October | 2019
Upcoming Human Rights Events
Free and open to the public
Rights! Camera! Action! Screening of Soul City and Change Comes Knocking: The Story of the North Carolina Fund

Soul City (2016) is a documentary that tells the story of a group of civil rights activists and city slickers who attempt to build a multiracial utopia in North Carolina in the 1970s. Efforts ran up against ingrained racism, public skepticism, and unwillingness on the part of the government to think outside the box to solve social problems. As this group of dreamers tries to bring together unlikely allies to support black power and economic development, they are forced to balance their soaring idealism with the hostile reality of the times.

Changes Comes Knocking: The Story of the North Carolina Fund (2008), a documentary featuring Ann Atwater, chronicles the story of a ground-breaking anti-poverty movement started in the 1960s by Terry Sanford’s effort to look realistically at problems of poverty in his race-torn state. The Fund sought to align federal, state and local governments, foundations, and the state’s civic and business leaders behind nothing less than breaking ancient bonds of racism and inequity and nurturing a more progressive North Carolina. The North Carolina Fund brought to the forefront the “radical” idea of including local people in decisions about their own destinies. This led to the cultivation of local leadership, and an authentic mobilization of the poor in their own communities.

A panel will follow the films with Charmaine McKissick-Melton, Associate Professor of Mass Communications at NCCU and Lewis Myers, Board Chair and Interim President & CEO NC Institute of Minority Economic Development.
Pauli Murray Walking Tour: History of Racial Segregation in the West End Neighborhood

Pauli’s Durham is a 75-min walk into Durham’s history of racial segregation in the West End Neighborhood. Aya Shabu and friends share stories about the significance of Black Civil War soldiers, the Freedman Schools movement, unsung shero Pauli Murray – her multi-racial ancestry and heritage, and Pauli’s long history of relentless activism.

This walk is a collaboration with the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and Whistlestop Tours. All tours start @ 10 a.m. at the Pauli Murray Center, 906 Carroll Street. Tickets cost between $12 – $20 depending on availability (Children are free), and can be purchased here . For more information, visit the Event Site .
Human Rights in Practice: Guns and Domestic Violence

Join us during Domestic Violence Awareness Month for a discussion about guns and domestic violence. Cincinnati Law School Dean Verna Williams, Sherry Honeycutt Everett – Legal Policy Director at the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Duke Law’s International Human Rights Clinic faculty will discuss issues of domestic abuse and firearms in the United States including what it means to frame and address this issue using a human rights-based approach. Professor Darrell Miller, Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Firearms Law, will moderate the discussion.

The event is free and open to all—no registration required—but space is limited. Lunch will be provided. For more information, please contact Balfour Smith at bsmith@law.duke.edu or Allison Rackley at allison.rackley@law.duke.edu.

Sponsored by the Duke Law International Human Rights Clinic, the Duke Law Center for International and Comparative Law, the Duke Environmental Law Society, the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, the Duke Law Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, the Human Rights Law Society, and the International Law Society. This event is sponsored by the Center for Firearms Law. It is a part of the Human Rights in Practice series, which is co-sponsored by Duke Law’s International Human Rights Clinic and the Center for International and Comparative Law.
Dangerous Work: A Study of Reprisals against Environmental Defenders in the former Soviet Union and the United States 

Crude Accountability, in partnership with the EcoForum of NGOs of Kazakhstan and Fractracker (based in Pittsburgh, PA), is publishing a report on reprisals against environmental defenders in the US and in countries of Eurasia. The report will be published in October 2019, and is an updated version of the original report, Dangerous Work , which was produced in September 2017.  Dangerous Work is a compilation of stories of reprisals against environmental defenders, describing the multitude of ways that governments and corporations and their watchdogs retaliate against activists, particularly those working in the extractive sector. It also describes the disturbing trends of increasing threats to environmental defenders in each of the countries highlighted in the report.

A public launch of the report will take place at Duke on October 15 in partnership with the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute. At this event, Crude Accountability and environmental defenders from the former Soviet space will speak about their work protecting the environment and reprisals they have faced. Speakers include Gubad Ibadoghlu, an economist and anti-corruption activist holding oil companies and the government accountable in his home country of Azerbaijan; Vadim Ni, director of EcoForum of NGOs and environmental lawyer from Kazakhstan; Andrey Rudomakha, director of Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus in Russia; Sergey Solyanik, environmental defender and consultant to Crude Accountability in Kazakhstan; and Kate Watters, executive director of Crude Accountability and environmental defender.

There will be a lunch for students and faculty to meet with environmental defenders on October 15. If you would like to attend, email Emily Stewart (emily.stewart@duke.edu) by October 13.

Sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute and the Duke Center for International and Global Studies.
Rights! Camera! Action! The Unafraid

The Unafraid (2018) is a feature length documentary that follows the personal lives of three DACA students in Georgia, a state that has banned them from attending their to state universities and disqualifies them from receiving in-state tuition at any other public college. Shot in an observational style over a period of four years, this film takes an intimate look at the lives of Alejandro, Silvia and Aldo as they navigate activism, pursuing their right to education, and fighting for the rights of their families and communities.

A panel will follow the film.

Popcorn and drinks will be provided.
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