From the Consortium President
Message Posted December 15, 2006
Dear IHREC members,
Before the end of the is year I wanted to update you of the recent activities of the Consortium.
New IHREC Members - The IHREC is happy to announce the addition of the following new members to our international Consortium:
Marubi Film and Multimedia School of Tirana, Albania
The director of the Marubi Film School is Kujtim Cashku. Kujtim in addition to being a dedicated human rights advocate, is a award winning film maker.He has organized the Albanian Human Rights film Festival which is co-sponsored by the IHREC, with several of our Albanian members, UNICEF, The American Embassy and others.
Kit Chan of Lamma Island, Hong Kong
Kit is a well known human rights advocate who has participated in our Asian regional meeting and has worked closely with our Asian Consortium members.
Christine Boyd of Washington, DC, USA
Christine is a PHd candidate from American University, Washington D.C. ,who has extensive human rights work in Romania. She attended our Berlin meeting and is now participating in the roundtable we will soon hold in Washington DC.
Dr. Olga Gulina of Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
Olga attended our Berlin Conference and is now planning along with Reetta Toivanen and Ted Orlin a human rights workshop at her University in Ufa, Russia.
Kathleen Modrowski of Brooklyn, NY, USA
Kathleen attended our workshop in Utica. She has long experience as a human rights activist and works closely with Consortium member Shula Koenig.
Professor James Dawes of St. Paul, MN, USA
Jim is a academic and human rights activist from Macalaster College in Minnesota. James has expressed interest in providng human rights training in Asia.
We need also to welcome the Department of Applied Sciences of Education, University of Helsinki - I hope to meeting with Eero Salmenkivi when I visit Helsinki the end of this month.
The newest memebr of the Consortium is Ms. Monica Grunfeld Rius of the Federación de Asociaciones para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos-España. Monica attended the Berlin meeting and did a wonderful panel presentation regarding human rights education in Spain. We are now discussing mutual plans for Consortium activities.
Minutes
For your review I have posted a copy of the minutes of our October Board meeting held in Utica, New York. As always if you have any questions regarding the meeting or the actions taken please write to the Secretariat and the respective Board members.
Berlin Meeting
We need to congratulate Board member Reetta Toivanen and her colleagues for hosting a wonderful conference/meeting in Berlin. Rita Maran and I were very impressed with the quality of participation. As you now know one result of that meeting was the admission of several new Consortium members. As referred above several projects are now being considered in cooperation with the new members.
Indian Training Programs
Plans are going ahead for the two Indian HRs training programs organized by Allwyn D'silva and Shweta Shalini for Feb/March 2007. The announcement have been prepared and the preparation is being finalized.
Asian Region Events
Mab Huang and his colleagues are just about finished with the Chinese/English (Four volume) human rights glossary which should be in print by the spring. This glossary has been a cooperative effort with some IHREC member contributions.
European Activities
Along the same lines Romanian and Bulgarian speaking Consortium members are now inspired to prepare a similar resource for their respective languages. The Albanian/Kosovars will update their glossary and begin to prepare a new edition.
Our Swedish (Goteborg) member has announce a joint masters program with Roehampton - Liam Gearon's input is felt in that project and as the minutes attest the cooperation between Roehampton and St. Thomas continues.
October Board 2007 Meeting-St. Thomas University, New Brunswick, Canada
Michael informs me that progress is being made for our Oct. Board meeting which will be in Fredericton and we anticipate a productive meeting/conference - we all need to save the date. Announcements of speakers and events are forthcoming.
Washington Roundtable- Feb. 2007- Other Roundtables Planned
After our roundtable in Utica Mark and Marcel Kitissou began organizing a roundtable in Washington DC which will have some "high powered' participants (Feb. 16). Pamela Thompson has been talking to the University of Denver about a roundtable there and there are prospects for others in the Midwest in addition to one planned for Dayton in the Fall 2007.
Our plans for a roundtable in Sofia (March 07) and in Goteborg (date ?) are proceeding - We are hoping we can have other roundtables in the UK and elsewhere. Allwyn D'Silva has arranged for a roundtable discussion in India for December.
Upcoming 2006-07 IHREC Events:
December 21, 2006 IHREC Roundtable Meeting: Mumbai, India
February 16, 2007 IHREC Roundtable Meeting: Washington DC, USA
Contacts: Marcel Kitissou: mk224@cornell.edu Mark Ensalaco: Mark.Ensalaco@notes.udayton.edu
Human Rights NGO Education Workshops: February 20-22, 2007 Mumbai, India Contacts: Allwyn D’Silva: drtc@vsnl.com Shweta Shalini: shwetashalini@yahoo.com
February 27, 2007– March 1, 2007 Kerala, India Contacts: Allwyn D’Silva: drtc@vsnl.com Shweta Shalini: shwetashalini@yahoo.com
March 14-17, 2007 Albanian Human Rights Film Festival: Tirana, Albania Contact: Kujtim Çashku: kujtim@marubifilmschool.com
March 2007 Organizational Meeting: Bulgaria Contacts: Theodore Orlin: ihrec@utica.edu Krassimir Kannev: krassimir@bghelsinki.org Tania Reytan-Marincheshka: treytan26@yahoo.com
May 2007 Organizational Meeting: Osaka, Japan Contacts: Theodore Orlin: ihrec@utica.edu Jeff Plantilla: jeff@hurights.or.jp
June 2007 Organizational Meeting: Philippines Contacts: Theodore Orlin: ihrec@utica.edu Jeff Plantilla: jeff@hurights.or.jp
October 4-6, 2007 IHREC Board Meeting: St. Thomas University New Brunswick, Canada Contact: Michael McGowan: mmcgowan@stu.ca
IHREC members are welcomed at all Consortium events without fee –accommodations and travel are not provided.
Dues: At the October Board meeting the voluntary dues policy that was approved at the Roehampton Meeting was continued for 2006-07. I have attached a copy of the dues form which includes the policy. For those members who have sent their dues, a notice was sent to the Consortium treasurer, Mark Ensalaco, and a receipt was sent. As you are well aware all dues received are primarily used for Consortium meetings and activities. Since there are no salaried employees and the Secretariat has assumed the expenses of the day to day operation of the IHREC, the dues are used directly for the substantive work of the Consortium and its members. The Board encourages you to continue your support of Consortium for the enhancement and promotion of human rights education.
As always thank you for your support, cooperation and hard work for human rights and human rights education. Happy new year and a good holiday to you all. I look forward to when we can all meet together again.
Sincerely,
Ted Orlin
Theodore S. Orlin
President