Human rights themed events tackle global issues
By Natasha Marar
News Editor
November 28, 2007
 Two Windsor Law student groups, Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) and Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), embarked on awareness and fundraising campaigns last week to encourage public engagement of global human rights abuses.
JHR, which was founded in 2002, is Canada’s largest international media development organization. It uses the media to foster human rights in 14 African countries, by providing human rights-related stories to 20 million people weekly, and in Canada and the United States through 24 Chapters at post-secondary institutions. 20 per cent of Canadian journalism students are involved in JHR, and the organization has directly trained over 850 African journalists.
The University of Windsor Law Chapter of JHR uses media resources to heighten awareness of human rights abuses. The chapter, which was founded in September 2006, is the only one comprised of law students. “It’s sort of unique,” said chapter member Christina Beninger. “There is a really strong culture in the Law School for social justice and human rights issues.”
Beninger believes that the events of Nov. 20, part of their primary fundraising campaign, Speak Silence, were successful in raising awareness.
Speak Silence challenges people to take a vow of silence for six hours in recognition of victims of human rights abuses, who have no voice. Afterwards, the silence is broken by celebrating the work that JHR will do towards ending the silence.
“Between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Law School, we took a pledge of silence and we had all sorts of information available,” said Beninger. In the evening, JHR hosted a fundraising event at the local bar, Rock Bottom, to break the silence.
Beninger explained that the chapter’s major activity is to sponsor a Windsor law student to participate in a human rights internship in Africa for the summer. She was the first member to be sent to Africa this past summer. “I did an internship at the Centre for Human Rights and Advanced Legal Research, which is a local grass roots organization in Kumasi, Ghana. I did a range of different work there…that had to do with research projects affecting human rights.”
Beninger said that the Centre was handling the case of a local man who had been tortured to death while in police custody, and as a result. Developing a training program for police on human rights standards.
“In fact, Ghana has on paper a very well established human rights law with the constitution,” said Beninger, who admitted, “The biggest problem is a lack of awareness about rights and how to enforce them. The Centre really focuses on educating the public; making the law easily accessible to everyone.”
The Windsor chapter will likely send a member on a placement in Ghana with the same organization again next summer.
Almost $700 was raised during the Speak Silence campaign. “Our chapter has raised over $3,000 dollars towards that placement [to date],” indicated Beninger. “The goal is $5,000.”
“We will be continuing fundraising efforts throughout the year. So many students want to do [the internship] but it’s hard without the funding,” she added.
JHR was not the only group of law students addressing international human rights issues last week. The Windsor chapter of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR) held its second annual Human Rights Film Festival.
CLAIHR is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that promotes human rights globally through legal education, advocacy, and law reform. CLAIHR provides support to the legal community, and analyzes and develops laws and institutions that affect human rights.
The primary focus of CLAIHR’s Windsor chapter is on international issues, but chapter executive, Anthony Van Pham, indicated that a lot of their members are actively involved in local issues as well.
“One of the things we wanted to do this year was to not just keep [the film festival] to law students,” said Van Pham, who claimed that increased advertising outside of the campus resulted in members of the community attending the festival.
“There isn’t really a market for these films in the community so a lot of people came. We really wanted to spread awareness throughout the entire city,” he added.
Van Pham explained that the film festival was not simply an awareness event. “We are also fundraising, and the money that is being raised at the film festival is going towards a student refugee program that sponsors students from South Africa who have been negatively affected by apartheid,” said Van Pham, who explained that the students are brought to Canada to do their graduate work.
Van Pham believes the film festival was more successful this year. “Last year we had three films, and this year we have five, so it is growing little by little.”
The internationally-focused films screened at the festival were God Grew Tired of Us, about three Sudanese boys that escape from war and poverty to America, Total Denial, which highlights the fight between 15 Burmese villagers and oil giants UNOCAL and TOTAL, and God Sleeps in Rwanda, where courageous women rebuild their lives after the Rwandan genocide. Check Point, which looks at the check-points in Palestinian territories, and Black Gold, the story of exploited Ethiopian coffee farmers, were also featured.
When asked which film he thought most impacted the audience, Van Pham said it was Check Point. “While these films are affecting they are not deeply controversial. With the Palestine issue there is more debate involved. I think that a lot people here are directly related to it.”
After Check Point was shown, one group member, who had spent a summer in occupied territory documenting the distribution of Palestinian homes, spoke to the audience, who were also given information about engaging in social activism. “We don’t just want people to become passive, but to get actively involved.”
“It’s important to put school in the proper context in that you just cant just live in the bubble of school, and that eventually you are going to leave school and it’s important for you to apply what you’ve learned here to help other people and contribute to social justice worldwide,” said Van Pham.
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