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Members of the Queen’s CLAIHR team (from left): Kristen Allen, Chantel Levy, Allan McGavin, Brittany Sargent, Christine Dowling, Nicole Walton, Natasha Engineer, Courtenay Simmons

Over March 18 and 19, 2011 the Queen’s University CLAIHR and Canadian Lawyers Abroad Student Chapters hosted CLAIHR’s 9th Annual International Human Rights Film Festival. The theme of this year’s festival was Children’s Rights.

Students screened three documentaries, on children in India, child soldiers in rural Uganda, and the challenges faced by youth in the Jane & Finch area in Toronto.

Saturday morning panel for “Uganda’s Haunted Children” (from left): Professor Stanley Corbett, Professor Melanie Adrian, Dr. Walter Dorn, Professor Darryl Robinson

After each film we hosted speakers.  We welcomed Katherine Fournier from Beyond Borders and Catherine McKenna, Co-founder and Executive Director for Canadian Lawyers Abroad, Dr. Walter Dorn, a professor at Royal Military College in Kingston and at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, Melanie Adrian, professor at Carleton University, and Queen’s Law professors Stan Corbett and Darryl Robinson.

Saturday afternoon panel for “Lost in the Struggle” (from left): Leanne Wight, Professor Nicholas Bala, Daren Dougall, The Honourable Landon Pearson, Saadya Hamdani

Our Saturday panel included the Hon. Landon Pearson, a long-time advocate for the rights and well-being of children, Saadya Hamdani, Advocacy Specialist at UNICEF, Daren Dougall, Executive Director of the Youth Diversion Program in Kingston, Queen’s Law Professor Nicholas Bala, and Leanne Wight, the Supervisory Duty Counsel at the Family Court in Kingston.

Queen’s CLAIHR hosted almost 140 attendees at the two day festival, raising $230.43 for the World Food Program in North Africa.

CLAIHR has one of the largest networks of law student chapters among Canadian NGOs. Over the years, we have had presence in 12 law schools around the country. Currently, the most active Chapters are located at the Universities of British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Western Ontario, Windsor as well as Queen’s University Faculty of Law.

CLAIHR’s philosophy is to allow its Student Chapters to retain significant autonomy. This stimulates the diversity of projects, that range from poker tournaments to film festivals to research projects.

Ottawa Chapter is famous for organizing its Annual Global Generations Conference. The Conference has been providing opportunities to students to present their paper to a large likeminded audience since 2003.

Queen’s and Western Chapters bring together students and professors from all levels and departments of their respective universities to their Human Rights film festivals. The film viewings focus on specific issues related to human rights violations around the world. They are accompanied by presentations from famous speakers and roundtable discussions where everyone can share their thoughts on the issues raised in the films.

This year, our new UBC Chapter will be holding a Poker Tournament to raise funds for its First Human Rights Film Festival. The Festival is expected to be held at the end of the academic year. Other Chapters also hold various fundraising events, such as extremely popular Quiz Nights, and Speaker Series that focus on international human rights and politics.

This year, the University of New Brunswick Chapter is successfully continuing the research project initiated at the University of Toronto Chapter two years ago. The Project provides students with an opportunity to be involved in historical, policy and legal research related to the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Students in these chapters collect and analyze data on international experience in creating and operating similar Commissions.