October 2009 | Preparation and Voting on the New Constitution of the Chapter.
25 September 2009 | First Meeting of the CLAIHR Chapter in 2009-2010 Academic year. Discussion of the activities for the year.
11 March 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “Triage”
Screening: 7pm; Location: University of Windsor, Vanier Hall, Rose Room
Dr. James Orbinski accepted the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as their president. In this documentary, Orbinski travels to wartorn Somalia, the first place he was posted with MSF in 1992; then to Rwanda, where he was MSF Head of Mission during the 1994 genocide. Finally he goes to Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, where it seems humanitarian dreams go to die. Filmed in an intense vérité style, Triage presents a unique view of the world through the penetrating eyes of Orbinski. He refuses to turn away when confronting troubling memories or realizing disturbing truths and, in the most unlikely of places, he finds where bonds of solidarity are forged and human spirits remain unbroken. Triage will be preceded by a short film – The Bicycle: Fighting AIDS with Community Medicine. A film about Pax Chingawale battling AIDS at the grassroots. An inspirational story about local communities joining global medical initiatives.
4 March 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “The Strangest Dream”
Screening: 7pm; Location: University of Windsor, Vanier Hall, Rose Room
The Strangest Dream tells the story of Joseph Rotblat (who walked away from the Manhattan Project and later went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize), the history of nuclear weapons and the efforts of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs which he co-founded to halt nuclear proliferation
2 March 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “Sex Slaves”
Screening: 7pm; Location: University of Windsor, Vanier Hall, Rose Room
An estimated half million women are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. They are “exported” to over 50 countries including Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Israel, Turkey, China, Kosovo, Canada and the United States. Misunderstood and widely tolerated, sex trafficking has become a multi- billion dollar underground industry. Sex Slaves takes us to “ground zero”; of the sex trade – Moldova and Ukraine – where traffickers effortlessly find vulnerable women desperate to go abroad and earn some money. The film focuses on the remarkable story of Viorel, a Ukrainian man on a mission to find his pregnant, trafficked wife in Turkey.
18 February 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “Wide Angle – The People’s Court: China’s Legal Revolution”
Screening: 12pm, Location: University of Windsor, Faculty of Law Building, Room G104
Poised to surpass the United States as the largest economy in the world, yet facing mounting domestic and international pressure for a fair and transparent framework of laws, China is racing to reshape the rules of society. In the past quarter century, the country has opened nearly 400 law schools, trained hundreds of thousands of judges and lawyers, and launched education campaigns to encourage people to bring their grievances to court rather than taking to the streets. But the transformation is incomplete and the judiciary far from independent. Hundreds of Chinese lawyers have been jailed in recent years while citizens are taking to the streets in record numbers to protest land seizures, corruption, pollution, or unpaid wages.
17 February 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “Continuous Journey”
Screening: 7pm; Location: University of Windsor, Faculty of Law Building Room G 102
In 1914 the Komagata Maru, a vessel with 376 immigrants from British India, became the first ship carrying migrants to be turned away by Canada. They were forced to stay docked off the coast of Vancouver thanks to some xenophobic lobbying and eventually sent back. A huge tragedy and a fascinating story.
11 February 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “Refugees of the Blue Planet”
Screening: 12pm; Location: University of Windsor – Faculty of Law Building Room G 102
The Refugees of the Blue Planet is a hard-hitting documentary that brings us to the heart of major issues confronting humanity. Each year, millions of people the world over are driven to forced displacement. Global warming and the unbridled exploitation of natural resources are degrading the life-supporting environments of rural populations. This film sheds light on the little-known plight of a category of individuals who are suffering the repercussions. The numbers of environmental refugees is growing. From the Maldives to Brazil, and even closer to home, here in Canada, the disturbing accounts of people who have been uprooted are amazingly similar. Their story is one of rage, powerlessness, injustice and betrayal.
9 February 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “Lumo”
Screening:7pm; Location: University of Windsor, Faculty of Law Building Room G 102.
A feature-length documentary about a young Congolese woman on an uncertain path to recovery at a unique hospital for rape survivors. In eastern Congo, vying militias, armies and bandits use rape as a weapon of terror. Recently engaged to a young man from her village, 20 year-old Lumo Sinai couldn’t wait to have children and start a family. But when she crossed paths with marauding soldiers who brutally attacked her, she was left with a fistula— a condition that has rendered her incontinent and threatens her ability to give birth in the future. Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, Lumo found her way to the one place that may save her: a hospital for rape survivors set on the border with Rwanda.
5 February 2009 | CLAIHR Human Rights Film Festival: “The U.S. vs. Omar Khadr”;
Gala Opener with special address by CBC Documentary Producer Nazim Baksh
Reception at 6:30pm; Screening at 7:30pm; Location: Art Gallery of Windsor
The U.S. vs Omar Khadr includes Omar’s first-hand account of the torture and mistreatment he claims to have suffered. Not only is there extensive evidence that the U.S. Forces were using torture in that time period, but a Bagram cellmate and one of his interrogators corroborate his story. The U.S. vs Omar Khadr challenges us to ask whether justice is a right of all citizens.
19-23 November 2007 | CLAIHR Film Festival: featuring “God Grew Tired of Us”, “Total Denial”, “God Sleeps in Rwanda”, “Check Point” and “Black Gold”.
16 November 2006 | CLAIHR Film Festival “The Other Side of War” An in-depth look into the former conflict in Eritrea and the expulsion of Ethnic Eritreans from Ethiopia.
14 November 2006 | CLAIHR Film Festival “The Iron Wall”: A documentary exposing the settlement phenomenon that follows the timeline, size, population of the settlements, and its impact on the peace process. This film also touches on the latest project to make the settlements a permanent fact on the ground – the wall that Israel is building in the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinian people. Presented by Social Justice Fellow Jillian Rogin
13 November 2006 | CLAIHR Film Festival “Uganda Rising”: A film about the conflict in Uganda between Museveni’s Government forces and a rebel group known as the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) devastating Northern Uganda, and in particular The Acholi Peoples
2005-2006 | Activities of the Chapter during the 2005/2006 academic year addressed the following human rights topics: human trafficking; children/labour/prostitution; Tibet; trans-national corporations and corporate responsibility and; anti-terrorism legislation.
7 March 2006 | CLAIHR presents Dr. Joanna Quinn, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Western Ontario, “Layers of Justice: Deconstructing Uganda’s Transition from War to Peace?”
October 2005 | First General Meeting of the Chapter; discussion of activities for 2005/2006 Academic Year
2005 | Screening of “Well-Founded Fear” a documentary on the actual operation of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
January 2005 | Panel Discussion entitled, “Torture, Human Rights and the Search for Global Justice”. Participants: Mark Arnold, Houshang Bouzari, David Matas, Professor Chi Carmody (University of Western Ontario) and Professor Steve Ratner (University of Michigan).
January 2005 | CLAIHR Chapter partnered with the University of Windsor’s Law Phi Delta Phi Chapter and raised money through a bake sale for the Tsunami Relief (Save the Children). The Law School contributed as well by matching the funds raised.
December 2004 | the Chapter invited Professor Healy, McGill University, to discuss the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Rome Statute.
December 2004 | The Chapter organized a potluck for students interested in human rights.
22 November 2004 | CLAIHR Massage Fundraiser “Massage-a-thon”: CLAIHR is bringing Registered Massage Therapy students from the Canadian College of Health Sciences and Technology to the lower pit on Monday, Nov. 22 from 3-7 pm. 15 minute massages are only $10. Pre-booking of appointments is available Nov.15-17 in the upper pit. Walk-ins are also welcome. Relieve yourself of pre-exam stress AND support your favourite club at the same time!
Fall 2004 | the Chapter ran a food drive for the local unemployment center.
October 2004 | Annual Film Night: Screening of “Patents and Patients” and “Paying the Price”. The films’ themes encompassed the interconnection between AIDS, patented medicine and suffering patients. Following the films, Professor S. Pillay of the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law spoke about the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Dr. Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, a Professor of the University’s Department of Sociology, spoke about her research on AIDS education programs in Kenyan schools.
Fall 2003 | the Chapter held its annual fundraiser at the Treehouse Bar & Grill and raised $400!