Transitional Justice

UDHR Paper Cover
Carr Center Human Rights for Policy. 12/11/2023. “Making a Movement: The History and Future of Human Rights”. Publisher's VersionAbstract

In 2023, the international community celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The creation of such a document—its mere existence—must count among the greatest achievements in human history.

In recognition of this anniversary, the Carr Center’s latest publication, Making a Movement: The History and Future of Human Rights, delves into the past, present, and future of the human rights movement, evaluating its successes and failures, and presenting potential areas of progress.

Throughout the publication, you’ll read pieces from 90 Harvard faculty, fellows, and affiliates as they evaluate the intersection of the UDHR and global human rights with the themes of racial justice, transitional justice, economic equality, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, security, migration, changing political systems, climate change, advancing technology, and more.

Read the publication.

2022 Oct 13

There Is a Future If There Is Truth: A Discussion of Colombia’s Truth Commission Report

Registration Closed 12:30pm to 2:00pm

Location: 

Rubenstein 414 AB

On June 28, 2022, Colombia’s Truth Commission presented its final report “There is Future if There is Truth”. The Commission was established in 2016 as part of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) to end the country’s six-decade long conflict. The Commission’s mandate was to identify groups who participated in the armed conflict and were responsible for human rights violations, clarify events that occurred during the...

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2020 Nov 18

Book Talk: Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Challenges for Latin America and the US

4:30pm to 5:30pm

Location: 

Virtual Event (Registration Required)

Join the Ash Center and Carr Center for Human Rights for the launch of Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America by HKS Assistant Professor Yanilda María González. Authoritarian Police in Democracy examines the persistence of authoritarian policing in Latin America to explain why police violence and malfeasance remain pervasive decades after democratization. It also examines the conditions under which reform can occur. Drawing on rich comparative analysis and evidence from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, the book...

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Voting Rights
John Shattuck and Mathias Risse. 11/6/2020. Voting Rights. Reimagining Rights and Responsibilities in the United States. 2020002nd ed. Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Read the ReportAbstract

After more than a century of expanding the voting rights of previously disenfranchised groups, the American electoral system today is confronted by political and legal maneuvers to curtail the hard-won rights of these same groups, ostensibly in the name of combating fraud and regulating voting, but actually to change the outcome of elections. 

"Political campaigns to suppress or dilute votes corrode democracy, frustrate the popular will, and stimulate polarization."

Attacks on the integrity of the electoral system are not new. Throughout the 19th and much of the 20th century dominant political forces suppressed voting by African Americans and other minorities, women, immigrants, and young people. Manipulation of voting in the 20th century included racist suppression of African American votes, first by Democrats and later by Republicans. These practices are blatant examples of the vulnerability of the electoral process to partisan manipulation and the necessity of reform to safeguard voting rights, especially among these vulnerable groups.

In his timely addition to the Reimagining Rights and Responsibilites in the U.S. paper series, authors John Shattuck, Mathias Risse, and team outline the expansion of the vote through history, the disproportionate impact of voter suppression, and propose a set of policy recommendations accordingly.

Read the full report. 

See all the issues of the Reimagining Rights and Responsibilities paper series here

 

 

Transitional Justice in Colombia
The Carr Center Human Rights for Policy. 7/13/2020. Transitional Justice in Colombia. Cambridge: Harvard Kennedy School. See full text.Abstract
President Juan Manuel Santos and Carr Center faculty reflect on the Colombian peace process.

In April 2019, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School hosted a faculty consultation on the integrated system for truth, justice, reparation, and nonrepetition, created as a result of the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas in 2016. President Juan Manuel Santos and Carr Center faculty called upon leading voices in the field of transitional justice to share perspectives on the Colombian peace process and to formulate recommendations. The discussion was organized into four sessions focusing on the main components of the peace process: reparations, justice, truth, and nonrepetition.

See full text.

Spanish version of the report can be found here.

2020 Jun 12

People Power in the Face of Authoritarianism in Nicaragua

Registration Closed 12:00pm to 1:15pm

Location: 

Virtual Event (Registration Required)

A conversation with Nicaraguan human rights defenders about the trials, triumphs and future challenges of people power in Nicaragua in a context of democratic decay, decreasing civic space and authoritarianism since the return of Daniel Ortega to power in 2007.

Panelists

  • Amaya Coppens Zamora | Activist, Medical Student, Political Prisoner
  • Mateo Jarquín Chamorro | Assistant Professor, Chapman University 
  • Mónica López Baltodano | Activist,...
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Genocide’s Straw Man
Matthew Smith. 2/2020. “Genocide’s Straw Man.” Mekong Review. See full text.Abstract
Matthew Smith challenges a claim that human rights organizations are to blame for the Rohyinga Crisis.

Smith is co-founder and CEO of Fortify Rights and a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. His recent article for the Mekong Review challenges Benjamin Zawacki's claim that human rights organizations are responsible for the Rohyinga Crisis.

The Rohingya genocide in Myanmar has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than a million civilians, shocking the conscience of humanity and making the Rohingya a household name. A variety of individuals and institutions are responsible for the egregious situation, including the Myanmar military and police, civilian political elite, and extremist civilians, but in “Humanitarian Breakdown” (in the February 2020 issue), Benjamin Zawacki lays blame in a most unusual place: at the feet of the international human rights movement.

Read the full article. 

2020 Feb 25

The International Court of Justice Case on Genocide in Myanmar

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

Austin North, Harvard Law School

In November 2019, The Gambia filed a case with the International Court of Justice alleging that Myanmar military had violated the Genocide Convention for years in its treatment of the Muslim minority group, the Rohingya. A United Nations fact-finding mission had found similar patterns of abuse, documenting widespread violations of human rights in Myanmar against minority groups, including crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes. The International Court of Justice handed down provisional orders to protect the Rohingya in January 2020. Now, with the backing of all 57 members of...

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From Unalienable Rights to Membership Rights in the World Society
Mathias Risse. 12/11/2019. “From Unalienable Rights to Membership Rights in the World Society.” Carr Center Discussion Paper Series (2019-009). See full text.Abstract

The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy launched an ambitious initiative in the fall of 2019 to advance the renewal of rights and responsibilities in the United States. The initiative aims to develop research and policy recommendations around six broad themes of concern: democratic process; due process of law; equal protection; freedom of speech, religion, and association; human sustainability; and privacy.

In the most recent Carr Center Discussion Paper, Mathias Risse looks at the Pompeo Commission as a jumping off point to reexamine the distinction between natural law, natural rights, and human rights in the modern day.

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