Center Faculty/Staff News
Robert K. Goldman, Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Center), and member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), traveled to Vienna, Austria, in September to attend the International Colloquy on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, organized by the Austrian Foreign Ministry, at which he spoke on the IACHR's use of the Principles. Thereafter, he participated in the Inter-American Commission's 108th regular session. He joined the United States Institute of Peace's (USIP) International Humanitarian Law Working Group and attended its first meeting, during which members examined the role of new actors in the implementation and enforcement of international humanitarian law. In November, he traveled to Costa Rica to argue a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court) and participated in a seminar in Bogotá, Colombia, on the Inter-American Human Rights System, organized by the Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor General's office.
Claudio Grossman, Dean, Co-Director of the Center, and member of the IACHR, participated as a panelist at the World Bank Conference, "The Gender Dimension of Human Rights: A Development Perspective," on June 1, speaking on the legal and institutional framework for protecting and promoting women's human rights in the Inter-American System. From June 4-6, he served as a representative of the IACHR to the Organization of American States' (OAS) General Assembly in Windsor, Canada. On June 12 and June 16, Dean Grossman spoke in a series of conferences on "The Inter-American System for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in Brazil," which took place in Brasilia and Sao Paulo, respectively. On June 22, Dean Grossman participated in the "Global Young Leaders Conference," held in Washington, D.C., on a panel entitled "International Law and Human Rights." On July 17, Dean Grossman participated in the "Challenges for Human Rights" panel at the American Bar Association (ABA) Annual Meeting in London and had the article "Moving Toward Improved Human Rights Enforcement in the Americas" published by the ABA in conjunction with the conference. On August 7, Dean Grossman participated in the 18th Costa Rican Interdisciplinary Course on Human Rights, entitled "Administration of Justice in the Inter-American Human Rights System in Light of the Resolutions of its Organs." From August 11-12, Dean Grossman represented the victims in the case Paniagua Morales y otros before the Court in San Jose, Costa Rica. At the Annual Meeting of B'nai B'rith International held in Washington, D.C., on August 27, Dean Grossman gave the keynote address regarding improvements in the prevention of human rights abuses. On September 26, Dean Grossman participated in a panel on human rights at the Inter-American Defense College Seminar on Human Rights, hosted at WCL. On October 26, he presented introductory remarks at the American Association of Law Schools' "Workshop on Human Rights: Teaching and Scholarship, New Issues, New Approaches," held in Alexandria, Virginia and also moderated a panel discussion entitled "Consent and Compliance."
Beth Lyon, Practitioner-in-Residence at the WCL International Human Rights Law Clinic (IHRLC), wrote a paper entitled "Organization of American States," which appeared in the Manual of Human Rights Complaint Mechanisms Available to Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. Professor Lyon presented the paper on July 22, at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, United Kingdom. From July to August, Professor Lyon acted as consultant to the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), in Geneva, Switzerland. She also drafted a manual entitled "Making Your Case to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," which was published by COHRE in November.
Claudia Martin, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Center's Inter-American Human Rights Digest Project, lectured during the seminar "Training of Human Rights Law Professors on International Human Rights Standards," in Bogotá, Colombia, which took place from April 23-27. During the summer, in collaboration with Professor Diego Rodríguez, Professor Martin helped organize and coordinate a series of three human rights training sessions for approximately 1,000 Colombian public defenders, which constitutes nearly two-thirds of all Colombian public defenders. The sessions were held in the Colombian cities of Bogotá, Cartagena, and Cali. On September 18, Professor Martin participated as a facilitator at the conference "The Quality of Courage: A Dialogue with Human Rights Defenders," a discussion with the world's leading human rights activists, an event sponsored by WCL and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights. Other facilitators included Professors Shalleck and Smith.
Diane F. Orentlicher, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, testified on the human rights situation of the Romani minority in Europe at a hearing held on June 8 before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Washington. She delivered the keynote address at a conference on the Roma held in Brastislava, Slovakia, from June 14-15, sponsored by the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Professor Orentlicher spoke on the legal framework of crimes against humanity and genocide at an IHRLC conference co-sponsored with the Center for Human Rights Legal Action. The conference, entitled "Contemporary Perspectives in International Criminal Law: War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity," took place from July 26-28 in Antigua, Guatemala. On September 25, Professor Orentlicher participated in the first meeting of the USIP's Working Group on International Humanitarian Law. On October 2, she participated in a roundtable discussion sponsored by USIP on the Sierra Leone Special Court and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Jan Perlin, Practitioner-in-Residence at the IHRLC, was one of the organizers of an IHRLC conference co-sponsored with the Center for Human Rights Legal Action. The conference, entitled "Contemporary Perspectives in International Criminal Law: War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity," took place from July 26-28 in Antigua, Guatemala. As a panelist at this conference, Professor Perlin compared the objectives and functioning of truth commissions with those of criminal trials.
Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Center's Inter-American Human Rights Digest Project, participated in a joint lecture held on July 12 in Washington, D.C. with Clara Elena Reales, coordinator of the partnership between the Center and the Law School of the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, on the progress of human rights legal education. During the summer, he helped organize and coordinate, along with Professor Martin, the above-mentioned series of three human rights training sessions for approximately 1,000 Colombian public defenders.
Herman Schwartz, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, provided pro bono assistance to the Oregon Legal Service Fund and the Farm Workers Justice Fund on migrant worker cases in May. As part of this work, Professor Schwartz prepared an amicus curiae brief in support of Mexico's appeal challenging the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging discrimination against Mexican farmworkers. In June, the University of Chicago Press published Professor Schwartz's book The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe. On July 26, Professor Schwartz advised a Turkish human rights group on the legality under Turkish law and the European Convention of Human Rights of the detention of its members for conspiracy. From August 23-25, he gave an address and participated in a workshop held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Georgian Constitution. On September 14, Professor Schwartz gave an address at the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Center in Washington, D.C., on the topic of constitutional courts in post-communist Europe since 1989.
Ann Shalleck, Professor of Law, Director of WCL's Women and the Law Program, and Practitioner-in-Residence at the Women and the Law Clinic, co-wrote an article with Dean Grossman entitled "Women and International Law Program" for the textbook Genero y Derecho, the first textbook in Latin America on women and the law, co-published in 2000 by WCL's Women and International Law Program. From April 28-30, Professor Shalleck co-chaired the Working Group on Transnational Justice at a conference entitled "Women, Justice and Authority," co-sponsored by Yale Law School, the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program, and the Schell Center for International Human Rights. On June 1, as a panelist at the World Bank conference "The Gender Dimension of Human Rights: A Development Perspective," Professor Shalleck delivered an address entitled "Integrating Gender into Legal EducationCA Strategy for Promoting Gender Equity in Latin America."
Brenda V. Smith, Associate Professor of Law at the Community and Economic Development Law Clinic, is currently serving as consultant to the Ford Foundation, assisting the Program Officer for the Women's Right Portfolio in assessing grantmaking strategies with a view toward enhancing the visibility and effectiveness of women of color and women from the global south in the international human rights agenda. In her capacity as manager of the National Institute of Corrections' nationwide efforts on training correctional decision-makers about sexual misconduct, she conducted trainings in Washington, D.C., from September 24-29. In November, Professor Smith authored the second edition of the practice manual "End to Silence, Prisoners' Handbook on Identifying and Addressing Sexual Misconduct," which includes a chapter entitled "Fifty State Survey of Criminal Laws Prohibiting Sexual Abuse of Prisoners." WCL published this manual.
Richard J. Wilson, Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center, Director of the IHRLC, and Director of the WCL Clinical Program, gave a talk entitled "Legal Education and Human Rights" as part of a seminar on the training of professors in human rights and the Inter-American system, which was held in Colombia on April 24. On May 9-13, he participated in a seminar on human rights strategies for lawyering in Africa, conducted by the International Human Rights Law Group and the Legal Resource Center, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Also in May, he authored an article entitled "Defending a Criminal Case with International Human Rights Law," published in The Champion, a magazine of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. On May 25-27, Professor Wilson participated in a conference entitled "Legal Services and Human Rights in Central America and Mexico," sponsored by the International Human Rights Law Group and the Myrna Mack Foundation, in Guatemala City, Guatemala. On September 18, Professor Wilson hosted the panel discussion "The Quality of Courage: A Dialogue with Human Rights Defenders," held at WCL. c
The proper citation for this article in the Human Rights Brief Volume 8, Issue 2, beginning at page 31 is: 8 No. 2 Hum. Rts. Brief 31 (2000).
