This is a listing of older East-West Center events (newer listed first). See Events to get the list of current or upcoming events.
Research Program Brown Bag Seminar
Recent Developments in the Asian International Justice Initiative:
Long-term, Sustainable, Human Rights Reform?
Director, Asian International Justice Initiative
Ms. Michelle Staggs Kelsall
Deputy Director, Asian International Justice Initiative
Friday, July 16, 2010
Noon – 1pm
John A. Burns Hall, Room 3012 (3rd floor)
Since 2006, the East-West Center's Research Program has engaged with UC Berkeley's War Crimes Studies Center in the Asian International Justice Initiative (the 'Initiative' or 'AIJI'). The Initiative's central goal has been to foster long-term, sustainable human rights reform processes in the Region, with a particular focus on South-east Asia.
This seminar will present a review of the programs that have been undertaken, and challenge the premise of the central goal of AIJI, seeking feedback from audience participants as to the extent to which this goal is achievable. The extent to which reform has occurred will also be discussed, particularly in relation to more recent developments in Cambodia, Indonesia and at the regional level through ASEAN, to foster more sustainable processes that both protect and promote human rights. The interaction between international justice and human rights will also be considered.
Dr. David Cohen is an Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center; Ancker Distinguished Professor for the Humanities; Director, Asian International Justice Initiative; and Director, Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Cohen is also a former professor of law and social thought, University of Chicago. Monitored and reported on the East Timor trials before the Serious Crimes Panel in Dili and the Ad Hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta. He directs a trial monitoring project at the special court for Sierra Leone and an international project on the WWII war crimes trials in Asia, the Pacific, and Europe and is currently writing books on a comparative study of international criminal hybrid tribunals in East Timor, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and Kosovo and on war crimes from WWII to today.
Ms. Michelle Staggs Kelsall is the Deputy Director of the Asian International Justice Initiative. Her interests include international humanitarian law, war crimes trials, and human rights. Ms. Staggs Kelsall received her Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and her Master of Laws from the London School of Economics.
