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2020 Oct 08
Reimagining Rights and Responsibilities in the U.S.
Registration Closed 10:00am to 11:30am
Location: 
Virtual Event (Registration Required)
Please join the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy for the release of our report on Reimagining Rights and Responsibilities in the United States. We'll discuss the historical context in which this project was framed, recent developments around rollbacks and movements for expansion of rights, and policy recommendations for building a more robust commitment to rights and responsibilities around six broad areas, including equal protection and due process.  We'll also discuss results from our public opinion poll and townhalls across the United States, conducted with support from the...
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2020 Sep 08
Economic Justice: Building Movements in the United States
Registration Closed 1:30pm to 2:30pm
Location: 
Virtual Event (Registration Required)
Please join the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy for its signature weekly series this fall, The Fierce Urgency of Now, featuring Black, Indigenous, People of Color scholars, activists, and community leaders, and experts from the Global South. Hosted and facilitated by Sushma Raman and Mathias Risse, the series also aligns with a course they will co-teach this fall at the Harvard Kennedy School on Economic Justice: Theory and Practice.
This panel of distinguished changemakers will discuss economic justice concerns in the...
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2020 Sep 03
Economic Justice: Building a Better Future
Registration Closed 1:30pm to 2:30pm
Location: 
Virtual Event (Registration Required)
Please join the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy for its signature weekly series this fall, The Fierce Urgency of Now, featuring Black, Indigenous, People of Color scholars, activists, and community leaders, and experts from the Global South. Hosted and facilitated by Sushma Raman and Mathias Risse, the series also aligns with a course they will co-teach this fall at the Harvard Kennedy School on Economic Justice: Theory and Practice. ...
Read more about Economic Justice: Building a Better Future
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2020 Sep 18
Social Justice Leaders Series led by Dr. Keisha N. Blain
Registration Closed 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: 
Virtual Event (Registration Required)
This webinar series, curated by Carr Center Fellow Keisha N. Blain, will feature social justice leaders working at the local, national, and international level. The series will highlight the work of leaders of color who are actively challenging racism and advancing human rights.
Panelists:
• Laura Mae Lindo | Member of Provincial Parliament for Kitchener Centre
• Dr. Keisha N. Blain (Moderator) | Associate Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh; Fellow, Carr...
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Defunding the Police Might Leave Americans More Surveilled and Less Secure

August 25, 2020

In her latest article for Foreign Policy, Carr Center Exectuive Director Sushma Raman warns that without adequate public oversight, technology in policing could result in Black people being surveilled and controlled even further.... Read more about Defunding the Police Might Leave Americans More Surveilled and Less Secure



Mathias Risse. 8/17/2020. “Dangerous Science: Might Population Genetics or Artificial Intelligence Undermine Philosophical Ideas about Equality?” Carr Center Discussion Paper Series, 2020-010. See full text.Abstract

This paper was prepared for an interdisciplinary conference on Gefährliche Forschung? (Dangerous Science?) held at the University of Cologne in February 2020 and is scheduled to appear in a volume of contributions from that event edited by Wilfried Hinsch and Susanne Brandstätter, the organizers, and to be published by de Gruyter. The paper delves into the question proposed to me—might population genetics or artificial intelligence undermine philosophical ideas about equality—without locating the context of this debate or offering a preview of its contents. The first section discusses the ideal of equality, the next two talk about genetics in the context of responses to racism, and the remaining two speak about possible changes that might come from the development of general Artificial Intelligence.

Read full text here. 



For Myanmar's Elections to Be Free and Fair Rohingya Must Get the Right to Vote

July 27, 2020

Matthew Smith calls on the international community do everything in their power to ensure the Rohingya have the right to vote in Myanmar's upcoming election.... Read more about For Myanmar's Elections to Be Free and Fair Rohingya Must Get the Right to Vote



Explaining the Dream

July 25, 2020

Alan Jenkins, Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School, joins host Sushma Raman to discuss the importance of communication as it intersects with matters of race, the law, and social justice. 

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Kathryn Sikkink on Human Rights, Electoral Reforms, and Uruguay’s Successful Response to COVID-19

July 20, 2020

Senior Research Associate for GrowthPolicy Devjani Roy sat down with Kathryn Sikkink to discuss the global pandemic, voter rights, and the Trump administration.... Read more about Kathryn Sikkink on Human Rights, Electoral Reforms, and Uruguay’s Successful Response to COVID-19



Sabelo Mhlambi. 7/8/2020. “From Rationality to Relationality: Ubuntu as an Ethical and Human Rights Framework for Artificial Intelligence Governance.” Carr Center Discussion Paper Series, 2020-009. See full text.Abstract

What is the measure of personhood and what does it mean for machines to exhibit human-like qualities and abilities? Furthermore, what are the human rights, economic, social, and political implications of using machines that are designed to reproduce human behavior and decision making? The question of personhood is one of the most fundamental questions in philosophy and it is at the core of the questions, and the quest, for an artificial or mechanical personhood. 

The development of artificial intelligence has depended on the traditional Western view of personhood as rationality. However, the traditional view of rationality as the essence of personhood, designating how humans, and now machines, should model and approach the world, has always been marked by contradictions, exclusions, and inequality. It has shaped Western economic structures (capitalism’s free markets built on colonialism’s forced markets), political structures (modernity’s individualism imposed through coloniality), and discriminatory social hierarchies (racism and sexism as institutions embedded in enlightenment-era rationalized social and gender exclusions from full person status and economic, political, and social participation), which in turn shape the data, creation, and function of artificial intelligence. It is therefore unsurprising that the artificial intelligence industry reproduces these dehumanizations. Furthermore, the perceived rationality of machines obscures machine learning’s uncritical imitation of discriminatory patterns within its input data, and minimizes the role systematic inequalities play in harmful artificial intelligence outcomes.

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