Thank you for all that attended our Ritchie Boys event on November 12th at the MN History Center.
To listen to the MPR interview with Dr. Guy Stern and Walter Schwarz click here.
The Film "The Ritchie Boys" can be purchased here from Amazon.com or here from Barnes and Noble.
Dr. Guy Stern referenced additional information that we would be posting to our website. This information can be found here.
You can see photos from the Nov. 12th event and Dr. Stern's visit here.
World Without Genocide Student Action Award
Knowledge + Action = Power
This annual award, to be given by World without Genocide (formerly Genocide Intervention Network-Minnesota), recognizes community outreach projects by college and high school classes to raise awareness about any aspect of genocide: protection, prevention, prosecution, and remembrance.
Continue reading "World Without Genocide Student Action Award" »
HIST 3727W
History of the Holocaust
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
10:10 am - 11:00 am
Herbert Hanson Hall 1-109
Taught by Edward Snyder (snyd0208@umn.edu)
PUBH 6801
Health and Human Rights
Wednesdays
5:40 - 7:30 pm
Mayo D199
Taught by Kirk Allison (alli0001@umn.edu)
GLOS 3900, SOC 3090
Genocide and Global Conflict: From Armenia to Darfur
Mondays, Wednesdays
2:30 - 3:45 pm
Blegen Hall 135
Taught by Dr. Ellen Kennedy (ekennedy@umn.edu)
More information
POL4410/5410
Justice in Times of Global Transition.
Tuesdays, Thursday
2:30 - 3:45 pm
Anderson Hall 230
Taught by Leigh Payne (lpayne@umn.edu)
More information.
GLOS 3401
International Human Rights Law
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
11:15 am - 12:05 pm
Belgen Hall 150
Taught by Barbara Frey (freyx001@umn.edu)
More information.
LAW 6886
International Human Rights Law
Fridays
9:05 am - 12:10 pm
Mondale Hall 50
Taught by Barbara Frey (freyx001@umn.edu)
More information.
HSEM 3051H
Honors Seminar, Political Psych of Conformity, Enmity & Heroism
Tuesdays, Thursdays
9:45 - 11:00 am
Blegen Hall 105
Taught by John Sullivan (jsull@umn.edu)
More information.
HIST 3729
Nazi Germany and Hitler's Europe
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
1:25 - 2:15 pm
Blegen Hall 10
More information
Taught by Eric Weitz (weitz004@umn.edu)
Hist 8245
Human Rights and Crimes Against Humanity: A Global History
Tuesdays
3:35 - 5:30 pm
Heller Hall12010A
Taught by Eric Weitz (weitz004@umn.edu)
FREN 8270
Critical Issues: Prose
The Holocaust in France: Testimony/Fiction/Theory
Thursdays
2:30 - 5:00 pm
Folwell Hall 131
Taught by Bruno Chaouat (chaou001@umn.edu)
New York, Jan 25 2008 4:00PM
An independent United Nations expert today called for international action to help women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who have been victimized by violence, including sexual abuse and rape, perpetrated by both militia and Government troops and fostered by a culture of impunity.
Yakin Ertürk, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, described the gruesome atrocities she witnessed when visiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last year. "I have seen little girls, women whose hands were chopped off, who were abducted, sexually enslaved, forced to eat the flesh of dead relatives, etcetera, etcetera. Things are quite dire."
Eastern Congo in particular has received greater attention because of the presence there of foreign groups which she said were the "main perpetrators of violence against women as well as the civilian population in general."
But she cautioned that the problems are not limited to eastern Congo; in Equator Province "the army and national police are among the main perpetrators." Ms. Ertürk cited a mass rape by soldiers in April, which led to seven soldiers being sentenced to life imprisonment before they later "escaped or walked out of the military prison."
She decried the fact that in the peace process, efforts to demobilize the militia do not include a justice component. "These militants are demobilized and reintegrated either into civilian life or into the army and they continue the kinds of violent acts they were responsible for during the armed conflict, as civilians or as soldiers in the national army."
The focus on disarmament and reintegration of ex-combatants in the peace process "does not take into consideration the sufferings of women or the needs of women,"she said. "Those are missing links in the peace process."
The expert, who serves in an unpaid, independent capacity, urged international help for women who have been victimized. "Many of these women who have survived are today human rights defenders who are working diligently on the ground to respond to the gap created by the State in terms of providing medical as well as other care services to women who are continually being raped,"she said.
"There is an urgent need to mobilize support for these women who are working both under security threats as well as severe resourceâ" problems, she added. "We must support these grass-roots initiatives because that"how the country is going to be rebuilt."
Countless victims are in inaccessible areas with little or no form of redress. "The justice system, the penitentiary system, is in deplorable conditions," she said. Often victims must pay for access to the courts in what she called a "major obstacle to justice."
She called for "urgent measures to address security and justice simultaneously and stressed that women need more than compensation and they need empowerment."
Ms. Ertü's report will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in March.
Student group sets up hotline so citizens can phone Harper's office. Read the TheStar.com article.