International Law and Africa

Obiora Okafor, a professor of law in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, can discuss International law and human rights, refugee and immigration law. He is currently working on two studies relating to the African human rights system and the role of human rights NGOs in Nigeria.

David Mutimer is the deputy director of York’s Centre for International and Security Studies and an associate professor of political science. He says that 9/11 has resulted in the denial of basic human rights and that violations are increasingly commonplace.

Refugees and Environmental Displacement

Peter Penz is the director of York University's Centre for Refugee Studies and an associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.  He is the principal investigator of two team projects on the ethics of development-induced displacement including infrastructure projects such as dams, urban highways, industrial zones and game parks.

Saeed Rahnema, professor of political science teaches on War and Peace in the Middle East and displaced communities of Islamic origin and conducts research on Islamic fundamentalism, Iran, Iraq, and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

Anne Bayefsky, a political science professor and director of Human Rights Treaty Studies, is the recipient of Canada's preeminent human rights research fellowship, the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights Research. She is currently a member of the International Law Association Committee on International Human Rights Law and Practice, and Editor-in-Chief of "Refugees and Human Rights".

Mark J. Goodman, a professor of Sociology and Coordinator of Certificate in Anti-Racist Research and Practice (CARRP) in Atkinson Faculty, can discuss human rights issues in relation to problems of racism, diaspora and forced migration.

Ricardo Grinspun, interim director of York’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, says corporate-driven globalization and U.S. imperialism are undermining the international human rights regime.

Muslim Women

Haideh Moghissi, a sociology professor, is author of numerous articles on women and Islam, women’s movement in Iran, gender issues in the Iranian diaspora, domestic violence and anti-racism. Her current research examines the impacts of migration and displacement on gender and family relations among immigrants and refugees from four Islamic cultures, Iranians, Afghanis, Pakistanis and Palestinians.

Torture

Susan  McGrath, a professor in York’s School of Social Work, studies the role and function of civil society and social support for survivors of torture. She was a guest presenter at a recent conference of the Forum for Activists Against Torture in Kigali, Rwanda.

Rwanda and Genocide

Howard Adelman, a professor of Philosophy, is the founder and past director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York. His publications include: The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire (1999). Adelman has written extensively on the Middle East, humanitarian intervention, membership rights, ethics, refugee policy and refugee resettlement.

Brigitte Kitchen, a professor in York's Atkinson School of Social Work, is a founding member of the Child Poverty Action Group and was a member of the Ontario Fair Tax Commission. She can comment on the need for a national strategy on childcare and how Canada’s child poverty rate measures poorly against other countries, especially in Europe.

Canadian Aboriginal Rights

Brian Slattery, a professor in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School teaches in the areas of Indigenous Rights and Constitutional Law. He has explored the philosophical foundations of human rights and the continuing vitality of the natural law tradition. Slattery has recently served in a senior research and advisory capacity on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

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To arrange an interview or for additional experts, please contact:

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, x22086
kturriff@yorku.ca

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