law School, Washington D.C. Eralda was one of the two principal Albanian speaking contributors to the Albanian/English Human Rights Glossary, now being updated for its Second Edition.
Gjylieta Mushkolaj of Prishtina, Kosovo
Gjylieta Mushkolaj teaches at the Law Faculty of the University of Prishtina, works for ABA Ceeli program and sits on the Board of the American University of Kosovo. Gjylieta is the other principal contributor to the Albanian/English Human Rights Glossary. She is leading the Kosovo team who is revising the work for the Second Edition.
Natalia Simagustina of Chisinau, Moldova
Natalia Simagustina is a human rights lawyer long associated with Moldovan NGOs. In the immediate past she has led a project to research the alterations of the Moldovan juvenile justice system and to have it conform to international human rights standards.
Monica Grunfeld Rius of Madrid, Spain
Monica Grunfeld Rius is a member of the Federación de Asociaciones para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos-España. Monica gave a presentation at the Berlin conference where she discussed the minority rights issues of Spanish minorities and human rights education.
University of Helsinki, Finland
The University of Helsinki, Department of Applied Sciences of Education, Centre for Religious Education, Ethics and Philosophy Education has recently joined the Consortium. Eero Salmenkivi, a university lecturer and staff member of the Centre has worked in teacher education in Finland and has worked abroad along with the Kosova Center for Human Rights in Peja, a Consortium member. In a recent meeting in Helsinki with VP Reetta Toivanen and Ted Orlin, plans were discussed regarding the further development of human rights education in Finland and Nordic cooperation for human rights education.
~
MEMBER NEWS AND EVENTS:
I periodically write a letter to the Consortium members about every other month. I attempt to inform our members of IHREC activities. It would be very useful if members can send me information that I can include in this message as to what is happening at their institutions and with their human rights education activities. Information such as the publication of new books, lectures, awards, promotions, training programs, etc. that you feel would be of interest to Consortium members, are welcomed. While the Secretariat will of course continue to post the information on the web page, it would be useful if I could include it in this message.
Below is some recent information I have received-
Shayna Plaut of Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, sent us this announcement of an upcoming event:
AUTHORING A CULTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS - MONDAY FEBRUARY 26TH 3:30-5:00PM 623 S. WABASH
Art, media and human rights? What are your thoughts? Please join us and please feel free to pass this to others. It is YOUR voice that is vital. This is event is open to the public. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Iris Parker at iparker@colum.edu or Shayna Plaut at shayna.plaut@gmail.com
Please join Prof. Mark Ensalaco, founding member of the International Human Rights Education Consortium and founder and former Director of the, International Studies and Human Rights Studies Programs at the University of Dayton in an interactive exploration of human rights, media and culture - within higher education. Free and open to the public.
Liam Gearon of Roehampton College, UK informed the Secretariat that Roehampton will be hosting a conference on Education and Extremism - the dates are around 5, 6, 7 July 2007. Liam will be also making a visit to Australian institution later in the spring.
David Chanatry of Utica College received First Prize for his radio story on "Mjaft", which was recorded in Albania and was heard on NPR last spring, in the Broadcast Education Association Media Festival. The story won in the short form category.
~
IHREC EVENTS:
Mumbai, India
A Roundtable Conference On The Occasion of International Human Right Day- “The Future of Human Rights Education” was held on the 21st December 2006 at SNDT Women's University. The event was organized by SNDT University (Dept. of Political Science) and Justice & Peace Commission (Documentation Research and Training Centre.) The roundtable was chaired by Allwyn D’Silva and Dr. Vibhuti Patel.
Discussed were the purposes of Human Rights Education and the expected learning outcomes as well as the skills and competencies that should be taught. The intent was to determine if there should be a core Human Rights Education curriculum defining a minimal set of requirements for Human Rights Education. The objective was to identify best practices in human rights education in the Indian context.
For a full report of this event contact: Allwyn D'Silva and ICOR icor@mtnl.net.in
February 16, 2007 -- IHREC Roundtable Meeting
Washington DC, USA
Marcel Kitissou (GMU) and Mark Ensalaco (University of Dayton) have organized this event and as of the time of this newsletter over 35 human rights educators have agreed to participate. In the morning their will be a briefing before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. After a guided tour of the Holocaust Museum there will be a roundtable regarding the future of human rights education.
Contacts: Marcel Kitissou: mk224@cornell.edu
Mark Ensalaco: Mark.Ensalaco@notes.udayton.edu
February 20-22, 2007 -- Human Rights NGO Education Workshop
Mumbai, India
February 27, 2007– March 1, 2007 -- Human Rights NGO Education Workshop
Kerala, India
Plans are being finalized for these two workshops and there is still an opportunity to participate.
Contacts: Allwyn D’Silva: drtc@vsnl.com
Shweta Shalini: shwetashalini@yahoo.com
March 14-17, 2007 -- Albanian Human Rights Film Festival
Tirana, Albania
The Marubi Film and Media School and its director, Kujtim Çashku have been planning along with some of our Albanian Consortium members, other NGOS, UNICEF, and a number of embassies, the Second Annual Albanian Human Rights Film Festival. The film selection will soon be announced. Many Consortium members plan to come to the Festival including educators and activists from other parts of the Balkans, e.g.; Kosovo, Romania. In attendance will also be visitors from the U.S. and European countries.
The intent is to make this an ongoing event that will bring together the human rights and international communities along with Albanian students and the general public. The 2006 was well publicized in the media and attracted large audiences where they witnessed feature length and documentaries on human rights and heard experts discussed the issues these films portrayed.
Contact: Kujtim Çashku: Kujtim@marubifilmschool.com
March 21, 2007 -- Roundtable on Human Rights Education Problems and Issues in Bulgaria
Rila Hotel, Downtown Sofia, Bulgaria
Consortium members Tania Marincheska and Krassimir Kanev (Bulgarian Helsinki Committee) are arranging this roundtable. This is the second Consortium meeting in Sofia with the first being an organizational meeting. The organizers anticipate a representative group of Bulgarian University professors and human rights advocates.
Contact: Tania Reytan-Marincheshka: treytan26@yahoo.com
May 2007 -- Organizational Meeting
Osaka, Japan
Dates for this event has not been finalized, but it is likely to occur in either the third or fourth week of May.
Contacts: Theodore Orlin: ihrec@utica.edu
Jeff Plantilla: jeff@hurights.or.jp
June 2007 -- Organizational Meeting
Philippines
Plans are now being finalized and it is anticipated there will be a meeting in either the first or second week of June to plan our next Asian Regional Conference. The precise date and location is forthcoming
Contacts: Theodore Orlin: ihrec@utica.edu J
eff Plantilla: jeff@hurights.or.jp
October 4-6, 2007 -- IHREC Board Meeting -St. Thomas University
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
Plans are now being made for an eventful weekend. We are hoping that not only will there be full Board participation, but that many of our members will join us at St. Thomas, the site of our first international conference in 2001.
Contact: Michael McGowan: mmcgowan@stu.ca
~
Once again I want to express my appreciation to all of you who have supported the Consortium with your efforts, dues and talents. I am confident that our cooperative efforts have furthered our objective of promoting human rights education. For those of you I am about to visit, I look forward to our meeting.
I trust that the IHREC has in some way assisted our membership in the development of human rights education and I look forward to our continued work together.
As always I welcome your comments and concerns and will attempt to respond to your correspondence in a timely fashion.
Sincerely,
Ted Orlin