11 research outputs found
\u27What a Difference Democracy Makes\u27
Human rights expert Mark Ensalaco talks to The New York Times and BBC Radio about how the rescue of the Chilean miners is tied to Chile\u27s dark past
2013 Conference Report: The Social Practice of Human Rights
Universities have new importance in the global human rights movement.
This was the resounding message the University of Dayton heard at its global conference on human rights advocacy in October 2013. The human rights movement is experiencing dramatic changes. Dynamic new NGOs in the global South are resetting the human rights agenda. Popular movements inspired by human rights ideals are arising around the world to demand justice. New information technologies are creating the possibility of real global solidarity. The movement must adapt. Human rights organizations must imagine new strategies to address poverty and other root causes of human rights violations. Human rights organizations must collaborate more intentionally with humanitarian and development organizations, foundations and popular movements. Advocacy must be directed at transformative solutions to systemic patterns of injustice.
It is time for new thinking about human rights advocacy. This is the challenge for the global human rights research and advocacy community. The Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton, with its singular focus on advocacy, is rising to this challenge.
The global conference on the Social Practice of Human Rights set in motion the Human Rights Center’s commitment to education, research and dialogue. Over three days, veteran human rights professionals presented research and engaged in constructive critique of the human rights movement, all to serve a vital purpose: to produce concrete proposals to strengthen the human rights movement’s capacity to confront emerging threats to human dignity and rights. The conference’s plenary dialogues yielded recurring themes about the movement’s achievements and failures, challenges it must confront, actions it must undertake, and changes it must make. A consensus evolved: Solid empirical and applied research is critical to meaningful human rights advocacy. Advocacy benefits from critical introspection and constructive critique. Dialogue leading to collaboration is the key to bringing about real change to the systemic patterns of injustice that cause human rights violations
Putting site back into trauma studies: A study of five detention and torture centres in Santiago, Chile
Modern states often find it convenient to silence the victims of torture and terror by silencing the memory of sites of violence, or by obliterating the sites themselves. Through a study of five sites of state violence in Santiago, Chile, we consider the importance of place in the healing of individual and collective trauma. Survivors of terror and torture, their families, the families of the disappeared, and subsequent generations each have special needs of therapy and healing. We argue that in each the historic site of violence remains crucial. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC