Whose Debt? Whose Responsibility?
Download the flyer here (PDF doc)
The Center for the Study of Human Rights at Worcester State College will host an International Symposium on reparations for past mass violations of human rights on December 9 and 10, 2005 in the Ghosh Science and Technology Center, Room 102.
"Whose Debt? Whose Responsibility?" will focus on African American slavery and South African Apartheid reparations, with panels and plenary speakers devoted to both. Additional presentations will include indigenous people’s cases for reparations, and cases for the "Comfort Women" enslaved by Japan (1938-45), the Armenian Genocide. It will also explore the issue of debt cancellation as a form of reparation.
The Keynote Address will be given by M. P. Giyose, chairman of Jubilee South Africa in Johannesburg. Dennis Brutus, world-renowned anti-Apartheid and human rights activist, celebrated poet, and a visiting scholar at WSC, chairs the organizing committee and will give the introductory address.
Worcester State College Center for the Study of Human Rights Global Symposium on Reparations
Co-Sponsors:
Women's Studies Program
Office of Diversity
Third World Alliance
Multicultural Affairs
Honors Program
Departments of Sociology, History/Political Science, Urban Studies, Languages and Literature, and Philosophy Armenian National Committee of Central Massachusetts
All sessions will be held in Science and Technology Room 102 (Ghosh Auditorium), at Worcester State College, 486 Chandler Street, Worcester, MA 01602. For more information, please contact the Center for the Study of Human Rights at 508-929-8612 or htheriault@worcester.edu.
Friday, December 9: 7:30pm: Introductory Address by Dennis Brutus, internationally-renowned human rights activist and poet from South Africa Saturday, December 10: 9-10:45am: Reparations for Apartheid in South Africa --Keynote Address by M. P. Giyose, Chair of Jubilee South Africa --Commentary by Dennis Brutus, internationally renowned human rights activist and poet from South Africa 11-12:45pm: Reparations for Slavery in the US --Chair: Dr. Sibyl Brownlee, WSC Vice President for Student Affairs and historian --Professor Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, University of Arkansas School of Law (Little Rock) and N’COBRA: [title tba] --Jermaine McCalpin, Ph.D. Candidate, Brown University Political Science Department: "African American Slavery Reparations and the Global Reparative Justice Movement" 12:45-2pm: Lunch Break 2-3:45pm: Native American and Other Cases --Chair: Henry Theriault, WSC Associate Professor of Philosophy and Human Rights Center Coordinator --Professor Chris Mato Nunpa, Southwest Minnesota State University Department of Indigenous Nations and Dakota Studies and Dakota member: "The Dakota Treaty Rights Movement" --Haruko Shibasaki, Violence Against Women in War Network (VAWW-NET) - Japan: "The Legal Case in Japan for Reparations to Filipina Former Comfort Women" --Henry Theriault, "Land-based Reparations: The Case of the Armenian Genocide and Its Comparison to Native American Land Claims" 4-5:30pm: Debt Cancellation as Reparation Chair: Dennis Brutus --Thomas Ponniah, Teaching Fellow, Harvard University: "Another World Is Possible" --Patrick Sargent, WSC Undergraduate in Languages and Literature: "Debt Cancellation as Reparation: A Comparative Analysis of Four Cases" --Dennis Brutus: "The Next Steps"