Of Universal Rights and Conflicts That Threaten Humanity

OF UNIVERSAL RIGHTS AND CONFLICTS THAT THREATEN HUMANITY
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ALUMNI RETURN
Two alumni activists were on hand to make presentations at the symposium: Reed Brody, BA’74 (M), and Vanessa Shields, BA’03 (M). Brody, counsel and European press director for Human Rights Watch, has worked for human rights causes in places from Nicaragua to Tibet. He led United Nations teams investigating massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo and monitoring human rights in El Salvador. He also coordinated an international legal team to prosecute human rights crimes in Haiti.

Now stationed in Brussels, Brody led Human Rights Watch’s case against the former dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet, and he is coordinating the prosecution of the exiled former dictator of Chad, Hissene Habre. Brody is the author of the Human Rights Watch reports “Getting Away with Torture?”, “The Road to Abu Ghraib” and “The United States’ ‘Disappeared.’”

At the conference, he spoke on “The War on Terrorism and Its Consequences for Human Rights.” Brody, whose father, Ervin, was a professor of languages at FDU from 1967 until 1985, began by praising the University’s renewed emphasis on preparing global citizens. “This conference is an indication of the leadership role Fairleigh Dickinson continues to play in global affairs.”

Brody said that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States’ response has been “marked by policies that curtail human rights.” He described a range of human rights violations that include the torture and abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. He said that such abuses undermine the war on terror, undermine the protection of human rights around the world and undermine “our own values and identity as a nation.”

“The most important thing to do is to be engaged with the world. Pay attention to what is going on around you and don’t be isolated. You are the future leaders.”
— Vanessa Shields

Alumni symposium presenters included, left, Reed Brody, BA’74 (M), counsel/European press director for Human Rights Watch, and Vanessa Shields, BA’03 (M), a peace studies scholar.

He explained that the “systematic mistreatment of Muslim prisoners has done more to create resentment against the United States and to create sympathy and a fertile ground for terrorist actions.” He added that such practices also make it hard to urge other countries to respect human rights. Finally, he said, our values are under question. “We need to demand that, in the name of who we are as a country, we stop torturing prisoners.”

Vanessa Shields is a program manager with Juarez and Associates, management consultants, splitting time in England and Washington, D.C., where the firm has an office. She runs the group’s women in development program.

“It’s fantastic to come back to FDU, and it’s great to see so many students interested in these issues,” she said, adding that she also enjoyed seeing some of the professors who inspired her like political science professors Neil Salzman and Peter Woolley.

“We need to demand that,
in the name of who we are as a country, we stop torturing prisoners.”
— Reed Brody

After graduation, Shields completed her master’s degree in peace studies at the University of Bradford, England, and then worked for NATO, the European Union and the United Nations. She is writing two books on postconflict reconstruction: Beyond Settlement, Volume I: Consolidating Democratic Institutions in Conflict States, and Beyond Settlement, Volume II: Coping with Security in Conflict States.

At the conference, Shields focused on the issue of child soldiers, along with FDU Professor of Anthropology David Rosen, the author of Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism (see FDU Magazine, Summer/Fall 2005).

Rosen emphasized the complexity of the issue and briefly discussed the history of child soldiers. While noting the horrible plight of children forced to fight wars, he added that not everyone shares the same notion of when childhood begins and ends. “The military and childhood have long been viewed as perfect together.” Many child soldiers, he added, are not victims but in fact are happy to join the fighting. But, “How do you deal with children who have enjoyed being killers?”

Shields discussed the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, which creates more possibilities for children to pick up arms and fight wars. The current restrictions are very weak, she said, and there is not a universally acceptable definition of small arms and light weapons.

In response to the question of how students can become involved in these issues, Shields told them, “The most important thing to do is to be engaged with the world. Pay attention to what is going on around you and don’t be isolated. You are the future leaders.”
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