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<font color="#800000"><b><i>The Year-in-Review from the MIT Program on
Human Rights and Justice (PHRJ)<br><br>
</i><u>New Listserve Format<br>
</u></b></font>In an effort to reduce SPAM, the management of this
listserve has undergone some changes; you may now subscribe or
unsubscribe by visiting
<a href="http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/phrj-list">http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/phrj-list</a>.
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.<br><br>
<font color="#800000"><b><u>Events<br>
</u></b></font>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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
<font color="#800000"><b><u>Interns and Fellows<br>
</u></b></font>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. <br><br>
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."<b> </b> 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."<br><br>
<font color="#800000"><b><u>Future Plans<br>
</u></b></font>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
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/phrj">http://web.mit.edu/phrj</a> 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:<br><br>
Susan Frick<br>
Program Assistant<br>
Program on Human Rights and Justice<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
Building 9 Room 365<br>
Mailing address:<br>
E38-600, 292 Main Street<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307<br>
Tel: 617 258 7614<br>
Fax: 617 253 2654<br>
Email: fricks@mit.edu<br>
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/phrj">http://web.mit.edu/phrj</a><br><br>
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