UPSAM Master Curriculum Development Workshops

The University for Peace (UPEACE) has launched a series of three Master Curriculum Development Workshops (MCDW’s) in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia. These workshops are part of the UPEACE Programme in South Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East (UPSAM), an initiative supported by the Government of the Netherlands. The goal of this programme is for seventeen partner universities in these three regions to develop and implement high quality MA programmes in fields related to peace and conflict studies. UPEACE will collaborate closely with each partner and contribute with academic capacity building in the form of Master Curriculum Development Workshops, Fellowships and Co-Teaching.

In the Middle East, UPEACE and the Institute for Peace Studies (IPS) of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, part of the Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Movement for Peace; organized the first MCDW with representatives from universities in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Sudan on 14-17 April 2008 in Alexandria, Egypt.

In the Horn of Africa, the UPEACE Africa Programme Office and the UPSAM team organized the second MCDW in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 21-24 April 2008. More than 30 academicians from universities in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somaliland and two universities in Sudan joined this workshop. 

During these four-day workshops, a group of academicians and civil society members from each of the countries involved, engaged in the conceptual design of a Master's Degree Programme in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies. Members of UPEACE’s faculty facilitated the process and helped the participants initiate the development of a Master's Programme that responds to their priorities and needs. The participants also identified courses of regional and local interest. The efforts of these workshops culminated in the design of a complete outline of the programme with its courses, theses, and admission requirements.

The third and final workshop, will take place in South Asia on 28 April through 1 May, hosted by Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Civil society members and academicians from universities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia will participate in this event.

The UPSAM project builds upon UPEACE's extensive collaborative activities in the different regions over the past few years and its experience in academic programme development in the field of peace and conflict studies.

For additional information on UPSAM, visit www.upsam.upeace.org

 

UPEACE/US Update

By Nick Martin ‘06
And Rebecca Harned ‘05


It has been a very busy few months at UPEACE/US. We have moved into new office space several blocks from the U.S. Capitol (please note our new address is 218 D St. SE, Washington D.C. 20003 Phone: 202-683-4081).

Below are some highlights from our recent work:

  1. This spring UPEACE/US will donate one full scholarship for an incoming international law student and a large grant for equipment, programs and supplies for the students in the Media, Conflict and Peace Programme. We are continuing to reach out to individuals, foundations and corporations in the U.S. to seek further funding for UPEACE programs and scholarships. 
  2. We received a grant to develop a new state-of-the-art alumni network website that will allow our alumni to seek job search assistance and connect with each other more effectively. Robert Soden ’07 has designed it and we will launch in a few weeks.  
  3. We are continuing to develop our apparel and merchandise program. New T-shirt designs in all sizes are now available on campus. They are on display in the case next to the library- Please find or email Bree Mclean ‘09 if you would like to purchase at bmclean@student.upeace.org. Congratulations to Hamish Low ‘08 for winning the design contest.
  4. We are co-facilitating a two-day short course entitled “Non-profit Leadership: Maximizing Impact” in conjunction with the UPEACE Center for Professional and Executive Education on 29-30 May in Washington D.C. We hope to replicate this model in the near future.
  5. We have been in touch with a number of like-minded organizations in the field of conflict resolution and peace about potential partnerships with UPEACE.
  6. We are working with UPEACE Africa Programme to develop proposals and secure funding from foundations and individuals in the United States.

 

Finally we are happy to announce that Michelle Neyland ’08 will be working with us starting this summer as a UPEACE/US Program Associate. Thank you to the many staff, faculty and students here on campus who have supported our work in various capacities. We look forward to another productive year.  

 

UPEACE participates in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington D.C.


On 5 April 2008, the University for Peace’s Jessup Team took off to participate in the international rounds of the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington D.C. (U.S.A.).  The team consisted of Hélène Guiraud (France, ILHR), Jane Kim (USA, ILHR), Nkirote Laiboni (Kenya, ILHR), Jeff Wilkinson (Canada, ILHR), and Juan Amaya Castro (UPEACE Coach).

The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is the world’s largest moot court competition, with participants from over 500 law schools representing over 80 countries.  Now in its 49th year, the competition entails a simulation of a fictional dispute between states that is presented by participants before a mock International Court of Justice.  Participating teams represent both the applicant and the respondent through written memorials submitted in January and through national and international oral proceedings that take place from February to April.  This year’s moot court team was the first to represent UPEACE at Jessup’s international rounds, alongside 110 competing teams from 77 different countries.

This year’s simulation involved pertinent and timely questions of terrorism, human rights, and international law.  The case concerned acts of violence committed in one state (Rotania) by nationals of a second state (Adova), the subsequent legality or illegality of the abduction, detention, treatment, and prosecution of alleged perpetrators of violence, and the validity of Adova’s jurisdiction in consequently prosecuting Rotania’s public officials for the detention and treatment of Adova’s nationals.  To answer these questions, the UPEACE Jessup Team referred to international treaties; international, regional, and national jurisprudence; state practice; and the rules of customary international law.

During the international round in Washington, teams had to face each other in front of a panel of three judges. The judges thoroughly asked each of the team members to answer questions and to respond to challenging arguments, and will test their overall knowledge of international law, as well as their presentation style and their ability to immediately and elegantly respond to complex questions of law. The atmosphere was exciting, competitive, and as multicultural as UPEACE’s campus!

 

 

  

 

UPEACE COMMEMORATED 1994 TUTSI GENOCIDE

By Willy Mugenzi



Mid 15 April 2008, the University for Peace  remembered  and commemorated the horrible experiences Rwandans went through during 100 days of Genocide in 1994.

Prayers, lighting of candles, hoisting Rwanda ’s new flag half mast, and planting the memorial tree as a symbol for victims were marked the commemoration.

Georges Tsaï, Executive Vice Rector, thanked everybody that contributed in making the commemoration a success.

The theme of the commemoration was “We Denounce Genocide Deniers in the Name of Peace”.

The Rwandan students at UPEACE gave testimonies relating to horrible situations during the 100 days of Genocide and post Genocide recovery from the unthinkable 21st Century? tragedy.

“Commemorating of Genocide and similar crimes by the University for Peace needs to be recognized as not an event but as a weapon of deterring such tragedies from happening again. I think, UPEACE has the highest moral ground to tell war bent politicians that: hey guys, stop what you are doing. You make us commemorate” Willy Mugenzi, Rwandan student said.

Prof. Victor Valle, Head of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, said that Genocide prevention needs to be integrated in academic discourses. He explained UPEACE lighting candles signifies that there was darkness in Rwanda but now light prevails. He described what happened in Rwanda as “shame and indescribable”.  

Christopher Kayoshe, one of the forces that contributed in halting Genocide talked about the challenges of fighting and saving lives. “I hear people say 80,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed but with what I saw, the number of people whom I saw being carried by running waters and many others thrown in holes, the number is more than even a million” Kayoshe, an International Peace student said.

One UPEACE student from Asia said: “The film about Rwandan Genocide touched me emotionally. It was moving, telling and challenging. It made me think about some of the conflicts in my country. I am worried of where they will lead”



HAKUNA MATATA! African Night at UPEACE
Africa Day pictures here>>>

Visiting professors

GPB-6050 Practices of Conflict Management and Peacebuilding
Matthew Norton received his Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford.  He is a PhD student in the department of Sociology at Yale University, and a Junior Fellow of Yale’s Center for Cultural Sociology.  He was the director of the International Peace Studies Master’s Degree Programme at the University for Peace from its launch in 2003 until 2005.  Prior to joining UPEACE, he taught courses in Conflict Resolution at the Universidad del Azuay in Cuenca, Ecuador, was a coordinator for a disaster response effort with Habitat for Humanity, has been involved in programmess targeting social and urban violence with a focus on youth, programmes supporting children with physical disabilities, and he has worked in school and residential settings as a counselor for “severely emotionally disturbed” children.

 

MPS 6014 Covering Asia
Sean Crowley is an experienced multi-media journalist with extensive UN project management and training experience.

Community work in inner city London in the 1980s was followed by an 18-month spell teaching ANC exiles in Tanzania. On return, Sean joined BBC World Service in 1990 as a radio producer, this led to him reporting extensively from Asia and Africa as well as studio production at Bush House in London. He ran short courses on radio production while on assignment for the BBC in Gambia and Mumbai.

Sean moved to South Africa in Oct 1996 and worked as a news editor, first in radio current affairs and then in TV news (English).  Working in South Africa led to requests to teach radio journalism, initially at SABC, then later in Rwanda in Oct 1999 as a special guest of the government. Sean also ran a bi-monthly private course on television news and continuity presentation in Johannesburg 1998-01.

Sean joined the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs award-winning humanitarian news service IRIN (www.irinnews.org) in South Africa, graduating to Managing Editor of the Asia region in late 2001.

Whilst manager, Sean built IRIN’s Asia region to more than 200,000 website visits per month and developed an extensive regional stringer network. In addition, he pioneered a new method of using freelancers to cover emergencies where UN access was limited.

Now based in Finland, he remains a working journalist and reports for the BBC from the Nordic and Baltic countries and lectures at Tampere University Department of Journalism. Sean also works for UNU-WIDER and for the Thomson Foundation along with running his own editing and training company.

 

DIL-6250 Human Rights and the HIV/AIDS Crisis
Hassan El Menyawi is Assistant Professor at UPEACE’s Department of International Law and Human Rights. He received his LLM in International Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, and previously was awarded his LL.B. (common law) and B.C.L. (civil law) from McGill University. He also received a B.Sc. in psychology from McGill University. Last year, he was Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. And, before his appointment at Harvard Law School, he was teaching human rights at York University.

 

Kaveh Khoshnood, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale University. Prof. Khoshnood is an infectious disease epidemiologist and his primary research interests are the epidemiology, prevention and control of HIV and Tuberculosis among drug users, prisoners and other at risk populations in the United States and in resource-poor countries. Professor Khoshnood mentors researchers from China, India, Russia, and South Africa in HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis related research. Professor Khoshnood's other interests are the examination of the links between health and human rights and the ethical dilemmas in research involving vulnerable populations.