Hi fellow members of the Association for Canadian Human Rights Institutes/Association canadienne des instituts des droits de la personne,
At our founding meeting at the
Realizing Rights conference in Ottawa in June, participants expressed interest in learning a bit about each other’s organizations without having to wade through a long annual report. Below is a nutshell description of our research centre. We would be interested
in reading similar summaries of your organizations.
Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Manitoba
Founding director: Law Prof. Karen Busby
Established: 2012
Mandate: The Centre for Human Rights Research brings together people and organizations – both within and outside the University of Manitoba – to enhance interdisciplinary
and collaborative research capacity, create richer training opportunities for students, and facilitate the fusion of research-driven knowledge, public policy and intellectual debate on issues related to human rights and social justice. The centre aims to facilitate
research that is both academically rigorous and accessible to the public.
Current research themes: sexual and reproductive rights, drinking water and sanitation as a human right, documenting human rights, rights of adolescents.
Governance: the director reports to the VP Research. The deans of Arts, Law, Social Work and Education appoint professors to the advisory board.
Annual budget: about $187,00 core funding from VP Research + research grants (SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR, Health Canada, international, etc.)
Staff: full-time manager and half-time office assistant. Director receives one course release per year.
Main annual events:
1)
Research workshop bringing together 20 experts, often from across Canada or beyond, on an emerging human rights issue. This generates special journal issues, co-authored books and new collaborative
research projects.
2)
Semester-long seminar series on an emerging human rights topic that is available to law and graduate students for credit but also open to the general public for free and podcast/summarized online.
Publications: director co-edits a Human Rights and Social Justice book series for the University of Manitoba Press.
Other ongoing activities: law student speakers bureau for high school classes, media training for professors.
Public profile:
director and other CHRR-supported researchers were quoted in or wrote more than 50 print and broadcast news stories about human rights issues last year.
Degree programs: director will be a non-voting member on the program committee of a new interdisciplinary Master of Human Rights program expected to launch at the University
of Manitoba in 2020.
Website: chrr.info
Annual report:
http://law.robsonhall.com/chrr/about-us/annual-reports/
Helen Fallding, MA, BSc (Hons)
Manager,
Centre for Human Rights Research
University of Manitoba
Room 442, Robson Hall
Winnipeg, MB
R3T 2N2
Phone: 204-474-6156
Fax: 204-480-1084
