Other BC and Area Events
April 25, 2013
Children in No Man's Land
A Film by Anayansi Prado (meet the director at the event!)
April 25
6:00-8:00PM
Vanderslice Hall Cabaret Room
Have you ever wondered how many of the 3.5 million undocumented immigrants that enter the U.S. each year are children? They come to the U.S. in search of a better future for themselves. They are willing to risk it all for a chance at a new life. And they do.
Questions: bourff@bc.edu
2013 U.S. Truth and Justice for El Salvador Tour
Boston, MA April 24-25
The three representatives will be speaking at St. Ignatius Church April 24th at 6:30pm. Also they will present at the Paulist Center in Boston April 25th at 6:30pm.
Featuring a representative of the Pro-Historical Memory Commission and Bethany Loberg of SHARE El Salvador
The Pro-Historical Memory Commission is a coalition of human rights organizations working for truth, justice, and reparations for grave human rights violations during the armed conflict in El Salvador. Eight organizations form the commission: three committees of the mothers and relatives of the disappeared: CODEFAM, COMADRES and COMAFAC, Pro-Busqueda, which searches for disappeared children, Tutela Legal, the Archdiocese’s human rights office, FESPAD, an organization of lawyers working for human rights, the Salvadoran Human Rights Commission (CDHES), and the Madeleine Lagadec Human Rights Promotion Center. Each organization specializes in different areas, from accompanying family members of the disappeared in their healing processes to exhuming massacre sites, documenting abuses and taking cases to trial. Together they present a united voice for truth, justice and reparations.
This is an exciting moment for truth and justice in El Salvador. While the Salvadoran people have worked ceaselessly for truth and justice, the current government, led by the FMLN and president Mauricio Funes, is the first Salvadoran government since the armed conflict to recognize and apologize for the active role of the government in repressing, disappearing, and massacring civilians, and to take initial steps towards reparations. However, the Funes Administration only has a year and a half left in office. Depending on who wins the 2014 elections, the window for official government support for reparations may close. The government must take decisive action to realize concrete reparations during its remaining time in office, and this will only happen through sufficient pressure from grassroots organizations in El Salvador, the U.S. and beyond.
SHARE currently supports the Pro-Historical Memory Commission in their work to attend to victims and build societies’ awareness of victims´ rights and the need for truth, justice, and reparations, bring 6 cases of forced disappearance, 2 cases of torture and 1 case of a massacre to justice, and pressure the government to enact a policy of reparations. Bethany has lived and worked in El Salvador for four years and currently accompanies SHARE’s human rights work. We are excited to share this work with U.S. communities!
Goals of the tour:
- Raise awareness of the ongoing impact of human rights violations during the war, especially forced disappearance, murder and massacres of civilians, and the still urgent need for truth, justice and reparations
- Share the Pro-Historical Memory Commission’s work for justice, and raise funds for this work. We hope to support the commission with a $15,000 project this year, for a national advocacy campaign including large mobilizations calling for truth, justice and reparations, press conferences, and commemorative events, trauma healing workshops with victims, and to maintain a lawyer working to bring cases of forced disappearance, massacre, and torture to trial in El Salvador, and on to international court if necessary. We invite you to help make this possible.
- Invite U.S. communities to join us in the campaign for truth, justice, and reparations in El Salvador
- Gather signatures for petitions in support of El Salvador and the U.S. signing the Convention Against Forced Disappearance and for El Salvador to decree the 30th of August the Day Against Forced Disappearance
Questions may be directed to Bethany Loberg at bethany@share-elsalvador.org
Call for Posters
10th Anniversary Conference of the Human Rights Institute
September 19, 2013
University of Connecticut, Storrs
Deadline for Proposals: April 30th, 2013
The Human Rights Institute is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a conference (September 19-21) that will showcase the “Connecticut School of Human Rights,” an interdisciplinary, contextual approach to human rights. Interest in human rights has expanded beyond law schools throughout the academy, and in particular into the social sciences and humanities. The conversations that will take place at the conference point toward new horizons for the Institute and for the interdisciplinary study of human rights for decades to come.
If you would like to present a poster, please submit a 200-300 word abstract, in which you detail the content of your presentation and how you would present it on a poster, and short bio to the Human Rights Institute at humanrights@uconn.edu by April 30, 2013.Please feel free to contact us at if you have any further questions.
Download the full call for proposals below:
