Redefining Human Rights in a Time of Crisis
The President’s Dialogue will provide an opportunity for political figures, international activists and participants, both present and virtual, to discuss the changing nature of human rights – and the wrongs that threaten them – in our global community.
Moderated by:
President Alastair Summerlee
Location:
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
10:00 a.m.
Rozanski Hall
Free and open to the public
Join us online:
Send your questions to dialogue@uoguelph.ca to participate in the live webcast.
More information for teachers and school groups
Participants:
Roméo Dallaire
Ashraf Ghani
Pamela Wallin
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Anne-Marie Zajdlik
Redefining Human Rights in a Time of Crisis
Much of our world’s understanding of human rights can be traced to the 1940s and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). The Declaration defined human rights in terms of the individual’s relationship with the nation-state. Governments agreed to respect their citizens’ rights, particularly in areas of political activity, such as guaranteeing freedom of speech and freedom from arbitrary arrest. Many countries chose to enshrine these rights in their own national Human Rights codes. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, human rights were perceived as political and individual rights, rights that had been delineated by the United Nations and embraced one nation at a time.
Human rights, in the increasingly complicated and globalized world of the 21st century, are facing new threats that transcend the rights inherited from the 1940s. There are new and unfathomable abuses of human rights and those who deny human rights and perpetrate injustice are no longer governments and nation-states. It is much more difficult to deal with those who abuse human rights: whether it be agents of genocide operating outside political structures, or unidentifiable forces of the global economy that respect no boundaries.
Many of the threats of the 21st century are of a nature and magnitude that the earlier definition of human rights no longer applies. For example: is access to clean drinking water or unpolluted air a human right? Do the Inuit have a fundamental right to live in the cold climate they have called home from time immemorial? And equally do African herders have the right to live without fear of the encroaching Sahara? Is access to health care a human right?
Many of the Human Rights issues that we confront today are inextricably linked to Human Wrongs, not only in terms of how a government can mistreat its people, but also in terms of the innumerable Human Wrongs perpetrated every day by forces more amorphous and less accountable than those in the past.
President's Dialogue Participants
Roméo Dallaire
Roméo Dallaire
Roméo Dallaire served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 35 years, but is best known as a peacekeeper and a voice for those who have been failed by national and international governments. A documentary of his experiences, entitled The Last Just Man, illustrates the moral fortitude he exhibited in impossible circumstances. Dallaire's leadership and courage in the face of the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide earned him universal international respect. Moreover, his personal struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has led to a more compassionate view of those who survive the horrors of war, famine, and natural and human catastrophes. He is an outspoken advocate for peace, respect, and mutual responsibility. His tremendous accomplishments have been recognized by the award of the Order of Canada and the Pearson Peace Medal. His book, Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda received the Governor General's Literary Award in 2004. In recognition of his outstanding service to his country and to humanity, he was named to the Senate of Canada in 2005.
Ashraf Ghani
Ashraf Ghani
Dr. Ashraf Ghani has a long and distinguished record as an academic concerned with international and economic affairs, public service, and state effectiveness. He brought decades of international experience to his role as Minister of Finance of Afghanistan as it reemerged into the international community. Dr. Ghani reformed Afghanistan’s financial system, implementing transparent reporting mechanisms. He also brought in new foreign investment, according to terms which established an equilibrium of accountability between donors and the Afghan government, and between the government and the people of Afghanistan. For these and other innovative policies, Dr. Ghani was named Asia’s Best Finance Minister in 2003. His concern with poverty eradication and the rights inherent in citizenship, led to his critical role in developing Afghanistan’s electoral processes. Declining a seat in cabinet, Dr. Ghani became Chancellor of Kabul University, where he has worked to build a university that develops the abilities of Afghan women and men, so they can provide leadership in this era of economic, social, and political globalization. In 2006, the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, nominated Ashraf Ghani as a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations.
Pamela Wallin
Photo courtesy of
Meaghan Ogilvie
Pamela Wallin
Pamela Wallin is a journalist, diplomat and Chancellor of the University of Guelph. After decades as a journalist covering the most important issues facing the world today, Dr. Wallin served as Canada’s Consul General in New York. There she had a first hand view of the interplay between political and economic considerations, especially as they impact differentially on the rich and poor of the world. Her unique perspective on international relations led to her appointment as senior adviser to the president of the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas in New York. In 2007, Dr. Wallin was named to the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan, bringing her years of deep experience in the international arena to the service of one of the most important questions confronting Canada’s role in the international arena. Her contributions to Canadian society and international affairs were recognized by the award of the Order of Canada.
Sheila
Watt-Cloutier
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an untiring environmental advocate who has focused her energies on the devastating effects of global warming on circumpolar peoples, peoples whose health and safety, way of life, and indeed existence is threatened by climate change. Dr. Watt-Cloutier led the Inuit Circumpolar Conference’s successful campaign to ban the creation and use of pollutants such as PCBs and DTT, pollutants which contaminate the Arctic food chain and poison the Inuit. In 2005, she served as principal plaintiff for a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that alleged greenhouse gases from the United States violated Inuit cultural and environmental human rights. Dr. Watt-Cloutier tireless work on behalf of the environment and the Inuit people has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Champion of the Earth Award from the UN Environment Program, the Order of Greenland, and the Order of Canada. In 2007, the effectiveness of her grassroots activism was recognized by a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Anne-Marie
Zajdlik