[Mitai-announce] [Phrj-list] Yearly Update from MIT's Program on Human Rights

[Susan Frick]

The Year-in-Review from the MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice (PHRJ)

New Listserve Format
In an effort to reduce SPAM, the management of this listserve has undergone 
some changes; you may now subscribe or unsubscribe by visiting 
<http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/phrj-list>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/phrj-list. 
We will continue to announce human rights-related events in the MIT 
community via this digest in the fall, but in the meantime wanted to share 
with you a brief summary of PHRJ activities over the past year.

Events
During the year 2003-04, the PHRJ was led by Acting Director Professor 
Diane Davis. The speaker series featured such activists and academics as 
Ananya Roy, University of California, Berkeley, Congressmen Mike Honda and 
Barney Frank, and Justice J.S. Verma, former Chief Justice of the Indian 
Supreme Court and former Chair of the National Human Rights Commission. The 
Spring 2004 semester included events specifically highlighting the ethical 
challenges plaguing the science and technology fields, such as "Industrial 
Impunity: Remembering the Bhopal Gas Tragedy," and "Depleted Uranium 
Anti-Tank Shells: Toxic Contaminant or Smart Technology?" Other speakers 
included Professor Jonathan Glover on Rights and Ethics in Scientific 
Research in which faculty and students representing a wide range of fields 
joined the debate.

In November 2003, the PHRJ co-hosted a conference on "Human Rights and 
Impunity: Towards Accountability in India." The conference was organized by 
students from MIT and Harvard and featured prominent experts on human 
rights from South Asia, international legal scholars, journalists and 
activists. In April 2004, a conference constructed along the theme "Human 
Rights and Technology" drew over one hundred academics and practitioners to 
MIT for a series of panels and workshops.  From reflections on "Threats to 
Human Rights in the Digital Realm" to hands-on trainings by such 
organizations as the Ruckus Society and Prometheus Radio Project, 
participants engaged the subject in both theory and practice, learning both 
how to build wireless systems and community radios and how to utilize such 
technological innovations in the service of human rights.

Interns and Fellows
Seven MIT students are spending the summer of 2004 in Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, 
India, Mexico, and the United States, pursuing research on health and 
sanitation best practices, community organizing and the protection of the 
right to water, the economic sustainability of the forestry sector, and the 
relationship between labor and shelter rights.

Two new fellows joined the PHRJ for the academic year: Ms. Gabrielle 
Watson, a leading activist in economic and social rights, who researched 
export credit agency accountability under International Human Rights Law, 
and Professor Arturo Alvarado Mendoza from Mexico, who pursued a research 
project entitled "Constructing the Rule of Law: Public Security, Justice 
and Democracy Building."  They joined Professor June-Ho Jang of South Korea 
who was researching comparative community participation as a human rights 
strategy and Shahid Nanavati, who conducted research on "Village Adoption 
Schemes for the Developing World."  In April 2004 Dr. Luise Druke of the 
UNHCR began the project "Human Rights and Justice in the 20th and 21st 
Centuries in International Affairs and Refugee Policy with emphasis on 
Post-communist countries in transition." In September 2004, PHRJ will 
welcome Dr. Gary Troeller, a senior executive with the UNHCR to study "The 
Refugee Issue in International Relations: the Post Cold War Era and Beyond" 
and Professor Obiora Okafor from Osgoode Law School in Canada to pursue 
research related to "Refugee Rights after 9/11: A Comparative Analysis of 
the Canadian and USA Regimes."

Future Plans
Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal has returned as Director of the Program 
and plans are underway for the fall, when PHRJ will build upon the existing 
Thursday afternoon speaker series with a new lecture series featuring 
scientists' reflections on the place of human rights in their work. Please 
visit the updated PHRJ website 
<http://web.mit.edu/phrj>http://web.mit.edu/phrj for information about MIT 
courses related to human rights as well as more details about all of our 
programs. If you are interested in collaborating with the PHRJ, please 
contact Susan Frick to learn more about opportunities to get involved:

Susan Frick
Program Assistant
Program on Human Rights and Justice
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Building 9 Room 365
Mailing address:
E38-600, 292 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Tel: 617 258 7614
Fax: 617 253 2654
Email: fricks at mit.edu
<http://web.mit.edu/phrj>http://web.mit.edu/phrj

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