Discourses and Practices of Exclusion: Human Rights at a Crossroads

In honor of the UDHR, please join us for a riveting discussion based primarily on Article 28 ("Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized") wherein we will discuss discourses and practices of exclusion that are affecting human rights around the globe. The issues our speakers will address include the normalization of white nationalist terrorism, the rise of far-right nationalism in Brazil and India and its effects on human rights, human rights challenges posed by online discourse, and the ways in which the UDHR is used and abused.

Moderator:

Dr. George Andreopoulos, Professor of Political Science, City University of New York and Director, Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College

Speakers:

Dr. Bharath Ganesh, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen

Representative Erin Maye Quade, Advocacy Director at Gender Justice

Dr. Kavita Khory, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College

Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director at Human Rights Watch

Dr. Tarsis Barreto, Professor of Law at the Federal University of Tocantins and State University of Tocantins

Organized by the Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Co-sponsored by John Jay College's International Crime and Justice M.A. Program, Department of Political Science, and Human Rights Minor

Dr Bharath Ganesh is a researcher focusing on new media, political communication, and cultures of hate and intolerance. His recent work explores far right exploitation of social media platforms in North America and Western Europe, the role of racism and Islamophobia in far right communication, and international and corporate responses to hate and intolerance online. Bharath teaches courses in cultural studies, media policy, and social media analysis at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen (NL). Before joining the University of Groningen, Bharath was a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and Senior Researcher at Tell MAMA, a British charity dedicated to mapping and monitoring anti-Muslim hate crime. Bharath completed his PhD in Geography at University College London in 2017.

Erin Maye Quade is the Advocacy Director at Gender Justice, where she works to advance gender justice through public education, legislative outreach, strategic partnerships, and coalition-building. She is a former Minnesota State Representative who was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016. There, she quickly established herself as a candid and fierce advocate for Minnesotans championing paid family leave; expanding access to affordable child care; ending childhood hunger; eliminating gun violence; and investing in treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues. In 2018, Rep. Maye Quade founded the Childhood Hunger Caucus, a coalition of businesses, nonprofits and policymakers dedicated to ending childhood hunger in Minnesota. After legislation to prevent gun violence was stopped by Republican lawmakers, Rep. Maye Quade held a 24-hour sit-in on the House floor to protest Republican inaction on the issue and shared stories of victims and survivors of gun violence. In June 2018, Rep. Erin Maye Quade became the first LGBTQ person – and among the youngest – to be endorsed as the DFL candidate for Lt. Governor.

Kavita Khory is the Ruth Lawson Professor of Politics and Carol Hoffman Collins Director of the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives at Mount Holyoke College. Khory is a specialist on the contemporary politics of South Asia, nationalism and migration. She is the editor of Global Migration: Challenges in the 21st Century; her most recent essay, “Regional Migration and Indian Security,” was published in the Oxford Handbook of Indian Security. She teaches courses on international security, global migration, nationalism and ethnic conflict, and the politics of South Asia.

Louis Charbonneau is the United Nations Director at Human Rights Watch. Prior to joining HRW in 2016, he was a journalist for more than two decades in the U.S., Europe and Asia. His last post was as U.N. bureau chief for Reuters. He won several awards for his reporting on the U.N. He is also working on a PhD in political science at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Dr. Tarsis Barreto has a Doctor of Law from the Federal University of Bahia. He is currently an Associate Professor of Law at the Federal University of Tocantins as well as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of Tocantins. He is also a member of the International Association of Criminal Law.

George Andreopoulos is Professor of Political Science at John Jay College and the Graduate Center-CUNY. He is also the Founding Director of the Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College. He has written extensively on international organizations, international human rights and international humanitarian law issues. He is the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Human Rights Review.