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Welcome to the Spring 2026 edition of the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ) newsletter. This issue of the newsletter highlights the important research projects and initiatives of the Centre’s members and its associates and which support and advance the CHRRJ’s mandate.
In February, the CHRRJ co-sponsored the launch of Narrating Transitional Justice: Memory in the Age of Truth and Reconciliation, edited by Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh and Dr. Paul Ugor and published by McGill-Queens University Press (MQUP) under the book series “Confronting Atrocity: Human Rights and Restorative Justice.” The Centre’s collaboration with MQUP provides opportunities for CHRRJ members and their collaborators to disseminate their research on human rights and restorative justice, both in Canada and abroad.
Along with McMaster University’s Wilson Institute for Canadian History, the Centre co-sponsored the launch of Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada, a new book by Dr. Crystal Fraser and Dr. Sara Komarnisky. The presentation by the authors and the rich and lively discussion that followed addressed a range of crucial subjects, including the history of treaties between Indigenous People and Canada and Reconciliation.
These events demonstrate the intellectual energy of the Centre’s members and collaborators and their engagement with crucial issues, both in the past and in the present day.
In this newsletter, we are also pleased to highlight two upcoming events. The Participedia Futures Conference will be held from June 10 to 12. It will bring together members of the Participedia project to discuss research questions, themes, and collaborative structures for the next stage of the project. Based at the CHRRJ, Participedia is an open-access global crowdsourcing platform for researchers, activists, practitioners and anyone interested in public participation and democratic innovations.
From August to December, an exhibit organized by one of the Centre’s graduate student research assistants - Nnamdi Nnake – will be held at the McMaster Museum of Arts, titled “Connected Histories: The Telegraph in Nigeria.” Details about the exhibit are included in the newsletter. Nnamdi’s work demonstrates the valuable contributions of the graduate students who work with the Centre. Congratulations, Nnamdi!
The faculty members, visiting scholars, and students affiliated with the Centre have accomplished a great deal to be proud of, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to recognize their work.
On March 19, 2026, we hosted a special book launch event at the University of Waterloo to celebrate the publication of Narrating Transitional Justice: Memory in the Age of Truth and Reconciliation, edited by our colleagues, Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh and Dr. Paul Ugor. The event was co-organized by the University of Waterloo and the Centre, bringing together scholars, students, and community members for an engaging and thoughtful discussion.
The launch provided an opportunity to reflect on the interdisciplinary conversations that shaped the book and to celebrate this important contribution to the study of memory, justice, and reconciliation.
The book Narrating Transitional Justice originated from the conference Narrating Transitional Justice: History, Memory, Poetics and Politics, previously organized by the Centre.
Please visit the Centre’s McGill-Queen’s University Press Confronting Atrocity: Human Rights and Restorative Justice series page (https://www.mqup.ca/Series/C/Confronting-Atrocity-Human-Rights-and-Restorati...) on the website for more information. Pictures Credit: Melike Yilmaz
March 23, 2026, the Centre hosted a wonderful book talk on "Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada" by Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser and Dr. Sara Komarnisky. This event was co-sponsored by the Wilson Institute for Canadian History and our Centre (CHRRJ).
CRYSTAL GAIL FRASER is Gwichyà Gwich’in (and of English-Scottish ancestry), originally from Inuvik, Northwest Territories. She holds a PhD in Canadian history and is an associate professor in history and Native studies at the University of Alberta. Crystal is a community-engaged scholar of Indian residential schooling histories and recently published the historical monograph By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, winner of the prestigious Canadian Historical Association’s Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History Prize and the Clio Prize for the North.
SARA KOMARNISKY is a settler of Ukrainian, Irish, and Italian ancestry who grew up in Holden, Alberta. She holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of British Columbia, where she was a Vanier Scholar. Sara is a researcher and public scholar based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She is author of Mexicans in Alaska: An Ethnography of Mobility, Place, and Transnational Life.
Authors’ information from the publisher’s webpage (https://www.harpercollins.ca/9781443471169/talk-treaty-to-me/) Pictures Credit: Melike Yilmaz The Centre is co-sponsoring Connected Histories, an exhibition curated by Nnamdi Nnake based on his thesis research on the telegraph in Nigeria. It explores African history, communications technology, and human agency in colonial contexts. The exhibition is on view at the McMaster Museum of Art from August 25 – December 4, 2026.
Approach: Visitors will be immersed in telegraphy from a Nigerian perspective. Large-format images, actual telegraph equipment, and practice sets will showcase the people, materials, nature and impacts of telegraph work. Exhibits will be accompanied by digital content that expands and deepens visitors’ engagement.
Why Visit? Learn about the overlooked history of the telegraph in Nigeria and its role in shaping modern networks; Engage in public, intergenerational dialogue and participatory research; and Reflect on the historical connections between technology and social structures, and their relevance to contemporary issues of human rights, equity, justice and user-centric innovation.
Who Should Visit? The exhibition and its accompanying material is ideal for community, scholars and students. Instructors may recommend to students as a component of coursework.
Questions? Please email Nnamdi Nnake at nnaken@mcmaster.ca
On Wednesday, March 25, 2026, the Centre for Global Peace, Justice and Health (CGPJH) organized and hosted its symposium, Decolonial Health Justice. The event brought together students, scholars, and community members to critically engage with understandings of health beyond a purely medical framework. Centred on the theme of decolonial health justice, the symposium emphasized that health is shaped not only by biology and healthcare systems, but also by social, political, and historical conditions. Discussions explored how colonial legacies, systemic inequities, and structural barriers continue to shape access to care and influence who is able to thrive. These conversations were especially relevant in the Canadian context, where experiences of health and well-being remain uneven across communities. The event featured a range of insightful speakers, including McMaster Humanities’ Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty and Dr. Alpha Abebe, who offered thoughtful perspectives on justice, equity, and lived experience. Each speaker brought a distinct lens, encouraging attendees to reflect on the interconnected systems that shape health outcomes. Overall, the symposium fostered meaningful dialogue and critical reflection. It prompted participants to consider their own positionality and the responsibilities that come with engaging in conversations about health justice. Events like this remind us that achieving equitable health outcomes requires not only medical solutions, but also sustained attention to social and structural change. Celebrating McMaster's Global Ambassadors: End-of-Term Lunch Picture Credit: Yuka Kawano McPhee, Office of International Affairs
On April 14, 2026, McMaster’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) hosted an end-of-term appreciation lunch for the first cohort of McMaster Global Ambassadors (MGAs), bringing together all sixteen ambassadors along with several supporting colleagues.
Launched in 2024, the McMaster Global Ambassadors (MGA) program engages faculty and staff with regional expertise across over 80 countries to advance global priorities. Over the past year, MGAs represented McMaster in international meetings, strengthened partnerships through international events, and supported alumni and student-focused initiatives worldwide. The McMaster Global Ambassador (MGA) Program operates under the Office of International Affairs (OIA). Within the CHRRJ, Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh serves as Vice-Provost, International Affairs, and Dr. Benson Honig and Dr. Melike Yilmaz are McMaster Global Ambassadors.
Screenshot from website (linked): UN Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development: 13th Session (https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrc-subsidiaries/expert-mechanism-on-right-to-devel...)
Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh, an expert with the UN Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development (EMRTD), represented the Mechanism at its 13th Session, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 22 and 23 April 2026. During the two-day session, Dr. Ibhawoh delivered presentations on several thematic discussions, including the role of regional mechanisms in realizing the right to development; the intersection of non-discrimination, equality, and development; and the participation and inclusion of migrants in countries of destination.
The session convened at a moment of particular historical significance. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development and the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, two landmark instruments that continue to shape global human rights and development frameworks.
Dr. Ibhawoh will build on this engagement at the Twenty-Seventh Session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development, scheduled for Geneva from 18 to 21 May 2026, where he will present on climate justice and the right to development.
Dr. Ibhawoh acknowledged the students and researchers of the McMaster Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice for their continued support of his UN mandate and for their contributions to preparations for these sessions. Picture Credit: Melike Yilmaz
In Children of Sisyphus: Don Moore and the NCA’s Fanonian Dilemma, Matthew Monrose explored a pivotal moment in Canada’s Black freedom struggle through the life and activism of Donald Willard Moore, a Barbadian-born community leader and founder of the Negro Citizenship Association (NCA). Focusing on Moore’s 1955 speech at Toronto’s British Methodist Episcopal Church, the talk examines how years of petitions, briefs, and respectful appeals to the federal government to change racist immigration policy gave way to a sharper, more confrontational political language. Monrose situates this moment within the broader history of Black Toronto and the global currents of decolonization, drawing on Frantz Fanon’s writings to develop what he calls a “soft Fanonian dilemma”: in a society where domination operates through files, regulations, and polite refusals rather than open violence, activists faced a choice between remaining respectable and unheard or breaking decurom and respectability to force recognition. Using archival research and media debates sparked by Moore’s remarks, the talk shows how Black political critique in Canada began to push against the limits of liberal civility—marking a turning point leading to the 1967 immigration reforms.
Congratulations to Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser, recipient of the Governor General’s History Award!
To read the official announcement, please click
Governor General’s History Award 2025 Recipients - Canada's History (https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/awards/2025-governor-general-s-history...) Congratulations on Confronting Atrocity: Human Rights and Restorative Justice Series (https://www.mqup.ca/Series/C/Confronting-Atrocity-Human-Rights-and-Restorati...) for the Series Editors: Bonny Ibhawoh, Juanita De Barros, and Paul Ugor. Siham Alaoui, Kit Chokly, Carly Ciufo, Léon Robichaud, Luke Stark, and William J. Turkel, "A Conversation About Generative Artificial Intelligence," Canadian Historical Review 107, no. 1 (March 2026): 113-50.
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