News » CCHR Bulletin

Dean Nell Jessup Newton has appointed Professor Paolo Carozza as the new Director of the Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. He had been serving as the Interim Director of the CCHR in his capacity as Associate Dean for International and Graduate Programs.

For the fourth year, the Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR) will provide internship funding for up to three J.D. students who seek unpaid international internships in the field of human rights law.

Past recipients of CCHR funding have worked with domestic and international human rights NGOs, regional tribunals, legal aid clinics and academic centers in countries including China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uganda, Bolivia, and Costa Rica.…

Prof. Doug Cassel has co-edited a book of essays with Judge Narciso Leandro Xavier Baez titled “A REALIZAÇÃO E A PROTEÇÃO INTERNACIONAL DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS FUNDAMENTAIS.” The book includes chapters by Center Interim Director Paolo Carozza, Prof. Cassel, and a co-authored article by Prof. Sean O’Brien and CCHR Research Associate, Stefan Hayek (J.D. ’10)

Judge Baez is a federal judge in Santa Catarina, Brazil and a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of the West of Santa Catarina. He has a Master’s Degree in Public Law and Social Evolution, and is pursuing doctoral studies in Fundamental and New Rights. In spring 2011, Judge Baez was a Visiting Scholar with the Center for Civil and Human Rights at Notre Dame Law School.

Sofía Galván Puente, a 2009 graduate of Notre Dame Law School’s LL.M. degree program in international human rights law, will receive the National Youth Award of 2011 for Human Rights. The award recognizes Mexican youth “whose career trajectory, commitment, or study brings honor to their generation and inspires individual or community progress.” Mexican President Felipe Calderon will personally present Ms. Galván with the award, a gold medal, in December 2011.

Thursday, October 27, 2011
7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Andrews Auditorium, Geddes Hall

This conversation with students will take a brief look backwards at our various waves of immigration since the 1700s, situate us in our 2011 reality, and help us chart a clear direction for the future. Emphasis will be upon how college and university students can play a key role. Social to follow in Geddes Hall Coffeehouse. Sponsored by The Institute for Latino Studies, Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the Center for Social Concerns. This talk is free and open to the public.

Sean O’Brien, assistant director of the NDLS Center for Civil and Human Rights, moderated a panel discussion on the history and significance of civil rights memorials October 11 at Indiana University South Bend’s Civil Rights Heritage Center, 1040 W. Washington St.

On the panel were NDLS Professor Douglass Cassel; the chair of Notre Dame’s Department of American Studies, Prof. Erika Doss; Notre Dame Professor of Spanish Carlos Jerez-Farrán; and the director of the Civil Rights Heritage Center at the Natatorium, IUSB Assistant Professor of Sociology Kevin Lamarr James.

President Carter’s 1977 Notre Dame Commencement Address in the History of Human Rights

September 27, 2011

On May 22, 1977, President Jimmy Carter delivered a commencement address at Notre Dame that became a defining moment for the international human rights movement.

Samuel Moyn, professor of history at Columbia University, historian and the author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, will place the speech against the background of human rights history as a whole, asking what its place was and what difference it made. He will focus in particular on the place of Catholicism and the University of Notre Dame in the origins of the idea of human rights.

The event will include viewing of video of President Carter’s address, reception, and book signing at Notre Dame.

Co-Sponsors: Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, Center for Social Concerns, Center for Civil and Human Rights, Department of Political Science, Department of History, Ford Program in Human Development Studies & Solidarity, Jacques Maritain Center

Prof. Kommers’ introductory remarks are available here

Prof. Moyn’s presentation is available here.

President Carter’s commencement address is available here

On September 27th at 4:30 p.m. in the Geddes Hall Auditorium, the CCHR is co-sponsoring the event “President Carter’s 1977 Notre Dame Commencement Address in the History of Human Rights.” Samuel Moyn, professor of history at Columbia University, historian and the author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, will place Carter’s speech against the background of human rights history as a whole. He will focus in particular on the place of Catholicism and the University of Notre Dame in the origins of the idea of human rights. The event will include viewing of video of President Carter’s address, reception, and book signing at Notre Dame. Free and open to the public.

The 1948 documentary film “NUREMBERG: Its Lesson for Today” (The Schulberg/Waletzky Restoration) will be screened at 7:30 p.m. in the Browning Cinema at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center September 13. The film, which shows how international prosecutors built their case against top Nazi war criminals using the Nazis’ own films and records, will be followed by a panel discussion featuring NDLS Professors Doug Cassel and Robert Blakey and ND History Professor Lauren Faulkner.

The program is being co-sponsored by the NDLS Center for Civil & Human Rights, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, the Notre Dame Holocaust Project, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Department of History, and the Department of German & Russian Languages & Literatures.

More information is available at the documentary film’s website.

Osvaldo Hurtado, former President of Ecuador, will speak at NDLS September 8 on “Independence of the Judiciary, Freedom of the Press and other Constitutional Developments in Ecuador.”

In particular Cotler, who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Human Rights that drafted the report – and appeared as well as an expert witness before the committee – said that the report contained 6 principal Findings and Recommendations that “can serve as a model not only for Canada, but for other governments as well.”

Osvaldo Hurtado has been one of the most influential politicians in the last 30 years of Ecuadorian history. He earned both his BA in Political and Social Sciences (‘63) and JD (‘66) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE). In his early career he joined the Ecuadorian Institute for Social Development and taught Political Sociology at both PUCE and the University of New Mexico. He also participated in the formation of the Christian Democrat Party of Ecuador (which has since changed its name to Popular Democracy). In 1968, Hurtado served as Vice-Minister of Social Welfare and Labor.

Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights and the British Human Rights Lawyers Association are co-sponsoring a seminar from 6 p.m. – 7.30 p.m. July 20 at the University of Notre Dame London Center, 1 Suffolk Street, London SW1Y 4HG.

In its July 2011 ruling in Flomo v. Firestone Natural Rubber Company, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit cites a law review article by Notre Dame Law Professor Doug Cassel, Director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, arguing that corporations involved in human rights violations overseas can be sued for money damages under the Alien Tort Claims Act (“ATCA”).

For the third year, the Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR) has awarded internship funding to three J.D. students, thanks to the generosity of the CCHR Advisory Committee. The internship program makes it financially possible for J.D. students to seek unpaid human rights related summer internships.

Alpha Fall, LL.M., ‘02, died April 21, 2011 in Brussels. Mr. Fall was a gentle soul, a generous friend, and a true giant in the protection of human rights in Africa. He founded the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) – a first of its kind regional human rights organization focusing on advocacy before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Professor Sean O’Brien is participating in the training of North African human rights lawyers this week in Tunis, Tunisia.

“Libya and the ICC: Peace, Prevention and Justice”

Amid the bombs and bloodshed in Libya, it would be easy to overlook the historic action taken ten days ago by the United Nations Security Council. The Council not only condemned human rights violations, ordered a freeze on Libyan assets overseas, imposed an arms embargo and banned travel by Muammar Qadhafi and his cronies, but it also – unanimously – referred the Libyan situation to the International Criminal Court.…

The Center for Civil and Human Rights welcomes Professor Jayme Benvenuto and Judge Narciso Baez as visiting scholars for the semester.

As part of the CCHR’s continuing efforts to promote human rights locally, two CCHR attorneys participated in a strategic convening on ending cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by U.S. officials.

Professor Douglass Cassel, a consultant to the legal team that filed the Red Shirt Petition before the International Criminal Court, along with counsel for the Red Shirts, Robert Amsterdam, recently published an opinion piece on Brazil’s responsibility to denounce Thailand for its gross violations of human rights.

Center for Civil and Human Rights Research Associate Pier Paolo Pigozzi (NDLS LL.M. ’10) has initiated a campaign to ask the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to address a serious threat to the independence of the judiciary and to the freedom of press in Ecuador.

“The Arab World: Revolutionary Conditions”

The Center for Civil and Human Rights recently welcomed Rodolfo “Rudy” Monterrosa to its Advisory Committee.

Professor Tomuschat, one of the world’s leading international human rights lawyers, is emeritus professor of law at Humboldt University, Berlin. Before taking the chair of international law at Humboldt, he taught for 22 years at the Law Faculty of the University of Bonn where he directed the Institute of International Law.

CCHR Assistant Director Sean O’Brien has been named a founding member of the National Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights (NLCHR).

The Center for Civil and Human Rights is pleased to announce its co-sponsorship of the 2010 Francisco Suárez S.J. Moot Court Competition on International Law and Human Rights.

John Imanene (’10 LL.M.) has been invited by Amnesty International to speak at two events this week. On Tuesday, October 26, John will be the keynote speaker at Allegheny College’s Year of Global Citizenship.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the United Kingdom’s Human Rights Act on October 20, Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights and the UK’s Human Rights Lawyers Association are holding a day-long event at Notre Dame’s London Law Centre to compare the approaches of the United Kingdom and the United States to protecting fundamental human rights.

Professor Paolo Carozza was featured in a two-minute ad that was produced and aired by NBC as part of the “What Would You Fight For?”ad series.