December Conference on Human and Labor Rights, D.C.]

Statue of Antonio de Montesinos in Santo Domingo

On December 2-4, 2011, a coalition of universities and other institutions is hosting a conference in Washington, D.C. to assess what has been achieved in 500 years of human rights advocacy.  The conference is scheduled to include Sunday, 4 December, the conventionally identified date in 1511 when Antonio de Montesinos, O.P. delivered a sermon in Santo Domingo calling for reform of Spanish policy toward the indigenous.  

That sermon launched a Spanish debate about protecting the indigenous from enslavement. This advocacy in-turn contributed to the movement toward human rights universality. While concerned with the history, the conference will have as its focus current institutional and legal approaches to refine and enhance protections of labor rights and other human rights.


Please submit paper or panel proposals by OCTOBER 17, 2011

Papers and panels are invited on the following topics:

• The history and philosophy of universal human rights, while we anticipate special interest in the Americas and in imperial nations, we encourage wider perspectives;
• The relationship of human rights to issues such as sovereignty, migration, labor rights, gender, development, and security/terrorism;
• The institutional structure and processes for protecting universal human rights (including the responsibility to protect), especially from Nuremberg to the ICC;
• The relationship of universal rights to different national, regional, historical, and indigenous cultures; and Religion and human rights.

More information and registration information is at http://humanrights500.org

Please contact Montesinos@alma.edu or call Ed Lorenz, Conference Chair, and Director, Public Affairs Institute, Alma College, Alma, MI 48801 or call 1 (989) 463-7203