This year’s Rising Up for Human Dignity series focuses on the nature of justice and repair. The three sessions in April will center on the different forms justice can take and the nature of reparation and repair, examining the needs and the practice throughout diverse communities.
Tickets: $5 per event, which can be found at the bottom of the page. Students can contact Amber Kurson at akurson@ojmche.org for free tickets.
Links to the zoom webinars will be sent out by email two days before each virtual program. If you have any questions regarding this series, such as problems purchasing a ticket or not receiving the link, please get in touch with Amber Kurson at akurson@ojmche.org.
At the end of the series, anyone who has purchased a ticket will receive information regarding how to access the recordings related to their tickets along with any resources provided by the panelists.
Rising Up for Human Dignity: Justice and Repair is presented in partnership with: Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, World Oregon, The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project, Never Again Coalition, The Oregon Historical Society, and Kol Shalom Community for Humanistic Judaism.
April 19, Noon: Prospects for Justice: The US and Atrocity Crimes | Virtual
When mass atrocities occur, what options do victims have to seek justice through the U.S. judicial system and possibly elsewhere? What are the U.S. policies on supporting international justice mechanisms in cases of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity? Join us for a discussion with Esti Tambay, Senior Counsel of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, and Kristin Smith, Director of the Atrocity Crimes Initiative at the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section, on the possibilities and limitations of accountability for atrocity crimes through a U.S. lens.
April 26, Noon: Confronting the Empire of Silence: Community-led Justice in DRC | Virtual
Facing a culture of impunity, communities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are forging their own paths forward to create and support sustainable solutions to ending the protracted crisis and finding justice. This discussion will delve into the various ways Congolese communities are seeking accountability by collecting testimonies, creating ad hoc truth and reconciliation initiatives, and sustained advocacy at the local and international level.
This panel discussion will be accompanied by a virtual screening of Empire of Silence, available to screen April 23-25.
About the film: For the past twenty-five years, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been torn apart by conflict that has been largely ignored by the media and the international community. Travelling throughout Congo with his camera for thirty years, Thierry Michel has witnessed the struggles, the suffering, but also the hope of the Congolese people. Relaying the appeal of Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Panzi Foundation, Michel retraces the history of this merciless violence that has ravaged Congo for a quarter of a century. Based on a UN document, the Mapping Report, which lists the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Congo between 1993 and 2003, The Empire of Silence does not spare any of the key players, neither the Congolese leaders, nor the neighbouring countries, nor the international institutions.Traversing the vast Congo, from the mountains and forests of Kivu to the banks of the river in Equateur province, inspired by resistance and solidarity, the film seeks to break the overwhelming silence and end to the reign of impunity in DRC.
April 30, 2pm: Framing Forgiveness | CACNCELED
With regret we have had to cancel this program. Our hope is to reschedule in the fall. If you purchased a ticket, you will receive a full refund. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Panelists
Kristin J. Smith is the director of the Atrocity Crimes Initiative, a group of projects (including the International Criminal Court Project) focused on atrocity prevention, response and accountability and jointly supported by ABA’s Criminal Justice Section and the Center for Human Rights. She also serves as a Staff Attorney for the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section. Prior to the ABA, she worked on issues of gender equality, reproductive rights and justice for sexual and gender-based crimes as a Legal Fellow at the Global Justice Center in New York. She also previously supported the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute’s international research and educational initiatives as a Fellow (including the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative), and worked prior as a legislative analyst and criminal prosecutor in Oregon. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.
Esti Tambay is currently a senior counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, focusing on institutional issues related to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and U.S. policy toward the court, as well as accountability in several African countries. She previously worked at the Coalition for the ICC, conducted research for the International Center for Transitional Justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and worked on several U.S. litigations seeking corporate accountability pursuant to the Alien Tort Statute. For almost a decade at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, she specialized in international arbitration and complex cross-border litigation. She has also advised the United Nations’ Office of Legal Affairs on legal claims raised against the UN. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
Nathalie Kalombo – Born in Kinshasa, DRC and raised in Houston, Texas, Nathalie Kalombo is the Transitional Justice Fellow at Panzi US. A licensed attorney and practicing litigator, she received her LLM at Emory University School of Law, specializing in International Human Rights Law and Transitional Justice. To this end, she has worked with the Carter Center and the United States State Department on DRC and transitional justice related projects.
Namwezi Batumike – Namwezi Batumike is a gender and responsible sourcing specialist at Panzi Foundation. Prior to that, she set up Panzi’s first jewelry workshop, as part of the ethical and inclusive value chain model that the organization has been developing. She was also Panzi’s focal point for the National Network of Survivors of Sexual Violence in DRC. Namwezi did her Masters in African Studies at Oxford University and detains a BSc in International Business Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva.
Randall Wyatt – A Portland native who grew up in both southeast and northeast where he witnessed gentrification transpire firsthand and was directly impacted by it. As a biracial Black man he struggled with identity until he discovered a love for hip hop and a talent for emceeing and songwriting which he has done for the last 16 years. He learned early that it is not enough to talk about injustices and that one must be active in their community to try and combat these issues. He has organized several programs and coordinated a measure 11 education curriculum and reform/repeal effort. He has also had a 10 year career as a counselor, mentor, advocate, and community engagement specialist for youth from marginalized communities. Taking Ownership PDX is his latest project to aid the Black community in a city that has historically and continually displaced and ignored their needs. He recently finished his Bachelor’s degree in Social Science that has helped inform him to create a reparations and community based platform that serves the Black community he loves in Portland.
Mark Takiguchi – Raised as a third generation Japanese-American, (Sansei), Mark is currently the Interim Deputy Director of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. Focusing on issues of equity, creative engagement and supporting cultural organizations, Mark has served in leadership roles at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, and as Executive Director of the Alberta Abbey Foundation, an arts and cultural events venue. He has an MA in Education, an MFA in Fine Arts and has spent over twenty years in higher education and the arts. He lives in Portland with his family.
Imam Abdulah Polovina was born in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before the war In Bosnia and Herzegovina he attended the Gazi Husrevbegova madrasa to be Imam, Khatib and Muallim. When the war started Abdulah voluntarily made himself available to the Territorial Defense to defend Dobrinja, a small suburb near the airport in Sarajevo. During the war engagement he was wounded three times. Sometime at the end of the war, he got married with lovely and beautiful Hatidža (Khadijah). After the war he was appointed by the Islamic Community to work as an Imam in one mosque in Sarajevo. Here he stayed for the next five years, until he moved to Seattle where he worked as an Imam for 12 years at the local Islamic Community and the congregation of Bosniaks. Currently, Abdulah is the Imam of the Bosniak congregation and organization in Portland, Oregon, the regional Head Imam of the ICNAB Majlis 1 – West, and he is a member of the Executive Board of ICNAB. He is father of five children, Muhammed, Lamia, Ahmed, Mustafa and Abdulgafar. Imam Abdulah has a BA in Islamic Studies from Cloverdale College in Indiana, a BA in Comparative Religions from the University George Washington in Seattle and a masters in transformational leadership from Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry.