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Narrating Transitional Justice Conference
July 29-30, 2021
The international conference, which took place over the course of two days, was organized by the Centre in partnership with Illinois State University. It brought together expert scholars, policymakers, and civil society stakeholders
to examine narratives of transitional justice at the intersections of literary culture, history, memory, poetics and politics. It featured 52 participants from 15 different countries; two keynote speakers, Juan Gabriel Vásquez and Dr. Zakes Mda; and a broad
range of presentations that revealed the cultural force of narrativity as a key instrument that defines and shapes processes of transitional justice.
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International Business and Right to Development Online Course
In accordance with the Centre`s vision, Dr. Mesut Yilmaz created an online course titled “International Business and Right
to Development,” which focuses on the United Nations` Sustainable Development Goals. He currently teaches this course with the support of the Centre in multiple countries in the Global South.
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Beyond the Penal and the Carceral: Alternatives to Criminalization to Address Social Need
Recent attentions to systemic racism within criminal justice systems including courts, policing, prison systems and surveillance technologies have convened
a confluence of analyses, positions of and on the penal and carceral logics that have been historically rationalized and contemporarily mobilized to authorized force, violence, confinement, and persecution in response to perceived criminality.
During this panel, Drs. Joseph and Walcott engaged these issues with a specific attention to alternatives to penal and carceral systems, and to criminalizing logics to respond to social needs. Presentations engaged issues of restorative justice, abolition,
defunding, resource reallocation, as well as anti-carceral analyses.
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Book Launch & Discussion: The Colombian Peace Agreement
This event was organized as the launch of The Colombian Peace Agreement – Multidisciplinary Agreement (Routledge, 2021) edited by Jorge Fabra-Zamora, Andres
Molina Ochoa and Nancy Doubleday.
The event included a presentation of the book’s chapters and themes, as well as a discussion with the volume’s contributors. The event was simultaneously
translated to Spanish.
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Participedia Updates
Participedia
is the world’s largest open-access global crowdsourcing platform for researchers, activists, practitioners, and anyone interested in public participation and democratic innovations. Phase 1 of Participedia focused on generating research and knowledge mobilization,
documenting over 1600 cases and 330 methods of democratic innovation from around the world and did so by developing an inclusive open-sourced web-based platform.
Participedia Phase 2, now based at McMaster University received a $2.5 million Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. At McMaster, Participedia has expanded the scope of research to 5 new targeted areas and implemented
a research and knowledge mobilization co-design process to reflect the interdisciplinary and complex nature of democratic innovations and issues. Over the past six months, Participedia has organized a new Teaching, Training and Mentoring Committee, conducted
extensive editorial work, developed a communications team and social media strategy, initiated a student run podcast, and led co-design workshops. The CHRRJ has been a key source in offering RA support for case production and editorial work for the release
of a series of essays with
Public Agenda that are being released on
Apolitical.
Dr. Paul Emiljanowicz, the Project Manager of Participedia, was interviewed by the German journal Wissenschafts Kommunikation. Dr. Emiljanowicz outlined the vision and objectives of Participedia. He explained how Participedia is focused on widening the scope
of how we understand democratic innovations, which are the creative expressions of democracy that people around the world come up with to address real-life challenges they face.
Read more from Dr. Emiljanowicz’s interview
here.
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In Collaboration with Public Agenda: Addressing the Historical Legacy of Racial Injustice
The work of the CHRRJ and Participedia has recently received international attention in an essay published by Apolitical, a global knowledge platform used
by researchers, public servants, and policymakers around the world. Developed with Public Agenda, and using Participedia.net and resources from the CHRRJ, co-authors Treston Codrington and Matt Leighninger argue for the utility of truth commissions in addressing
historical legacies of racial injustice.
There has been substantial research conducted on the benefits and challenges in implementing truth commission as transitional justice mechanisms, however,
this essay and the work of Participedia highlights the importance of understanding truth commissions as potential opportunities for civic engagement and democratic participation.
Read the full essay
here.
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UN Study on Racism, Racial Discrimination, and the Right to Development
Graduate Students Quinn Anderson and Adebisi Alade worked with Dr. Ibhawoh to produce a UN thematic study on “Racism, Racial Discrimination and the Right
to Development.” This report was produced by Dr. Ibhawoh in his capacity as an Independent Expert on the Right to Development.
The study examines racism and racial discrimination as barriers to the operationalization of the right to development (RTD) in the context of state obligations,
international cooperation, and global partnerships on the right to development. The study is aimed at providing guidance to States and other stakeholders on addressing the challenges and obstacles that racism and racial discrimination pose to operationalizing
the right to development.
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UN Climate Change Conference and the Global Citizen's Assembly
In November of 2021 Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow with the Global Citizen’s Assembly to present
the People’s Declaration for the Sustainable Future of Planet Earth. The Global Citizen’s Assembly was co-designed from the “bottom up” with institutions and citizens from around the world. The goal of the Global Assembly is to provide a seat for everyone
at the global governance table and to provide resources for individuals and organizations to conduct citizen assemblies on a local scale.
The People’s Declaration was drafted by citizen assembly members to bring forth the interests and demands of citizens to international decision-making bodies. In an interview with Jennifer Wallace on behalf of Participedia, Dr. Ibhawoh expressed that presenting
the People’s Declaration in a format such as at the UN Climate Change Conference was an important way to interject these types of events that can be exclusionary to numerous voices with the voices of citizens.
See Dr. Ibhawoh’s interview reflecting on his experience at COP26
here.
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KUWO Leadership Academy Partnership
In partnership with the KUWO Leadership Academy, founded by Leo Nupolu Johnson:
We successfully completed the training of the first cohort of KUWO Fellows comprising of seventeen young people in Liberia. An intensive leadership training lasting six months was utilized, where a mixed module of virtual and in–person sessions (80% virtual
and 20% in person) allowed for the participation of global leaders from Canada, South Africa and the Liberian Diaspora. There were 10 online custom training sessions – two hours each, on Saturdays and Sundays weekly.
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Alpha
Abebe
Seeing the need for solidarity and assistance in Toronto’s East African community related to navigating government resources
in the early months of the pandemic, Dr. Alpha Abebe spearheaded the development of a multi-language website and helpline aimed at addressing language and access barriers. A group of volunteers translate government announcements and resources into numerous
languages spoken in East Africa and resources are made available on the site for individuals to request support or share community initiatives. There are also tailored resources, such as a FAQ for taxi and rideshare drivers, because of how many people in the
community work in this sector. Dr. Abebe has turned to formal research methods to continue to determine the need and capacity for this type of community work across Ontario.
You can visit the group’s website at
https://ethioerisupport.webnode.com
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Ameil
Joseph
Congratulations to Dr. Ameil Joseph on his new Faculty of Social Sciences’ professorship in equity, diversity, inclusion
and Indigenous strategies (EDIIS) at McMaster. This new five-year professorship will allow Dr. Joseph to fully dedicate his research efforts, resources, leadership, and support to this important work both within and outside of the McMaster community. As the
inaugural professor in EDIIS, Dr. Joseph will be responsible for leading a research program, managing education initiatives, and maintaining meaningful collaboration with community organizations. Dr. Joseph has been a champion of EDIIS in his work with the
Centre and we are certain he will successfully bring his important perspectives and experiences in community-based work to this new position.
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Benson Honig
Using a two-year COVID-19 grant, Dr. Benson Honig, along with long-time research collaborator Ana Siqueira, has developed
the
Ingenuity Incubator, an online community that provides aspiring entrepreneurs with resources and training. Dr. Honig and Siqueira sought to provide women with virtual training in entrepreneurial skills that both
allows them to make money and invest in their community’s development. In addition to encouraging social entrepreneurship, Honing is also working with teams from McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering to create a digital community currency that will allow money
to stay within the community. Check out the free resources available at: reframery.org.
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Chandrima
Chakraborty
A segment of the CBC Radio program, The House, which featured Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty comparing Canada’s collective response
to the downing of Ukraine Airlines Flight 752 in January 2020 to Canada’s reaction to the Air India bombing in 1985, has received a national award. The segment won the 2021 Radio Opinion award from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) – an
award recognizing the best national and regional audio, video and digital journalism produced in 2020. To listen to A Canadian Tragedy: Chandrima Chakraborty Compares Canada’s Response to the Downing of Flight 752 in Iran to the Air India Bombing, click
here. Her segment begins at 19:42.
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Eugène
Nshimiyimana
As chair of the French department, Dr. Eugène Nshimiyimana has been an integral part of implementing a new curriculum for
McMaster’s French department that draws on a new pedagogical approach. Based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CERF), this innovative curriculum situates learners as “social agents” who are tasked with collaborating on addressing
real-life situations and projects. By allowing students opportunities to implement communicative strategies as they work toward a goal, this new curriculum which began rolling out in 2020 offers students more agency in their learning and has proven success
across the European Union.
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Faiza
Hirji
On June 22, 2021, Dr. Faiza Hirji participated as a panelist during an important event titled, “COVID Recovery Conversations
— The Impact of COVID-19 on McMaster’s Research Community: Moving Beyond the Pandemic.” During this virtual roundtable, Dr. Hirji joined a dynamic panel discussing personal experiences related to how the pandemic has affected research opportunities, with a
focus on how to navigate new approaches to research now and beyond the pandemic.
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Ingrid
Waldon
Dr. Ingrid Waldon is currently engaged in a major research project to determine the legacy of environmental racism related
to a dump located near an African Nova Scotian community in the South End of Shelburne, Nova Scotia. The study seeks to provide answers for the community in Shelburne itself, as well as foster further studies on the relationship between environmental racism
and chronic diseases. This study is a continuation and further probe of the topics that are the focus of her book, “Something in the Water.” Dr. Waldon is joined in this project by a multidisciplinary team from McMaster University and Dalhousie University.
See the article
here for more details on this intersectional and important study.
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Jorge
Fabra-Zamora
Dr. Jorge Fabra Zamora’s project is to develop a theory of collective responsibility for wrongs committed by state officials derived from politico-moral
account of the duties of liberal states. In close association with this project, he has also worked on the Colombian peace process, particularly those mechanisms created to compensate the conflict’s victims. In close association with this project, he has also
worked on the Colombian peace process, particularly those mechanisms created to compensate the conflict’s victims.
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Karen
Balcom and Ameil Joseph
Two of our members, Drs. Karen Balcom and Ameil Joseph, have been named academic co-leads of McMaster’s Office of Community
Engagement. Dr. Balcom is focusing her work at the Office of Community Engagement on community-engaged teaching and learning and Dr. Joseph is centring his work around community-engaged research. In their new positions, Drs. Balcom and Joesph provide consultation
to students, instructors, researchers, and community members to assist in developing reciprocal and sustainable partnerships that respond to community needs.
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Nancy
Doubleday
Dr. Nancy Doubleday was featured in an article detailing how she engages her students in thinking critically about inequitable systems in society and the
connections between environmental issues and human rights. Using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and discussions on the ongoing water crises in Indigenous nations and communities, Dr. Doubleday encourages students to explore systemic violence
through the lens of environmental justice.
Dr. Nancy Doubleday and Aribah Ali are also currently surveying Participedia cases for contributions to water-related governance studies.
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Paul
Emiljanowicz
Dr. Paul Emiljanowicz conducted a study seeking to gain deeper insights into how Rawlings built political legitimacy for
his coup using the records of the National Reconciliation Commission of Ghana. Through this study, Dr. Emiljanowicz emphasizes the lesson that participatory governance programs, such as truth commissions, initiated by autocratic regimes to create a sense of
legitimacy also have the potential to expand civic and political engagements in unplanned for ways. See more details on the research project in the original article
here.
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Ross
Ryan
McMaster graduate student Ross Ryan is currently in Central America researching Costa Rica's experience with national disarmament.
In 2021, he participated in several virtual meetings with local historians focused on the abolition of Costa Rica's army and its role in the regional peace efforts of the 1980s and 1990s, including a public event organized by the police sciences program at
the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED). He also published a historiographical review article on peace in world history in Ideas for Peace, an online magazine hosted at the University for Peace.
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CHRRJ Welcomes Dr. Ingrid Waldon
We welcome Dr. Ingrid Waldon to the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice. Dr Waldon is the Hope Chair in Peace and Health. She teaches in the
Peace and Social Justice Program and is appointed to the History Department. She is trained as a health sociologist with extensive community-engaged research experience in the areas of social and environmental justice. Her award-winning book, "Something in
the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous and Black Communities," formed the basis of a 2020 Netflix documentary.
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Grants Awarded to CHRRJ members:
 Congratulations to Dr. Michael
Egan who was awarded a 2021 SSHRC Insight Grant for his project "Covenant with the future: modern arks in catastrophic history."
Dr. Juanita DeBarros continued
work on her current SSHRC Insight Grant, “Colonial Institutions and Children’s Welfare in the British Caribbean.”
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Panel at CAAS Conference
The panel titled “Rethinking Truth Commissions and the Restorative Justice Paradigm in Africa” took place on June 8, 2021, at the Canadian Association of
African Studies (CAAS) Conference.
Panelists:
Paul Ugor, Creative Imaginaries
of Truth and Reconciliation: Nation and Narration in Antjie Krog’s Country of My Skull.
Mesut
Yilmaz and Melike Yilmaz, Land Restitution for Restorative Justice in Africa.
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Juanita DeBarros, “The Death of Molly Schultz: Race, Magic and the Law in the Post-slavery Caribbean.” Journal of Social History 55, no. 2 (Winter 2021): 1-29.
Juanita DeBarros, “Epidemics in the Past and Now: A Roundtable on Colonial and Post-colonial History.” The Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 22, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 43–63. (with Anderson, Clare, David Arnold, Luka Bair, and Robert Peckham).
Juanita DeBarros, “Embodied Sources: Abortion and Reproduction in Early Twentieth-century British Guiana.” Women’s History Review (2020): 2-18.
Juanita DeBarros, “Diasporic Sources and Caribbean History,” Social History/Histoire/Sociale. Forthcoming, 2021.
Paul Emiljanowicz and Bonny Ibhawoh, "Manufacturing Legitimacy in Postcolonial Ghana: Democratic Tropes, State Power, and the Defence Committees,"
Third World Quarterly. 2021
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National Human Rights Events & News:
Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights (CJCR) 2022 Issue
Call for Papers: Children and Young People’s Interventions in Post-Pandemic Times.
Deadline for submissions of manuscripts is April 1, 2022.
https://carleton.ca/landonpearsoncentre/canadian-journal-of-childrens-rights-cjcr/
Human Rights Research and Education
Centre - University of Ottawa 2022 Summer School in International Humanitarian Law.
This course offers students and professionals the fundamentals of International Humanitarian Law and the opportunity to apply this knowledge through realistic case studies and a full simulation day.
https://cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/en/cours/DRC4521
Centre's for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism
Open call for blog posts: “Solidarity in an Interconnected World.”
The CHRLP invites as wide a diversity of voices as possible to submit posts on critical questions touching on the above theme and intersecting with human
rights and (or) legal pluralism.
https://www.mcgill.ca/humanrights/chrlp-live/open-call-blog-posts
Upcoming Event: Caring for
Our World - Margot E. Halpenny Memorial Lecture with Jane Glenn. March 18, 2022.
The theme for the 2021-2022 workshop series - “Mothers-in-Law: Intergenerational Dialogues on Women and Human Rights” - underscores the value of conversation across generations for enriched knowledge and understanding of human rights work and needs.
https://www.mcgill.ca/humanrights/channels/event/caring-our-world-margot-e-halpenny-memorial-lecture-jane-glenn-335212
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International Human Rights Events & News
International Journal of Human Rights Education
The International Journal of Human Rights Education is an independent, double-blind, peer-reviewed open-access, online journal focusing on the knowledge mobilization of leading theory, philosophy, and research in the field international human rights. This journal
aims to democratize the access to and participation in while promoting critical thought in the field that it seeks to expand the literature of. Recent issues have focused on significant themes such as
“Human Rights Education and Black Liberation” (Volume 5, Issue 1, 2021).
For more information please visit:
https://repository.usfca.edu/ijhre/
Call for Inputs: COVID Recovery
Plans and Policies and the Right to Development – UN
In 2022 the Special Rapporteur will be reporting to the Council and the General Assembly on the subject of compliance of COVID recovery plans and polices with the right to development perspective, in the context of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development
and core international human rights treaties.
The Special Rapporteur seeks to collect good practices from key stakeholders and experts on COVID recovery plans and policies that are in line with both the right to development and the 2030 Agenda, as well as information about challenges and areas for improvement.
The deadline for submission of these inputs is 1 March, 2022.
https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/call-inputs-covid-recovery-plans-and-policies-and-right-development
1st International Academic Conference
on the Sustainable Development Goals – UN
Utah Valley University, a UNAI member institution in the United States, is organizing its first international conference on the Sustainable Development Goals, as part of the Decade of Action. The conference "Why It Matters" will take place at the university
campus 5-7 October, 2022.
https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/1st-international-academic-conference-sustainable-development-goals
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