View this email in your browser (https://mailchi.mp/32698315e4af/fall-2024-newsletter-of-the-centre-for-human...) Welcome to the Fall 2024 edition of the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ) newsletter. In this issue, we recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of the Centre’s members and others affiliated with CHRRJ, both in Canada and abroad. Their research and related activities support and advance the Centre’s goal of expanding our understanding of human rights’ issues, today and in the past.
The CHRRJ brings together a multi-disciplinary network of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners who study human rights and restorative justice. This newsletter shows that the conferences, publications, and other activities that our members and collaborators have undertaken since Winter 2024 advance the Centre’s mandate in diverse and creative ways. Events such as the launch marking the publication of Dr. Proscovia Svard and Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh’s new book Documentation from Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (resulting from a conference that the Centre organized) is just one example. Another is the Participedia conference and summer school held in South Africa this past June. As Nnamdi Nnake shows in his description of this event, engaging students in activities like this is a key part of the Centre’s mandate. Through their involvement in these and other events, the Centre’s members contribute to scholarly understandings of human rights and restorative justice and to efforts to advance public conversations on these important subjects.
The Centre itself provides important logistical and financial assistance for these activities. Through its support for conferences and its collaborative book series with McGill-Queens University Press (“Confronting Atrocity: Human Rights and Restorative Justice”), it helps disseminate the results of its members’ research. The Centre’s new speakers’ series (established last year) provides yet another venue that members and collaborators can use to engage with colleagues and members of the wider community. For our Winter 2025 Speakers’ Series, we look forward to the upcoming talk by Dr. Antonio Paez (March 2025) on his work with the “Mobilizing Justice” project which addresses transportation equity policies.
During the year ahead, the members and associates of the Centre will have many opportunities to build on these accomplishments by continuing to pursue their research and other activities and by developing new and exciting projects.
The Book Launch of Documentation From Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
The book Documentation from Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, edited by Dr. Proscovia Svard and Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh and published by Routledge in 2024, was launched on September 17th with an in-person event at Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi, alongside a simultaneous event at McMaster University in Canada. This book originated from a virtual conference titled “Truth Commissions: Issues of Access and Ownership”, which was co-organized in October 2022 by the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ), Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba (Canada), the Social Science Research Council’s African Peacebuilding Network Program (USA), and the Nelson Mandela Foundation (South Africa).
The book launch was hosted in a forum that encourages scholarly dialogue, and it featured contributions from prominent experts who discussed the significance of documentation in the reconciliation process.
Dr. Trudy Peterson of the International Council on Archives, Human Rights Section was the commentator at the book launch. Dr. Tunde A. Abioro of Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria and Mr. Daniel Ospina Celis of Dejusticia, Colombia, briefly commented on their chapters. The book itself compiles a diverse range of case studies and critical analyses from various truth commissions worldwide. The authors emphasize the importance of documentation as a means of preserving historical memory and as a tool for fostering accountability and promoting restorative justice. During the launch, speakers underscored the role of truth commissions in confronting past atrocities and the challenges faced in ensuring that the voices of victims are heard and validated. The discussions also touched upon the broader impact of such commissions on policy-making and societal attitudes towards justice and reconciliation.
Book Discussion on “Democracy and the Legacies of Truth and Reconciliation”
The 2024 Participedia Partners Conference was hosted at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town, South Africa) between June 6-7, 2024. The conference program included a capstone panel on “Democracy and the Legacies of Truth and Reconciliation,” organized by the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ) and the Participedia Partners Conference. The panellists were Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh (McMaster University, Canada), Dr. Serges Kamga (University of the Free State, South Africa) and Dr. Jasper Ayelazuno (University of Development Studies, Ghana). The panel was moderated by Dr. Fiona Anciano (University of Western Cape, South Africa). The panel’s discussion centred on the book Truth Commissions and State Building. The panellists commented on the contributions of the book to the scholarship on democracy and transitional justice. During the Question and Answer session, panellists reflected on the context and legacies of commissions in various countries. After the panel, the editors signed copies of the book and donated copies to local civil society organizations represented at the event.
The hybrid event was open to the public, drawing in-person participants from Cape Town as well as online listeners from around the world. The reception that followed provided a welcoming atmosphere for dialogue on the issues raised in the book. Participants at the event included academics, policymakers, community leaders, and representatives of NGOs and activists.
A Conversation with Dr. Michele Johnson
An interview conducted by Matthew Monrose and Dr. Juanita De Barros with York University’s Dr. Michele Johnson as part of the Centre’s Speakers’ Series was recently published in the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (vol. 49, no. 2).
Dr. Johnson is the former coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at York University and the former director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and Its Diasporas. Titled “Reflections on Researching the Caribbean and Black Canadian History: An Interview with Michele Johnson,” the article (and the CHRRJ interview on which it was based) focused on Dr. Johnson’s work on Caribbean history and her recent, award-winning co-edited publication, Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History. The interview covered historical methodology (including the use of oral sources), the history of gender, and Black Canadian history, including the West Indian Domestic Labour Scheme. Katie Lewis, Nnamdi Nnake and Nadim Al Nakhl helped shape it into an article. Members News New Book by Dr. Ingrid Waldron
We are excited to share the cover and description of Dr. Waldron’s forthcoming book From the Enlightenment to Black Lives Matter: Tracing the Impacts of Racial Trauma in Black Communities from the Colonial Era to the Present.
The book will be published on November 25, 2024.
You can pre-order the book at Emerald Publishing starting on October 26, 2024, here (https://bookstore.emerald.com/from-the-enlightenment-to-black-lives-matter-h...) .
“Ingrid Waldron has done something truly remarkable: authored a definitive exploration of the effects of racism on Black mental health.”
- Jonathan M. Metzl, Author of What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms
Since the Age of Enlightenment, Black bodies have been sites of trauma. Drawing on anti-colonial theory, From the Enlightenment to Black Lives Matter interrogates how this has shaped understandings of Black life, Black trauma and Black responses to trauma within psychiatry and other mental health professions.
Focusing on the impact of racism on the mental health of Black communities in Canada, the UK and the US, author Ingrid R.G. Waldron examines the structural inequities that have contributed to the legacy of racial trauma in Black communities. Drawing on existing literature, as well as the voices of Black Canadians who participated in recent studies conducted by the author, Waldron uses an intersectional analysis to pinpoint how the intersections of race, culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age and citizenship status shape experiences of racial trauma, mental illness and help-seeking in Black communities. Tracing the ideological representations of Black people within psychiatric and other mental health institutions that influence the diagnoses applied to them, chapters also highlight the beliefs and perceptions Black communities hold about mental health and help-seeking.
A timely challenge to the colonial and imperial legacy of psychiatry, From the Enlightenment to Black Lives Matter demonstrates how the politics of race and psychiatric diagnosis collide when diagnosing Black people and what this means for our current public health crisis.
Ingrid R.G. Waldron is Professor and HOPE Chair in Peace and Health in the Global Peace and Social Justice Program in the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University, and an active member of the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice. New Edited Book by Dr. Jorge Fabra-Zamora
We are excited to share the cover and description of Dr. Jorge Fabra-Zamora’s forthcoming volume, co-edited with Gonzalo Villa-Rosas and Jorge Nunez, Kelsen’s Legacy: Legal Normativity, International Law and Democracy.
This volume offers a comprehensive examination of Hans Kelsen's legal and political philosophy, focusing on four central themes. The first part analyses Kelsen's theory of norms, including its periodisation and concepts of validity and coercion. The second part explores his perspectives on international law, addressing its structural analysis, primitive law characterisation, and teleology. The third part examines Kelsen's theory of democracy, its relationship with the pure theory of law, collective will, and democratisation of the administration. The final part discusses Kelsen's influence on the Vienna School of Legal Theory and its impact on case law and jurisprudence beyond Europe. This collection is essential for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand Kelsen's legacy.
Jorge Fabra-Zamora is currently an Associate Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law, State University of New York, and an active member of the Center for Human Rights and Restorative Justice.
Grant and Research Support at CHRRJ
The Centre can provide support for its members’ research projects, conferences, and workshops. The Director, Dr. De Barros, can also provide letters of support detailing the Centre’s assistance when members apply for grants.
The Centre provided support for the following international conferences and workshops organized by its members in 2024/25.
“Austin Clarke, Black Studies and Black Diasporic Memory Conference”,
September 26-27, 2024 Conference Co-convenor: Dr. Ronald Cummings
“Transnational feminist dialogues: Intersecting struggles in the wake of the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' uprising in Iran Conference”,
December 14, 2024 Conference Co-convenor: Dr. Paula Gardner
“Air India Flight 182: A 40th Anniversary Conference”,
May 23-24, 2025 Conference Convenor: Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty
“Workshop on Democratizing Human Rights: Towards an Inclusive and Participatory Human Rights Agenda”,
July 2025 Conference Convenor: Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh
From September 21-23, Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh, UN human rights expert on the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, participated in the United Nations Summit of the Future held at the UN Headquarters in New York. The summit brought together 142 world leaders, marking a critical moment for global governance and multilateralism. At the summit, three pivotal outcome documents were adopted: the Pact for the Future and its two annexes—the Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact. These documents represent a collective commitment to reinvigorate multilateral cooperation in addressing pressing global challenges, including climate change, inequality, and technological governance.
Dr. Ibhawoh engaged in high-level consultations and bilateral discussions with state delegates, focusing on practical strategies for operationalizing these principles in the context of global development goals.
The UN Pact for the Future serves as a foundational framework for McMaster University’s Global Dialogues on Global Challenges, aligning local and international efforts to address some of the most urgent issues of our time. Sara Abdella
We’re excited to share that Zeynep Yilmaz, the host of the Just Participation podcast series, whom I co-founded the podcast with, represented the series at the Participedia Partners Conference 2024, held from June 6-7 in Cape Town, South Africa. During the conference, Participedia’s director, Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh and other presenters highlighted the podcast as a key initiative within the Participedia project.
During the conference, Zeynep engaged with numerous attendees, exploring their work and projects to identify potential guests for upcoming podcast seasons. Upon her return to Canada, she brought back a diverse lineup of potential guests. The team is currently researching their backgrounds, exploring how best to pair them for upcoming episodes, and crafting topics. The next season seeks to spotlight grassroots work, blending academic insights with real-world applications in the field of democratic innovations. The actual theme of the season will be a surprise! Stay tuned for what’s to come! Grants Awarded
Congratulations to Dr. Paula Gardner, who was awarded the SSHRC Connection Grant for “Transnational feminist dialogues: Intersecting struggles in the wake of the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' uprising in Iran.”
Congratulations to Dr. Melike Yilmaz, who was awarded McMaster’s International Initiatives Micro Fund Grant (IIMF) for the “The Voices of Refugees and Displaced Persons Project.” Awards We are happy to share that Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh's edited book Truth Commissions and State Building, which emerged from a series of conferences organized by the centre, has been awarded the ASA Best Africa-focused Anthology or Edited Collection Prize. (https://africanstudies.org/asa-news/african-studies-review-2024-prize-winner....) https://bookstore.emerald.com/from-the-enlightenment-to-black-lives-matter-h...
Reflections on the 2024 Participedia Partner's Conference and Summer School
Over a two-week period this summer, I joined a global cohort of scholars, political scientists and policy makers, to partake in the 2024 Partner's Conference and Summer School hosted by Participedia in conjunction with the Politics and Urban Governance Research Group at the University of the Western Cape.
The Partner’s Conference was held from June 6-7 and consisted mostly of expert panels which examined the past work and future plans of Participedia’s different clusters within thematic frames of: (1) accountability within and beyond the State; (2) charting new paths for representation, rights and new materialisms; (3) digital democracy; and (4) theories, practices and traditions of deliberation and transparency. One major part of the Conference was the book launch for a collection of essays titled, Democracy and the Legacies of Truth and Reconciliation, co-edited by Professor Bonny Ibhawoh, the Director of Participedia.
The Participedia School on Transnational Democratic Innovations (Summer School), opened in a hybrid format on June 10, joining attendees at two in-person campuses; one situated at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the other at the University of the Western Cape. For the next week, Summer School attendees reflected on citizen participation and tested new ways of deepening democracy. Its fourfold objectives were to facilitate exchange between early career scholars and experts in the field; enable knowledge sharing through co-design and co-learning; knowledge synthesis; and professional development.
The Summer School encompassed several highlights, including a panel discussion titled, “Challenges and Possibilities in Global Democratic Governance”, which featured Vijay Prashad of the Tricontinental Institute, and Ambassador Keisha McGuire of the Present and Future Institute. Another panel examined questions of global governance through hot topics like genome editing, as well as AI and algorithms. Participants also applied the principles of Design Thinking to brainstorm on problems of democratic innovation and transnational governance. These included case studies on truth and reconciliation commissions, sanitation, and renewable energy. By applying the Participedia Design Project and Canvas, Summer School students critically analyzed these issues and developed recommendations.
As a graduate student, the opportunity to network with experts in the field of democratic innovation was a great addition to my professional development. I also received a diploma from the Coady Institute for participation in the Summer School. What a feeling...!
Nnamdi Nnake PhD Candidate, History McMaster University
Call for Papers for Workshop on Democratizing Human Rights: Towards an Inclusive and Participatory Human Rights Agenda
A Project of the Participedia Human Rights Cluster Date: July 2025 | Venue: Hamilton, Canada | Format: In-Person & Virtual
Background
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, set forth fundamental rights and freedoms to which all individuals are entitled. However, the implementation and protection of these rights have often been uneven, as international human rights laws are frequently shaped by geopolitical dynamics and interests, questions of national sovereignty, and assertions of cultural particularities. Over 75 years later, the universality of human rights remains both a foundational ideal and a source of ongoing tension, as the practical application of these rights often reflects imbalances in power and privilege.
The challenges of universal human rights lie in the gap between theoretical principles and the diverse realities of global populations. International human rights frameworks are frequently shaped by a top-down approach, with little room for local voices—particularly those from marginalized or vulnerable communities—to influence how rights are defined and upheld. This imbalance has prompted calls for the democratization of human rights: a process that invites broader participation in the interpretation and implementation of human rights, allowing for the voices of ordinary people to play a more central role in shaping the global rights agenda. The democratization of human rights also seeks to transform local and international institutional practices to have the capacity to apply rights equitably.
Two key elements of this democratization process are democratic innovations—comprising new forms of participatory governance—and deliberative democracy—centered on reasoned discussion and collective decision-making Both have emerged as critical frameworks for revitalizing democracy. These approaches offer pathways to deepen citizen engagement, enhance the quality of decision-making, and overcome some of the limitations inherent in traditional democratic models.
Yet, democratic practices alone are inadequate to ensure the protection of marginalized or vulnerable populations. To foster truly just and equitable societies, democracy must be mediated by human rights principles, ensuring that political systems not only reflect the will of the majority but also protect the rights of all individuals, particularly those who might otherwise be marginalized or silenced. The relationship between democracy and human rights is thus fundamentally symbiotic. Democracy reinforces the inclusive and universalist ethos of human rights, while human rights principles serve as a critical check against the potential "tyranny" of majoritarian rule.
We invite scholars, policymakers and practitioners in the fields of human rights, democracy and related disciplines to submit paper proposals for a workshop on democratizing human rights. This workshop will explore how participatory processes can address the tensions between majority rule and minority rights, and between the universality of human rights and the particularities of local contexts. Proposals should draw connections between democracy and human rights. We are also interested in proposals to examine how democratic innovation and mechanisms of deliberative democracy can help actualize the core principles of human rights—such as dignity, equality, and justice—by making them responsive to the needs and voices of all people, especially those who have historically been marginalized, both within states and transnationally. We welcome proposals that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes, and consider diverse theoretical and empirical perspectives:
1. Democracy and the Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights
2. Universal Human Rights and Democracy in the International Political Order
3. The Sociopolitical Implications of Deliberative Democracy for Human Rights
4. Democratic Innovations, Deliberative Technologies and Human Rights
5. Majority Rule, Minority Rights and Democracy in the Information Age
6. Human Rights, Democracy, and Environmental Sustainability
Interested participants should send a proposal, including the title of their paper, a 300-word abstract, and a 100-word biography, to participediahumanrightscluster@gmail.com
Proposals are due on January 15, 2025. Selected papers will be announced in February 2025. The workshop is scheduled for July 2025.
Format and Funding
The workshop will be held in-person, with a selection of sessions conducted in hybrid format. We are in the process of securing sponsorships and cannot currently guarantee that funding will be available. Where possible, Global South and Early Career Scholars will be prioritized for funding opportunities.
Conveners
Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh - Professor, Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice, McMaster University (Co-Chair, Participedia Human Rights Cluster)
Dr. Melissa Levin - Assistant Professor, African Studies Program, University of Toronto (Co-Chair, Participedia Human Rights Cluster)
Sponsors
Participedia (https://participedia.net)
Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ) (https://chrrj.humanities.mcmaster.ca)
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