CENTER NEWSYEAR-LONG FOCUS ON ECONOMIC,SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL RIGHTSAt the initiative of Professor HermanSchwartz, the Center is hosting a year-long series of events focused on varyingperspectives on economic, social, and cul-tural rights. In October 2005 retiredJustice Richard Goldstone of theConstitutional Court of South Africa dis-cussed the place of economic, social, andcultural rights as human rights. Tracing avariety of innovative cases brought beforethe Constitutional Court of South Africa,Justice Goldstone talked about both theunique recognition of economic, social,and cultural rights by the new SouthAfrican Constitution, as well as some ofthe difficulties surrounding decisionsbased on these rights and their enforce-ment. WCL professors Herman Schwartzand Rick Wilson served as discussants andfocused on the extent to which the U.S.could emulate the South African recogni-tion of social, economic, and culturalrights. In January 2006 Aryeh Neier, presi-dent of the Open Society Institute, andProfessors Herman Schwartz and RickWilson offered their differing perspectiveson economic, social, and cultural rights ina lively discussion at WCL. Mr. Neierargued that the allocation of resourcesshould be a matter of public debate and apolitical process rather than a right thathas limited enforceability. In February theCenter hosted a panel discussion focusedon implementation of economic andsocial rights with human rights activistsand WCL Humphrey Fellows IrwinRobson (South Africa), Alceu Mauricio,Jr. (Brazil), and Sylvia Chirawu(Zimbabwe). Panelists responded to theearlier comments of both JusticeGoldstone and Aryeh Neier and sharedways in which economic and social rightsare implemented and enforced in theirrespective countries. Podcasts of all events in the series areavailable from the Center’s website atwww.wcl.american.edu/humright/center.Articles based on this series are alsoincluded in this issue of the Human RightsBrief on pages 1 – 7.6TH ANNUAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILMSERIES(OCTOBER5 – NOVEMBER3)Over 350 people attended the 6thAnnual Human Rights Film Series. Thisannual event is co-sponsored by theCenter for Human Rights andHumanitarian Law and the AU Center forSocial Media. The series focuses on waysto use film and video to promote and pro-tect human rights. The series kicked offwith the premiere screening of State ofFear, an acclaimed documentary on theFujimori Regime in Peru by filmmakersPaco de Onis and Peter Kinoy. The film-makers were present to introduce the doc-umentary and led a discussion after thescreening, which went on for severalhours. The second film, Videoletters, pre-sented stories of real people separated dur-ing the wars in the former Yugoslavia andwas followed by a discussion about recon-ciliation in the Balkans by AU ProfessorJulie Mertus. Ambassador Zac Nsenga ofRwanda spoke before the screening ofSometimes in April and answered questionsabout the current state of affairs inRwanda. The final screening of the seriesfeatured four short films produced byWITNESS on human rights in Burma.Sam Gregory from WITNESS participat-ed in the evening and previewed his newbook, Video for Change: A Guide forAdvocacy and Activism.HUMANRIGHTSDEFENDERSSPEAKER SERIESThe Human Rights Defender SpeakerSeries invites human rights defendersfrom around the world to meet with theWCL community and discuss their workand their personal journey into the worldof human rights advocacy. The Series asksspeakers to reflect on why they do thework they do. As part of the fall Series, theCenter hosted women’s rights activistFarida Ghulam Ismail (Bahrain); notedchildren’s rights activist Dr. Asha Bajpai(India); and human rights activist (andWCL Humphrey scholar) AbabuNamwamba (Kenya). WCL CHAPTER OF STAND(STUDENTS TAKING ACTION NOWDARFUR) FOUNDEDFirst-year students founded the WCLChapter of STAND (Students TakingAction Now Darfur) to create ongoingand meaningful advocacy at WCL and inthe local community to put an end to theongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan. TheCenter and STAND co-sponsored a talkby Salih Booker, Executive Director ofAfricaAction, on the current situation inDarfur. The talk helped to expose stu-dents to the genocide taking place inDarfur and resulted in dozens of studentsjoining the WCL STAND chapter. SinceSTAND’s founding, students have partic-ipated in rallies in front of the WhiteHouse and additional efforts are plannedfor the spring. GENDERANDLEGAL EDUCATIONININDIA PROJECT HELPS ESTABLISHTHEGENDER AND LAW ASSOCIATIONOFINDIA (GALA)On December 20, 2005, the Genderand Law Association of India (GALA)was formally constituted at the IndianLaw Society Law College in Pune, India,at the final meeting of the Gender and52CENTER NEWS/FACULTY AND STAFF UPDATESSalih Booker speaks about Darfur.Courtesy of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian LawLegal Education in India project, a jointproject of the Center for Human Rightsand Humanitarian Law and the Womenand International Law Program (WILP)that is funded by the Bureau ofEducational and Cultural Affairs, U.S.Department of State. Hadar Harris,Executive Director of the Center,Professor Brenda V. Smith, and WILPProgram Coordinator April Fehling par-ticipated in the meeting. WCL studentand former Center Student AdvisoryBoard Member Sapna Lalmalani (WCL’06) also participated in the meeting.The formal creation of GALA is the out-come of three years of joint work inIndia and the U.S. by the Center andWILP under the leadership of ProfessorAnn Shalleck. GALA members visitedWCL in June 2004 to explore network-ing with other organizations as part ofthis project and in October 2005 toexamine experiential learning, includingclinical programs and externships. GALA, a membership organization oflaw teachers, practitioners, activists, andstudents is the first organization in Indiato focus solely on gender and law.Throughout the duration of the project,GALA has been working with WCL onthe development of a feminist jurispru-dence syllabus to be used in Indian lawschools and is continuing to develop avariety of other projects to mainstreamgender into Indian legal education,including an essay contest, an annual con-ference, and the establishment of a sum-mer institute. FACULTY ANDSTAFFUPDATESClaudio Grossman, Dean of WCL andCo-Director of the Center, participatedas Vice Chairman at the 35th session ofthe United Nations Committee AgainstTorture in Geneva and as Co-rapporteurfor Ecuador and France. In early Novem-ber he participated in a panel on