Dear Colleagues: This summer, the Center for Human Rights & Conflict Resolution (CHRCR) is pleased to offer a weeklong Summer Institute to introduce professionals in each field to the goals and methods of operation of the other field, and to provide professionals in both fields with an opportunity to explore ways to strengthen communication and collaboration to better achieve mutual goals. Although they share similar objectives, human rights advocates and conflict resolvers often adopt contradictory responses to violent conflict, massive human rights abuses, or societal needs in the aftermath of such events. This happens because they approach their work from different perspectives and apply different methodologies. Yet, the problems they tackle frequently require coordinated solutions if future violence and abuses are to be prevented. CHRCR's mission is to foster greater understanding and cooperation among members of the human rights and conflict prevention and resolution communities as a means to promote security, peace, justice and respect for human rights. CHRCR is based at the Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the oldest graduate school of international relations in the United States. Fletcher's existing resources in conflict resolution, international human rights, negotiation, security studies, humanitarian assistance and development provide an ideal base for CHRCR's work. Tufts University and Boston area colleagues and institutions, as well as long-standing Fletcher faculty links with key United Nations and other intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, enrich the resources that enable CHRCR to fulfill its mission. For additional information, please see our website: www.fletcher.tufts.edu/chrcr. The Summer Institute is designed for mid-career and senior professionals in the two fields who are interested in exploring ways to make their work more effective. Applicants should have significant field experience in violent conflict or post-conflict settings, and should be prepared to share the knowledge they acquire from this program with others at their organizations at which they work. The Institute will be held at the Fletcher School in Medford, MA from June 9 to June 13, 2003. This year the program is being offered free of charge as a service to intergovernmental and nongovernmental professionals in these fields. Participants are responsible for their own transportation and living costs, though very reasonable rates are available for on-campus accommodations. Registrants are asked to submit a non-refundable $50.00 materials fee to cover the costs of briefing materials that will be sent to all participants approximately two weeks before the start of the course. We hope you will consider nominating a senior member of your staff to attend the Institute. Attached is a survey of topics we will cover, bios of participating faculty, and a registration form. The language of instruction will be English. Because space is limited to twenty participants -- ten from each field -- we would appreciate hearing from you as soon as possible. If you would like additional information, please feel free to contact me by email (ellen.lutz@tufts.edu) or phone (+1 617-627-4016). Sincerely yours, Ellen L. Lutz Executive Director Center for Human Rights & Conflict Resolution ----------------- Center for Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Summer Institute Human Rights & Conflict Resolution June 9 - 13, 2003 PURPOSE The Summer Institute is designed to introduce practicing human rights advocates and conflict resolvers to the values, objectives, and methods of operation of the other field. In addition, the course will give professionals in both fields the opportunity to explore together ways of strengthening communication and collaboration to better achieve mutual goals. METHODOLOGY Instructors will employ a variety of formats including lectures, small group discussions, directed exercises, simulations, and films. During portions of the first two days, participants will be divided by profession for instruction aimed at enhancing their knowledge of the work of the other profession. During the remainder of the time, participants will work together, and will participate in several joint problem-solving activities. Participant expertise will be woven into the lectures and discussions so that participants benefit from each other's experience. CURRICULUM Day 1: The Causes of Violent Conflict and Human Rights Abuses After initial introductions, participants will divide into two groups by profession. Human rights practitioners focus on the nature and dynamics of conflict, will be trained in a framework for conflict analysis, and will have an opportunity to apply what they have learned to a conflict situation. Conflict resolvers will be introduced to the history and content of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and will learn about the political and judicial mechanisms available to redress human rights abuses. At the end of the day all participants will take part in a discussion focused on a contemporary conflict. Day 2: Third Party Intervention in Violent Conflict In the morning, human rights practitioners will take part in an exercise to explore negotiation dynamics during conflict, will be introduced to interest-based negotiation and needs-based theories of conflict and conflict resolution. They then will negotiate a dispute over an issue involving self-determination and minority rights. Conflict resolvers will reflect on questions including: (1) what rights do minorities have; (2) what is meant by the right to self-determination; and (3) is there a right to peace. In the afternoon the entire group will participate in a discussion of the roles and methods of third parties at various stages of violent conflict, and will take part in an exercise to explore those roles, the potential synergies and gaps among them, and the opportunities for cooperation. Day 3: Shared Concerns, Different Perspectives? Throughout the day, participants will work together to explore four intervention dilemmas: (1) the problems that undermine efforts to prevent violent conflict and human rights violations; (2) the ethical issues involved in negotiating with alleged evildoers; (3) the impact of culture in responses to violent conflict and human rights violations; and (4) the ethics of intervention and the assumptions of interveners. Day 4: Negotiating Peace and Human Rights Participants will engage in a lengthy peace negotiation exercise. Afterwards they will have an opportunity to reflect on what worked and what did; the types of ethical dilemmas they encountered; how human rights issues were dealt with; how interests were defined and why; and how the interests of those not at the table were addressed. These findings will be contrasted with outcomes from actual peace negotiations. Day 5: Post-Settlement Peacebuilding Using contemporary cases as a point of departure, participants will explore the options for achieving justice in post-conflict societies, the reintegration of refugees and internally displaced persons, whether co-existence is possible, the so-called justice vs. reconciliation tension, and the other political, economic, security, and development concerns that impact post-settlement peacebuilding. PRINCIPAL FACULTY Diana Chigas is a Fellow at the Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution and teaches international negotiation at the Fletcher School. Formerly, she served as Vice President and Director of Research and Evaluation at Conflict Management Group, a non-governmental organization that provides training, facilitation and consultation in negotiation and conflict resolution. At CMG, Ms. Chigas directed programs on Preventive Diplomacy in the OSCE, working with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and on-site missions on methods and strategies. She co-led the program on Conflict Management in Cyprus, which brought together citizens and elites from both sides for dialogue and joint problem-solving over nearly ten years, with the aim of catalyzing a human infrastructure for peace. Ms. Chigas has facilitated track two discussions and provided training and advice to the negotiating teams of the government in El Salvador and the FMLN, and with negotiators in the South African constitutional negotiations an and in the Georgia/South Ossetia peace process. Ms. Chigas holds a J.D. from the Harvard Law School and a M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Ms. Chigas received her B.A. degree from Yale University. Ellen L. Lutz is the Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights & Conflict Resolution at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is an attorney with twenty years experience as a non-governmental human rights advocate, as well as a trained mediator and arbitrator. She formerly served as the California Director of Human Rights Watch and was HRW=s researcher on Mexico and the US-Mexican border. Her research and consulting focus on Latin America, the prevention of human rights abuses, and the relationship between accountability responses and the long-term prevention of future abuses or conflict. At Fletcher she has taught courses in international human rights law, international organizations, and international criminal law. She is the author of Serving Survivors of Torture (with Glenn R. Randall, 1991), numerous articles and reports on human rights conditions in Mexico (including several written for Human Rights Watch), and most recently, AThe Justice Cascade: The Evolution and Impact of Foreign Human Rights Trials, (with Kathryn Sikkink, Chicago Journal of International Law 2, Spring 2001); Human Rights and Conflict Resolution from the Practitioners' Perspective, (with Eileen Babbitt and Hurst Hannum, Fletcher Forum, Winter 2002); and Understanding Human Rights Violations in Armed Conflict, in Julie Mertus and Jeffrey W. Helsing, Human Rights and Conflict: New Actors, Strategies and Ethical Dilemmas, United States Institute of Peace (forthcoming). She has a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law, and an M.A. in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College. Eileen F. Babbitt is Assistant Professor of International Politics and Director of the International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program at Fletcher, and an Associate of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. She previously was Director of Education and Training at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Deputy Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She teaches negotiation; mediation; and international intervention for conflict prevention, management, and peace-building. Hurst Hannum is Professor of International Law at Fletcher, where he has taught international human rights law, peacekeeping, international organizations, self-determination, and nationalism. He is the editor of Guide to International Human Rights Practice (3d ed. 1999) and author of Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination: The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights (rev. ed. 1996), and International Human Rights: Problems of Law, Policy, and Process (3d ed. 1995, with Richard B. Lillich). He has served as a board member of Amnesty International-USA, the International Human Rights Law Group, and the Geneva-based International Service for Human Rights. To register, please go to www.fletcher.edu/chrcr to find the registration form. ======== Global Human Rights Education listserv ======== Send mail intended for the list to <hr-education@hrea.org>. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/markup/maillist.php If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-hr-education@hrea.org>. **You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the original and listserv source.
[Reply to this message] [Start a new topic] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index] [Subject Index] [List Home Page] [HREA Home Page]