UPEACE Africa Programme organizes a Peace Research Workshop                                          

                                   

The Africa Programme of the University for Peace organized a Peace Research Capacity Building Workshop from 10 to 15 March 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The workshop attracted twenty-six participants (26) from seven African countries. They included lecturers from various universities, PhD candidates in Peace and Conflict studies and related areas, as well as members of civil society organizations.

In his opening remarks, the Director of the Africa Programme Dr Jean-Bosco Butera stated that the Workshop is part of UPEACE’s endeavour to promote peace in Africa with the understanding that quality education and training must be based on sound research. He noted that this workshop was the third one organized on this theme, after those organized in Dakar in 2005, in collaboration with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and in Addis Ababa in 2007, in collaboration with the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA). He stressed that UPEACE’s aim is to offer the research training as a yearly activity of the programme on a sustainable basis.

The IDRC Representative, Ms Njeri Karuru said that IDRC supports the undertaking to build research capacity in Africa with the view to strengthening informed policies. She stated also that one of the expected outcomes of the exercise was to develop a data base of peace researchers in Africa.

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An Invitation to the UPEACE Community to Meet our Neighbors in La Carpio

As students at the University for Peace, it is fair to say that we spendt Monday through Friday in a veritable paradise.  But as students of peace and justice, we know that this is just a small sliver of the world in which we live.  Visiting La Carpio has enriched our understanding of Costa Rica in many ways.  We are working to build a relationship between our community and the La Carpio community that will surely enrich both. As you read about the community of La Carpio, we hope that we will be reminded of the decisions and beliefs that led us to a place such as the University for Peace. 


La Carpio is a densely-populated, low-income community of almost 30,000 people, primarily Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans.  The community began around 1993 as waves of Nicaraguan immigrants and Costa Rican poor “squatted” on the land.  Since then, the community has grown and, while some basic public services such as running water, electricity, education, and health care are moderately accessible, serious challenges in La Carpio persist.  In addition to the struggles that parallel those of other marginalized, vulnerable, and simultaneously vibrant and persevering communities, La Carpio also confronts the additional injustice of living within meters one of San Jose’s primary trash landfill.  According to La Nacion (12/06/2004) more than 700 tons of garbage are dumped in La Carpio each day.  The effects are tangible.  Furthermore, it is difficult for citizens of this community to defend their homes because many do not have rights to the land on which they have built their homes.  Others may not feel they possess the power of voice that in most societies, come with citizenship, privilege, and wealth. 


Our experiences with this community began when, on January 19th, as part of the elective course, Hunger, Famine, and Food Security, 24 students visited 12 families living in the La Carpio.  The purpose of our visit was to work with a local Lutheran church group to assess the food security situation in the community.  The following weekend, 25 students from the Environmental Security Assessment course visited the community to learn about La Carpio’s environmental security issues.  In the past, students and faculty of UPEACE’s Peace Education programme had also initiated actions with the local school.


On March 5th and 12th, several students from both classes returned to La Carpio to share our findings with CODECA, La Carpio’s local polity that consists of community organizations and leaders.  These meetings consisted of critically examining student findings, discussing strengths and challenges in La Carpio, and beginning to establish sustainable dialogue between La Carpio and UPEACE.  As a result of these meetings, we are looking to plan workshops and events in collaboration with the La Carpio community within the next few months and in years to come, for example:

  • A UPEACE-facilitated workshop on Urban Agriculture.
  • Recipe exchange to address issues of malnutrition / education on how to maximize health on a limited budget.
  • Information gathering and dissemination on the rules regarding dump trucks that enter La Carpio to access landfill.
  • UPEACE assistance in assuring compliance with monitoring the groundwater to measure contamination.
  • Right to health information: some portions of La Carpio's community are hesitant to stand up for this right (particularly non-Costa Rican citizens) because they feel this will give the government fodder for deportation. 
  • UPEACE assistance in learning about the effects of contamination and the landfill in terms of health. If health effects are measured and proven to exist, this may give the community leverage in negotiating with the government over the conditions and rules of the dumping.

 

The potential for UPEACE involvement with La Carpio is great and necessary.  As many students currently involved in this project will leave in July and others will continue on until December, we hope that our work to-date in La Carpio will establish relationships from which year-long and longer-term projects with La Carpio will be initiated at the start of each academic year.  We hope that you will join us in laying the foundation for a lasting relationship with this community. As students at UPEACE, we have the capacity to change and enrich our community and those around us.  Our interactions with La Carpio have been very powerful.  But we would like to engage other students whose talents and insights can further this partnership.  If you are interested in learning more about the partnership that we are building, please be in touch with us writing to jkim@student.upeace.org


Nicole Pion
Diana Stoecklin
Lynn Schneider
Ahni Hecht
David Chalmers
Brenda Gonzalez
Rolain Borel
Jane Kim

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UPEACE Human Rights Centre Speaker Series organizes a talk on "What Happened to Kenya? Between Westlands and Kibera", 21 February 2008

Several students and faculty members participated in a talk on What Happened to Kenya? Between Westlands and Kibera, which focused on the current political crisis in Kenya. The talk was led by Professor J. Oloka-Onyango, Director of the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) and former Dean of Law at Makerere University in Uganda.  

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  A night at the Orchestra

Students and Faculty in the Department of International Law and Human Rights attended a concert of the strings section of the National Symphonic Orchestra at the beautiful Teatro Nacional in Central Costa Rica.  The concert consisted of diverse works by Corelli, Grieg and the Costa Rican composer Benjamin Gutierrez, and was an excellent opportunity to showcase the skills of these talented musicians, conducted by the Orchestra's Concertmaster, José Aurelio Castillo Pereira.  Other guests were two visiting professors in the International Law and Human Rights Programme, Theo van Banning with his wife Johanneke Stoon van Banning and Joe Oloka-Onyango, as well as the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Costa Rica, Susan Blankhart, a devoted supporter of UPEACE activities, and her husband Ike.

  

 

Chairperson of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal visits UPEACE















The Chairperson of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, Mr. Grant Sinclair, visited the University for Peace on 20 February 2008.

The International Law and Human Rights Department organized a short session with Mr Sinclair, on Challenges and Successes of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Mr. Sinclair talked to the students about some of the most challenging cases brought before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) and answered several questions related to the work of the CHRT and human rights issues in Canada.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, created by Parliament in 1977, adjudicates complaints of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act referred to it by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

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Human Rights Centre Speaker Series presents talk entitled We, the people speak: A bottom-up approach to transitional justice.

Last March 6 2008,  the Human Rights Centre organized a talk by Professor Stephan Parmentier which focused on how to make sure that the attitudes and opinions of ordinary people are taken into account when designing policies or measures in transitional justice.

Professor Parmentier is a visiting professor with the International Law and Human Rights Programme, where he teaches human rights and transitional justice. He currently teaches sociology of crime, law, and human rights at the Faculty of Law of the K.U.Leuven, where he has been heading the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology since 2005.

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Visiting professors

Maria Antonieta Camacho
NRD-6021 Research Methods

Dr. Camacho has been Professor at the School of Planning and Social Promotion, National University,   in Heredia, Costa Rica.  Her work has involved teaching, research, consultancy work, and academic administration.   At the present time she is working in local and regional sustainable development, with special focus in social and multiple stake holder approaches, multidisciplinary efforts in territorial developments (land use, integrated watershed management,  appropriate technologies) to confront environmental issues and conflicts, as well as global challenges affecting local communities.


Başak Çalı
DIL-6034 Human Rights and Development  

Başak Çalı is Acting Director of the MA in Human Rights and Lecturer at University College London, and a Senior Fellow of UPEACE.  She holds a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Essex.  Dr Çalı has worked on theories of global governance, the role of human rights and humanitarianism in international law and transnational human rights adjudication.  In 2007 she published articles in Human Rights Quarterly and the Human Rights Law Review.  Routledge published her co-edited volume entitled The Legalization of Human Rights: Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Human Rights and Human Rights Law in 2006.  Dr. Çalı has extensive experience working at the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.  She is a Council of Europe expert on the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.  She has also been a visiting lecturer at the University of Essex and at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.

Alicia Cabezudo
PEP-6061 Peace Education: Strategies for Life and Action

Alicia Cabezudo  is an associate professor at the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights and Culture for Peace, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is also an associate professor at the University of Rosario, Argentina.




Nadine Puechguirbal
GPB-6022 Gender Mainstreaming in Peacekeeping Operations and in Humanitarian Assistance

Professor Puechguirbal has been working as the Senior Gender Advisor for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) since June 2004. She recently took part in a two-month start-up mission to open the Gender Office of the UN Mission in Central Africa and Chad (MINURCAT).


Keith Spicer
 MPS 6060 - Media and Ethno-Cultural Conflict

Mr. Spicer is former chairman (1989-96) of Canada's broadcasting and telecommunications regulatory body (the CRTC, informally known as the "Canadian FCC"). Before occupying that post, Mr. Spicer was editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper The Ottawa Citizen, a television public affairs host, syndicated columnist, editorial-writer at the Toronto Globe and Mail, and professor of political and international relations at several Canadian and U.S. universities: University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, Dartmouth College (New Hampshire), York University, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, 1997, teaching Internet issues in an international context and the role of media in ethno-cultural wars). In 1990-91, on leave of absence from the CRTC, he was chairman of a government-appointed constitutional enquiry commission called the Citizens' Forum on Canada 's Future. Between 1970 and 1977 he was Canada 's first Commissioner of Official Languages, a national ombudsman post for English and French language rights. In the 1980s he ran a communications seminar company called the Spicer Communications Group Inc. He has written five books – one on international development aid, one on Canadian politics, two on communications theory, and Life Sentences: Memoirs of an Incorrigible Canadian. After moving to Paris in September 1996, he was an Associate of Ernst & Young Canada (1996-2000), specializing in telecommunications and Internet issues. From 1996 to 2004, he led a seminar on national Internet strategies at the Sorbonne (Paris III).  


Adilia Caravaca
 IPS 6015 Gender and Peace Building

Adilia Caravaca, MA, is a University for Peace graduate on Gender and Peace Building. She is a lawyer and consultant on gender and human rights issues. She currently works as an external consultant for the Canadian Embassy coordinating the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives. During the past three years she has also been the President of the Costa Rican Section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, with which various educational projects in communities have been launched.
Her service in non-governmental organizations in Costa Rica have been connected to promoting legal changes in behalf of women, drafting reforms, and training on alternatives to violence.

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