Sophie Richardson was welcomed to Duke by American Grand Strategy and the Duke Human Rights Center on October 27, 2021 to talk about Combatting Crimes Against Humanity in China.
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Combatting Crimes Against Humanity in China - Fighting to Protect the Human Rights of Uyghurs |
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Sophie Richardson serves as the China Director at Human Rights Watch, which recently stated China is committing crimes against humanity for its detention of Uyghurs.
She was welcomed to Duke by American Grand Strategy and the Duke Human Rights Center on October 27, 2021, and she began her talk by discussing the history of our understandings of the detention of the Uyghur people. Working with the Stanford Law School Human Rights Clinic, Richardson published in May of this year an assessment of human rights in China relating to Xinjiang, the border community where much of the detention is taking place. They based their arguments relating to crimes against humanity off international human rights law and binding treaties.
The event brought everyone a new human rights and legal perspective of the detention of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Read More.
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Interview with Sophie Richardson - China Director of Human Rights Watch |
Gargi Mahadeshwar (GM): What first brought you to research human rights in China?
Sophie Richardson (SR): It was a combination of having grown up in a family that was very engaged
on civil rights issues in the US and having gone to a college where social activism was really core to who we all were and having started to study Chinese language and made my first trip to China in the months almost immediately after the June 1989 Tiananmen massacre and starting to think about political rights and participation and who got to participate where in different parts of the world and why?
A lot of that ultimately combined into an interest in, you know, understanding why the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese government have denied people certain key rights over the years. I’m very fortunate to have had lots of different kinds of experiences that brought me to that interest.
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Ethnography for Human Rights: Research, Advocacy, and Justice in International Spaces |
Kyle Knight was invited to Duke on October 19, 2021 to talk about what his time as a cultural anthropology student at Duke meant for him in terms of developing research skills, curiosity, skepticism, and confidence, and how those skills have translated into a research career.
He is a senior researcher on health and LGBT rights at Human Rights Watch. Previously he was a fellow at the Williams Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, and a Fulbright scholar in Nepal. As a journalist he worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Nepal and for the UN’s humanitarian news service (IRIN), reporting from Burma, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He has worked for UNAIDS, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and in the children’s rights and health and human rights divisions at Human Rights Watch. He sits on the editorial board of the Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health Journal. Read more.
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Spring 2022 Human Rights Courses - Registrations Open |
Each semester, Duke offers undergraduates dozens of courses related to global human rights issues. The courses come from a variety of disciplines, including history, public policy, economics, African and African American studies and cultural anthropology, among others. This reflects the interdisciplinary nature of human rights as well as the approach of the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute. The Spring 2022 list of courses can be viewed here.
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Duke University Representation at COP-26 |
The UK hosted the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 13 November 202 to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
DHRC featured Gabriela Nagel Alverio, J.D. - Ph.D. student in the University Program in Environmental Policy (UPEP) with a concentration in Political Science, who represented Duke University at COP26 and shared her experiences.
Some of these experiences have been summarised on DHRC social media handles here.
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The Myanmar Coup Faculty and Student Perspectives |
On Feb 1, 2021, the democratically elected government of Myanmar was deposed in a military coup. The coup immediately sparked pro-democracy protests from Myanmar’s citizens, and despite international attention, the Tatmadaw has cracked down harshly on protestors, killing over 700 people to date. Overseas communities-including Burmese, Karen, Chin, among others-have worked to support protestors from afar. This panel explores the events leading up to the coup and highlights the response of scholars and activists both locally and internationally.
The panelists include:
- Eddy Malesky, Senior Lecturer Australian National University
- Jack, Student at Duke and Myanmar citizen
- Sarahann Bu, Student at UNC-CH and member of NC Chin diaspora community
Date: November 18, 2021 (Today)
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
This is a virtual event. Please register here.
*Burmese language interpretation provided*
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Screening Of The Critically Acclaimed Documentary, FLEE |
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Based on a true story, FLEE tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.
Date: Tuesday November 30, 2021
Venue: Griffith Film Theater
Time: 7:00 pm
Ticketing: Free
Paid parking in the Bryan Center deck.
Masks and all relevant COVID-19 protocols are mandatory.
Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion with:
- Ellen Andrews – NC Area Director, Church World Service
- Faridah Bahume – former refugee from DRC, Cultural Orientation Specialist, Church World Service
- Deb Reisinger, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of the Practice in Romance Studies
The panel will be moderated by:
Presenting Partners: Duke Human Rights Center at FHI, Duke Arts, and DEMAN.
Additional cosponsors include Duke Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic and International Human Rights Clinic, the Program in Gender, Sexualities, and Feminist Studies, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, the Duke Islamic Studies Center, the Duke Middle East Studies Center, and International Comparative Studies.
More details of the event here.
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The Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Institute brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, staff and students to promote new understandings about global human rights issues. |
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