Join CCR Attorney Pardiss Keibriaei et. al. for a confernece on : The United States and the Inter- American Human Rights System

Date 

Add to My Calendar Monday, April 7, 2008 12:00am

Location 

On Monday, April 7, 2008, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute (HRI) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) will co-host a conference, THE UNITED STATES AND THE INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM. The conference will take place at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Please save the date.

This conference aims to educate U.S. lawyers about the Inter-American Human Rights system. Though relatively underulitized in the past, in recent years U.S. lawyers and advocates have increasingly used the system as part of their domestic advocacy. Advocates have expressed interest in using the system to develop international norms that can be useful as persuasive authority in domestic litigation; to expose human rights violations by the U.S. to international political bodies, the media, and the broader public; and as a tool for political engagement with the U.S. State Department and state and local governments in the U.S. Our hope is that the conference will offer U.S. lawyers -- both "newcomers" and "old-timers" to the Inter-American system -- insight into the system's inner workings, as well as an opportunity to exchange views and ideas on its future development. CLE credit will be offered to participants and continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. Additional information and registration information will be forthcoming.

Confirmed speakers include Antônio Cançado Trindade (Judge and former President of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights); Robert Goldman (Professor at American University, Washington College of Law and former member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights); Elizabeth Abi-Mershed (Assistant Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights); Sandra Babcock (Clinical Director, Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern Law School), Ariel Dulitzky (Visiting Professor of Law and Latin American Studies and Associate Director of the Audre and Bernard Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas School of Law), Jim Cavallaro (Executive Director, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School); Doug Cassel (Notre Dame Law School); Katherine Gorove (U.S. State Department); Sarah Cleveland (Columbia Law school); Tara Melish (human rights attorney and legal specialist in economic, social, and cultural rights); Francisco Quintana (CEJIL); Steven Watt (ACLU Human Rights Program); Pardiss Kebriaei (Center for Constitutional Rights); and many other scholars and practitioners.

This year our conference will be held in conjunction with the Friedmann Conference, sponsored by the Columbia Society of International Law and Columbia Law School’s International and Comparative Law Faculty. The theme of the Friedmann Conference, which will take place at Columbia Law School on April 8th, 2008 (the day after our symposium) from 12:00pm-6:00pm, is “Reform and Challenges Confronting Regional Human Rights Regimes.” For more information on the Friedmann Conference, please contact Adam Bernstein at [email protected].

Please contact Vicki Esquivel-Korsiak at [email protected] or 212-854-3138 for additional information.

Last modified 

April 1, 2008