Pursuing Justice
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Senior Fellows: Pursuing Justice January-June The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) is launching its Senior Fellows: Pursuing Justice newsletter with the aim of keeping you updated on our Senior Fellows' consistent contributions to the betterment of the human condition. Our Senior Fellows are a group of leading thinkers and advocates from Canada and around the world helping to mobilize a constituency of conscience in the pursuit of justice. Senior Fellows Professor Payam Akhavan Delivered 2017 Massey Lectures and authored bestselling book, In Search of a Better World. Testified as expert witness in Ottawa before Parliamentary Subcommittee on International human rights re Iran. Leading commentator on Rohingya crisis. Made final oral arguments at the International Court of Justice as the representative of Bolivia in the Chile-Bolivia territorial dispute. Hon. Rona Ambrose Leading proponent of legislation, Bill JUST Act (Bill C-337), which unanimously passed in the House of Commons and passed its second reading in the Senate moving to the Committee stage. Leading role in creating non-profit, She Leads, with aim of giving women equal opportunity to run for office. Spoke at The Art of Leadership for Women in Toronto, with Malala Yousafzai and others. Continuing work in capacity as Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars' Canada Institute re Canada-U.S. trade. Maziar Bahari Producer of film about Baha’i oppression, Changing the World, One Wall at a Time, which premiered and was featured at the RWCHR Parliamentary Human Rights Film screening in Ottawa. Premiere of film, 82 Names: Syria Please Don’t Forget Us, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with associated exhibit. Participant at Parliamentary Human Rights Subcommittee Hearings & RWCHR’s 6thAnnual Iran Accountability Week, 10th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, and the Oslo Freedom Forum. Professor Susan Benesch Continued transformative work countering harmful speech online, in her capacity as Faculty Associate at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and as Director of the Dangerous Speech Project. Co-designed an experiment to reduce online abuse on social media platforms, which Twitter began in April. Presented new papers at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, to the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, and at the 2018 Words that Kill Conference at the American University of Paris (keynote speaker). Professor Cindy Blackstock, OC Appointed as Officer to the Order of Canada and received five honorary Doctor of Laws from Memorial University, Dalhousie University, the University of Manitoba, the University of Toronto, and the University of Ottawa respectively. Author of book, Spirit Bear and Children Make History, released in French and endorsed by Indspire as a Successful Practice in K-12 Indigenous education. Featured speaker at the 2018 R.W.B. Jackson Lecture at the University of Toronto. Professor Alan Dershowitz Expert legal commentator on Fox News and CNN re civil liberties in the U.S. Prolific Op-Ed writer on satire, human rights and the rule of law. Published book re the hypocrisy and double standard of certain human rights initiatives. Professor Adam Dodek Author of new book, The Charter Debates, and scholarly article, “What Lies Ahead for Public Sector Ethics?”. Recently awarded the 2017 David Walter Mundell medal for excellence in legal writing and the 2018 CALT Prize for Academic Excellence. Professor Javier El-Hage Co-authored scholarly article on the case of imprisoned Saudi human rights lawyer Waleed Abulkhair; co-wrote public letter to Kosovo’s Prime Minister about non-refoulement of Turkish teachers. Called on UNICEF Chief to strip Ambassadorship from UNICEF’s Ambassador to Venezuela over his support of Maduro Regime and its rights abuses. Spoke at 10th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Professor Pearl Eliadis Wrote case comments for the Kirsch Institute re the new direction in reparations liability from the International Criminal Court. Published a post on Rights Blog: Human Rights Law and Public Policy about the OAS Expert Panel’s findings re crimes against humanity in Venezuela. Writing report with the RWCHR on the Cameroonian crisis. Professor Karen Eltis Co-authored scholarly article, entitled “Revisiting the Limits on Judicial Expression in the Digital Age: Striving towards Proportionality in the in the Cyberintimidation Context”; co-wrote the Canadian Report for the 20th International Comparative Law Conference. Delivered several talks at legal forums on AI, freedom of expression, privacy and cybersecurity in the digital age. Spoke at the 2018 International Privacy + Security Forumon Canadian privacy law for global companies. Jared Genser, Esq. Achieved the release and pardoning of his client and leader of Malaysian opposition, Anwar Ibrahim. Recently won case before UN Human Rights Committee which found that the Maldives must re-qualify his client, Mohamed Nasheed – the first democratically elected President of the Maldives and former poltical prisoner (who is also an advisor to the RWCHR) – to run for President. Carl Gershman Leader in organizing the World Movement for Democracy Conference, in which the RWCHR participated. Spoke at the launch of Dialogue China, a pro-democracy think tank, on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre. Testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on democracy. NED’s April 2018 issue of Journal of Democracy highlights “China in Xi’s New Era”. NED’s 2018 Democracy Award honours civil society movements for human rights and democracy in North Korea; 2018 Democracy Service Medal awarded to Soviet dissident Mustafa Dzhemilev. Terry Glavin Wrote a series of human rights Op-Eds on major international concerns, including: “Why We Must Remain Vigilant of the Butchers of Tiananmen Square”, “Bob Rae Spoke the Truth on Myanmar’s Genocide. Will it be Ignored?”, “Canada Needs to Call off Renewing Ties with Iran” and “Canada has the Laws to Target the World’s Worst. Now why won’t we Use Them?” Professor Aleksandra Gliszczynska-Grabias Authored scholarly article, "Most States and Nations are not Eager to Admit Their Own Faults and Reckon With the Painful Past", recently translated to English; wrote on how memory laws can undermine constitutional order, with reference to Polish memory law which inhibits critiques of Holocaust. Spoke at various forums including the 25th Council for European Studies Conference, the 10th Central and Eastern European Forum of Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists, and the international conference on "An End to Antisemitism!" at the University of Vienna. Hon. Michael Ignatieff, PC, CM President and Rector at the Central European University, recently under attack by Orban's Hungary. Awarded the 2018 Zócalo Book Prize for his book, The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World. Spoke at numerous lectures and conferences including the Eighth Annual Zócalo Book Prize Lecture, the Schuman Lecture, the Burton R. Clarke Lecture on Higher Education, the Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture, and the Annual EUROPA Conference. Dr. Yang Jianli Testified at UN Human Rights Council where his compelling remarks were continuously interrupted By Chinese Regime representatives, who sought to intimidate and censor him for his human rights work. Spoke at the 10th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Initiated a petition to get President Xi to reveal the truth of what happened to the two “tank men” who protested in Tiananmen Square. Vladimir Kara-Murza Testified at the Danish Parliament and French National Assembly and Senate alongside Bill Browder on the need for Magnitsky legislation; retaliatory ‘Kara-Murza Law’, which criminalizes promotion of Magnitsky legislation, passed by Russia. Inspired establishment of Nemtsov commemorations in Washington and Lithuania and is a sponsor for similar commemorations in Canada, as demonstrated in co-authored Op-Ed in the Ottawa Citizen. Published Op-Ed in the Washington Post about Russian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov. Hon. David Kilgour, PC Spoke and wrote about leading human rights concerns in China; the genocide of the Rohingyas and Canada’s failure to invoke R2P re this genocide; human rights violations in Turkey; and appeared as expert witness before Parliamentary Committees in Japan, UK and Canada re organ pillaging. Awarded the Friends of Falun Gong Human Rights Award alongside Senior Fellow David Matas. Professor Fannie Lafontaine Authored chapter, entitled “Criminels de guerre au Canada? La valse-hésitation historique entre poursuites et expulsions”, in recently published book, Reflections on Canada’s Past Present and Future in International Law. Amicus Curiae observation to International Criminal Court re jurisdiction over forced deportation of Rohingya into Bangladesh, in capacity as co-director of Canadian Partnership for International Justice (CPIJ). CPIJ held General Assembly meeting with Bob Rae and Irwin Cotler to discuss Rohingya and Venezuelan crises respectively. Testified before ‘la Commissions Viens’. Professor Ron Levi Co-edited recently published book, International Practices of Criminal Justice: Social and Legal Perspectives; co- authored introduction and chapter, entitled "An Internationalized Criminal Justice: Paths of Law and Paths of Police" and "Prosecutorial Strategies and Opening Statements: Justifying International Prosecutions and from the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg through