Tag Archives: Human Rights

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Ethnic Conflict in Autocratic Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ; Creative Lawyers for Human Rights – September 11, 2022

September 12, 2022 host

Protests across Central Asia have rocked the nations of the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The states’ violent suppression of these movements have killed hundreds and undermined human rights protections. We explore the roots of these conflicts and what these violent crackdown mean for human rights, democracy, transparency and peace in the region. [ dur: 31mins. ]

Steve Swerdlow, esq. is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. A human rights lawyer and expert on the former Soviet region, Swerdlow was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, heading the organization’s work on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and founding its Kyrgyzstan field office. He is the author of Uzbekistan’s Religious and Political Prisoners and Uzbekistan’s Ethnic Minorities: Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind.
Suzanne Levi-Sanchez is Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. She is the author of The Afghan-Central Asia Borderlands: The State and Local Leaders, Bridging State and Civil Society: Informal Organizations in Tajik/Afghan Badakhshan, and The assassination that shook the Pamir Mountains to the core.

We interview Maria Armoudian who has authored a book on international human rights and the role that lawyers have played at advancing cases against human rights abusers. [ dur: 27mins. ]

Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She is the author of the books Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and her most recent Lawyers Beyond Borders : Advancing International Human Rights Through Local Laws and Courts . Maria is a host and anchor of the Scholars’ Circle.

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Scholars’ Circle -German History of Gay rights during the period of Cold War; LGBTQ rights struggle in US – May 8, 2022

May 8, 2022 host

What was the experience of gay people in East and West Germany during the Cold War? We speak with Samuel Clowes Huneke author of States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany [ dur: 32mins. ].

Samuel Clowes Huneke is Assistant Professor of History at George Mason University. He is also the author of Heterogeneous Persecution: Lesbianism and the Nazi State.

Since the 2020 election, anti-transgender campaigns have been growing in the United States. What are these efforts? We look at the campaigns to curtail and reverse gay and transgender rights, in particular we explore campaigns such as Florida’s Parental Rights in Education act (dubbed by critics as “Don’t Say Gay” bill) and attempts to ban trans athletes in all levels of competition. [ dur: 25 mins. ]

Clifford Rosky is Professor of Law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. He is the author of Anti-Gay Curriculum Laws, Fear of the Queer Child, “Still Not Equal: A Report from the Red States,” and co-author of the opinion article After 50-year stalemate, it’s time to pass federal LGBTQ nondiscrimination law.

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Scholars’ Circle – Importance of Preserving All Presidential Documents; Uzbekistan Denies Protection of Religious Freedom – April 24, 2022

April 24, 2022 host

Former President Trump’s administration took the presidential documents to Mar-a-Lago instead of submitting them to the U.S. archive. Why does this matter? [ dur: 26mins. ]

In recent months, investigators discovered that a significant number of records from the Trump White House were relocated to his personal residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. This removal of official papers from the White House poses a significant threat for the security of classified information. But perhaps most importantly, it serves as a major concern for future historians to write accurate and detailed histories of the presidency. We explore the Presidential Records Act and how the law is applied.

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the co-author of “Problems with President Records are Not Just About Trump” with Kenneth Osgood. His publications also include The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy. He is host of the podcast This is Democracy

We turn our attention to a country rarely in the news, Uzbekistan. What do we know about the country, particularly its religious freedoms? Uzbekistan is an Islamic country. But does it respect the rights of its Muslims? If so, why does the country imprison its people considered prisoners of conscience and religious prisoners? We discuss a new report from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on Uzbekistan’s Religious and Political Prisoners. [ dur: 32mins. ]

Steve Swerdlow is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has conducted extensive field work internationally with a particular focus on Central Asia and the Caucuses. He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has conducted extensive field work internationally with a particular focus on Central Asia and the Caucuses. He is the author of Uzbekistan’s Religious and Political Prisoners.

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Scholars’ Circle – Historical and Current Practices to Redress Crimes Against Humanity – April 10, 2022

April 7, 2022 host

After mass atrocities and crimes against humanity, how can societies reconcile? How is justice performed and how should we recognize these crimes? And what of the clash between international interests and local needs when dealing with the punishment and acknowledgment of atrocities? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Elazar Barkan is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Director of Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He is founding Director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) in The Hague. He is the author of Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices and co-author of Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation.
Mark Drumbl is Professor at Washington and Lee University, School of Law, and Director of the University’s Transnational Law Institute. He is the author of Reimagining Child Soldiers In International Law and Policy and Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law.
Jeremy Sarkin is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law and member of CEDIS at Nova University Law School in Lisbon, Portugal. He is the author of The Global Impact and Legacy of Truth Commissions, Reparations for Colonial Genocides and co-editor of Africa’s Role and Contribution to International Criminal Justice.

This interview was recorded on April 18, 2021.

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Scholars’ Circle – War Crimes and Justice for Victims and Survivors- April 3, 2022

April 3, 2022 host

President Biden has called Russia’s attack on Ukraine a war crime. What does that mean in term of legal remedies? When and how are war crimes adjudicated? Prosecuting those who commit crimes against humanity or war crimes is one part of justice, the other part is redressing the victims and survivors. What can be done to redress them? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. She has published two digests on the case-law of the ad hoc tribunals and is the author of Existing Legal Limits to the Use of the Veto in the Face of Atrocity Crimes.
Gabor Rona is Professor of Practice at Cardozo Law School. He is the author of Is There a Way Out of the Non-International Armed Conflict Detention Dilemma? and State Responsibility to Respect, Protect and Fulfill Human Rights Obligations in Cyberspace.
Rebecca Hamilton is Associate Professor of Law at American University, Washington College of Law. She is the author of Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide and co-author of Social Media Platforms in International Criminal Investigations.
Kate Mackintosh is the inaugural Executive Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law. She was Head of Humanitarian Affairs for Doctors Without Borders. She is the author of How long until the planet’s destruction is an international crime and the forthcoming The crime of ecocide through human rights: new tools for Climate Justice.

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Scholars’ Circle – Sanctions, what we learned from it’s use and impact on Russia – March 13, 2022

March 12, 2022 host

Just how effective are sanctions? How are they used and what exactly do they entail? Can sanctions be applied in a way that they would not cause harm to citizens? And what does sanctions research suggest about their impact on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Erica Moret is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Global Governance and Visiting Lecturer at the Department of International Relations/ Political Science at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. She is the author of “When should the United States use hard-hitting sectoral and financial sanctions?” and “Sanctions on Russia: Impacts and Economic Costs on the United States.”
A. Cooper Drury is Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Science and Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri. He is author of “Neo-Kantianism and Coercive Diplomacy: The Complex Case of Economic Sanctions” and “Media-driven Humanitarianism? News Media Coverage of Human Rights Abuses and the Use of Economic Sanctions.”
Timothy Peterson is Associate Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. He is author of “Sanctions and Alternate Markets: How Preexisting Trade and Alliances Affect the Onset of Economic Coercion.” And the forthcoming “Does Punishing Sanctions Busters Work? Sanctions Enforcement and U.S. Trade with Sanctioned States.”
Bryan Early is Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean for Research at the University at SUNY Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. He is the author of “Using the Carrot as the Stick: U.S. Foreign Aid and the Effectiveness of Sanctions Threats” and “Still Unjust, Just in Different Ways: How Targeted Sanctions Fall Short of Just War Theory’s Principles.”

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Scholars’ Circle – Kazakhstan Protests and Government Violence ; Omicron Variant Rages and Global Vaccine Distribution Issues – January 9, 2022

January 8, 2022 host

Kazakhstan has erupted in protests and government violence this week. We explore the potential that these protests leads to greater democratization in this authoritarian government, and detail its recent human rights abuses.[ dur: 34mins. ]

Erica Marat is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Regional and Analytical Studies Department at the College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University. She is the author of The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries.
Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations and Co-Director of Central European Studies Program at the University of Southern California (USC). He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West.
Steve Swerdlow is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has conducted extensive field work internationally with a particular focus on Central Asia and the Caucuses.

Vaccine hesitancy slows the effective response to Covid 19 in the Global North. Lack of vaccine distribution slows the response in the Global South. And the new omicron variant rages on. We may be fatigued of the virus, but it’s not over. We discuss vaccine inequity and distribution. [ dur: 24mins. ]

Adva Gadoth is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Center for Global and Immigrant Health, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She is the co-author of Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among asymptomatic frontline health workers in Los Angeles County, California and Cross-sectional Assessment of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Among Health Care Workers in Los Angeles.
Heather Wipfli is an Associate Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). She is the author of Investigating global mental health: Contributions from political science and Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty.

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Scholars’ Circle – Capital Punishment in USA and reasons why it faces increased opposition – October 17, 2021

October 16, 2021 host

The death penalty in the United States has faced increased opposition based on ethical, political, and legal concerns. Several states have outlawed it, but the federal government has returned to its use with a feverish wave of state executions last year. We discuss the implications of the use of the death penalty in the US and examine additional forms of extreme sentencing, such as life without parole. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Frank R. Baumgartner is the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is the co-author of The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence and Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty.
Lee Kovarsky is Bryant Smith Chair in Law and Co-Director of the Capital Punishment Center at The University of Texas in Austin School of Law. He is the author of The Trump Executions and the co-author of The Death Penalty: Concept and Insight.
Jenny-Brooke Condon is a Professor of Law in the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School. She directs the Equal Justice Clinic. She is the author of When Cruelty is the Point: Constitutional Restraints and Remedies for Family Separation and Denialism and the Death Penalty.

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Scholars’ Circle – Examining Disability and Ableism – October 10, 2021

October 10, 2021 host

The rights of persons with disabilities is a growing and important area of human rights. But what does it mean to ensure equal treatment under the law? What exactly is a disability, and who makes the judgment? And what do we mean by ableism? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Lydia X. Z. Brown is Core Faculty in the Disabilities Studies Program at Georgetown University as well as Adjunct Professional Lecturer in the Critical Race, Gender and Culture Studies Program at American University. Lydia is the author of Ableist Shame and Disruptive Bodies: Survivorship at the Intersection of Queer, Trans, and Disabled Existence.
Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. He is the editor of the book Mental Health, Legal Capacity and Human Rights.
Joel Michael Reynolds is a senior advisor to The Hastings Center and an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University. He is the co-author of The Harm of Ableism: Medical Error and Epistemic Injustice and the author of Three Things Clinicians Should Know about Disability.

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Scholars’ Circle – Impact of American Lawyers on International Human Right Cases ; One Year after Armenia and Azerbaijan war – October 3, 2021

October 2, 2021 host

We interview Maria Armoudian who has published a book on international human rights and the role that lawyers have played at advancing cases against human rights abusers. Maria Armoudian is the author of Lawyers Beyond Borders : Advancing International Human Rights Through Local Laws and Courts. [ dur: 30 mins. ]

Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She is the author of the books Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and her most recent Lawyers Beyond Borders : Advancing International Human Rights Through Local Laws and Courts . Maria is a host and anchor of this show, the Scholars’ Circle.

Then, we explore the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan a year after the war over the disputed region of Ngoro-Karabagh. What is the current status of the region following the cease-fire? Is there possibility of lasting peace? [ dur: 26 mins. ]

Anna Ohanyan is the Richard B. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Stonehill College, and a two-times Fulbright Scholar in the South Caucasus. She is the editor of Russia Abroad: Driving Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia and Beyond, and her latest book “The Neighborhood Effect: The Imperial Roots of Regional Fracture in Post-Communist Eurasia“. Professor Ohanyan is also a nonresident senior scholar in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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Tag Archives: Human Rights

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Ethnic Conflict in Autocratic Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ; Creative Lawyers for Human Rights – September 11, 2022

Scholars’ Circle -German History of Gay rights during the period of Cold War; LGBTQ rights struggle in US – May 8, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Importance of Preserving All Presidential Documents; Uzbekistan Denies Protection of Religious Freedom – April 24, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Historical and Current Practices to Redress Crimes Against Humanity – April 10, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – War Crimes and Justice for Victims and Survivors- April 3, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Sanctions, what we learned from it’s use and impact on Russia – March 13, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Kazakhstan Protests and Government Violence ; Omicron Variant Rages and Global Vaccine Distribution Issues – January 9, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Capital Punishment in USA and reasons why it faces increased opposition – October 17, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Examining Disability and Ableism – October 10, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Impact of American Lawyers on International Human Right Cases ; One Year after Armenia and Azerbaijan war – October 3, 2021

By Maria Armoudian