Human Rights

U of T Mississauga students lead efforts to understand justice in global conflicts

siddiq22 — Fri, 19 May 2023 14:12:01 +0000

U of T Mississauga students lead efforts to understand justice in global conflicts

siddiq22 Fri, 05/19/2023 - 10:12

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From left: Pedro Andrade, Fatimah Ahsan, Rohit Bahal, Nicole Fernando, Geoff Dancy, Joseph Mangin, Mary Kazek, and Farah Radwan are among the researchers working on the Transitional Justice Evaluation Tools project (supplied photo)

Topic

Global Lens

Global

Human Rights

International Relations

Political Science

Politics

Research

U of T Mississauga

A group of students at the ��Ƶ Mississauga are at the forefront of efforts to understand transitional justice across the globe – a scholarly field that confronts how to pursue accountability for human rights violations in the context of authoritarianism and violent political conflict.

Working with Geoff Dancy, associate professor in U of T Mississauga's department of political science, nine students are collecting data on criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, legal amnesties and reparations policies in all the regions of the world.

Their goal is “to provide a comprehensive database for academic research, and to predict human rights trends internationally," says team member Pedro Andrade, a fourth-year undergraduate student from Brazil.

Dancy, post-doctoral researcher Oskar Timo Thoms and the group of undergraduate students received a $3-million grant from Global Affairs Canada – administered jointly between Harvard University and U of T – for their Transitional Justice Evaluation Tools (TJET) project.

TJET's student researchers have developed a wide range of expertise while working on the project.

Mary Kazek, an undergraduate student studying international affairs and economics, has become a go-to authority on criminal proceedings against Chilean military and intelligence officers who were responsible for extensive human rights violations during the Pinochet regime.

Collecting data on over 500 prosecutions has also given Kazek an appreciation for detailed research.

“Political science tends to focus on the macro level and gloss over the details of atrocities and human rights violations, which prevents people from fully understanding the true horrors of what has happened," she says.

Third-year student Fatimah Ahsan, who is a U of T Global Scholar studying political science, has helped finalize an exhaustive database of over 80 truth commissions that were established in the last 50 years – including Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which completed its work in 2015.

“I personally enjoy how much I am able to learn about the cases,” Ahsan says. “Every case I code, I learn something about the country I am working on, including its history and political state.”

Other researchers are focused less on specific mechanisms of justice, and more on overall themes. Political science and criminology student Farah Radwan has spent months studying prosecutions of state agents for sex- and gender-based violence, combing through information on over 17,000 accused rights violators.

“I think the biggest thing I learned while working on this project is that the workload can seem daunting, and it is really time-consuming," she says. "But it is extremely rewarding and fulfilling when it’s done – and done right.”

The detail-oriented work has been challenging yet fulfilling. Through her work with TJET, political science student Nicole Fernando has come to specialize in coding, converting publicly available information into useable data.

“I love the methodical nature of coding – there is a process to follow for examining each case," she notes.

Amid their exacting individual research, the TJET group has come together through regular group meetings and team hangouts on the fifth floor of the Maanjiwe nendamowinan building on the U of T Mississauga campus.

“What has struck me the most is the team-oriented nature of the research. We regularly discuss with each other about our respective work, which gives us a better understanding of our contribution," says Joseph Mangin, a third-year student from France studying politics and international relations who has been going through news articles to collect data on global amnesty laws.

Dancy, who previously worked at Tulane University in New Orleans, brought the TJET project with him when he moved to U of T last summer.

He's effusive about the U of T student researchers currently taking part in the project.

"Not to diminish the work of other teams I’ve led, but this is probably the most joyful and committed group of students I’ve ever worked with," says Dancy, who gives each of his researchers coffee mugs labelled “Researching justice, one cup at a time.”

Dancy, along with colleagues from Harvard University, recently presented findings from TJET's data collection to Global Affairs Canada at a meeting in Ottawa.

“All of the hard work the students have done directly informed high-level policy conversations about how to proceed with transitional justice in contexts such as Ukraine and Ethiopia," he said.

Research reveals what Google searches can tell us about the global human rights movement

siddiq22 — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:33:40 +0000

Research reveals what Google searches can tell us about the global human rights movement

siddiq22 Thu, 04/27/2023 - 15:33

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Geoff Dancy, an associate professor of political science at U of T Mississauga, used Google Trends to research where in the world people are most interested in human rights (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

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When Geoff Dancy wanted to research where people are most interested in human rights, he fully expected it would come from countries in the Global North – such as Canada and the United States.

But when Dancy – an associate professor in the ��Ƶ Mississauga's department of political science – and his colleague delved deeper into the topic, they discovered the total opposite was true: it is those in the Global South, who regularly face suffering and violence at the hands of their governments, who consistently search online for information about human rights.

“Our expectations were completely flipped on their head,” Dancy says. “It goes against this academic narrative that exists right now that human rights aren’t from – and don’t resonate in – the Global South. We found the exact opposite of that.”

Dancy, along with his colleague Christopher Fariss, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's department of political science, detail their findings in a new paper published in The American Political Science Review.

As part of their research, Dancy and Fariss used the Google Trends analytics tool, which collects aggregated data on what people are searching for on Google. They examined Google searches from between 2015 and 2019 for the term “human rights,” looking at data from 109 countries and across five languages.

As they analyzed the data, they discovered that interest in human rights was more pronounced in the Global South – for example, in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Ugandan activists gathered for a Pride rally in 2015 to mark a temporary loosening of anti-LGBTQ+ laws – in recent years, the government has passed stringent legislation against being openly gay (photo by Isaac Kasamani /AFP via Getty Images)

Dancy and Fariss found that the top three countries that searched for “human rights” the most in English were Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. In the Spanish-language group, the most searches came from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

“The biggest correlation of searching for human rights is political violence," Darcy says. "If you live in a place where the government is attacking its citizens, then you see more searches for human rights."

He points to Uganda, whose government has passed stringent anti-LGBTQ+ laws that subject people to lifetime imprisonment – and more recently, the death penalty – for being openly gay.

“People are searching for human rights because they want to fight back against that,” Dancy says.

In Global North countries, the researchers discovered a different pattern. The United States, which did not make the top 12 searchers, scored high for one week in the summer of 2018 when there was extensive media coverage of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

While Dancy notes that 2021 falls outside of the study’s time period, he has since discovered a similar pattern in Canada. In September 2021, Google searches for human rights spiked in Canada – which coincides with major news events at the time, such as the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, as well as vaccine mandates.

“In the Global North, they get very brief and ‘faddish’ interest in human rights and then it goes away,” Dancy says. “But in the Global South, people are constantly searching for human rights. There aren’t spikes and troughs, just steady searches.”

He adds that the research challenges scholars who claim that many people today are less attuned to concepts around human rights.

“There are a number of scholars who argue that human rights isn’t getting the job done – it isn’t going far enough to make change, and so people will lose interest in human rights as a global movement,” Dancy says.

“But people in the Global South very much want human rights . . . and find them to be a useful tool still. In some ways, this [research] is a reclamation of the importance of the human-rights movement around the world.”

The research received support from the Global Challenges Research Fund, the Social Science Korea Human Rights Forum, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

Kelly Hannah-Moffat takes on expanded role as U of T’s vice-president, people strategy, equity and culture

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 17:04:46 +0000

Kelly Hannah-Moffat takes on expanded role as U of T’s vice-president, people strategy, equity and culture

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 06/25/2021 - 13:04

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(Photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Kelly Hannah-Moffat

Diversity and Inclusion

Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies

Equity

Faculty of Arts & Science

Human Rights

Sociology

U of T Mississauga

Kelly Hannah-Moffat, the ��Ƶ’s vice-president, human resources and equity and a professor in criminology and sociolegal studies and sociology, has been appointed to the newly created position of vice-president, people strategy, equity and culture.

The appointment for a five-year term – from July 1, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2026, including a six-month administrative leave – was approved by Governing Council Thursday.

Hannah-Moffat said she is looking forward to her expanded role, which includes an increased focus on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), community safety and emergency preparedness, human resources innovation and workplace wellness and culture.

“The prospect of continuing this work in an increased capacity is exciting and humbling,” Hannah-Moffat said. “I am looking forward to collaborating across campuses and divisions as well as with the broader community. I’m also looking forward to strengthening our relationships with affinity groups, and our employee union and UTFA partners, who do incredible work on behalf of their members.

“I am excited to have the opportunity to think more about the future of work and explore questions like: How will work be re-engineered and transformed as the workplace evolves over the next five years? How can U of T lead in this area?”

Hannah-Moffat, who has been in her current role since 2016, added that U of T must continue to earn its place as a top employer of choice just as it works to uphold its status as a world-class institution for teaching and research.

U of T President Meric Gertler said the decision to transform the human resources and equity role followed a review by an advisory committee – which he chaired – and consultations with stakeholders.

“Professor Hannah-Moffat’s collaborative and principled leadership, as well as the work of her team, has created an excellent foundation on which to build for the future,” President Gertler said.

“Her revised and expanded mandate will make it possible for Professor Hannah-Moffat to continue advancing the key strategic priorities – from promoting equity, diversity and inclusion to addressing more effectively the needs of staff in areas such as learning, leadership and wellness.”

Hannah-Moffat said there has been significant progress in the support of leadership and learning initiatives in recent years, including the development of the Centre for Learning, Leadership and Culture, which is dedicated to furthering leadership capacity, staff learning and development, and establishing a workplace culture grounded in leadership excellence.

She said the university’s steady adoption of new digital tools and technologies in its human resources, crisis and emergency preparedness and equity practices meant it was well positioned to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Over the course of a few days, we had to shift a community of 115,000 individuals to a work-from-home and study-from-home situation,” she said. “Because we already had a strong foundation in areas like digital transformation, we were able to adapt and quickly start using new technologies to support faculty, librarians, and staff.

“The flexibility and creativity that people exercised under really stressful circumstances was impressive. I am incredibly proud of how all our human resources, high-risk, crisis management, labour relations and equity staff responded to a set of difficult issues that evolved daily – all while balancing their existing responsibilities, addressing new barriers to access and doing so amid global calls for action for social and racial justice.”

She also highlighted efforts to strengthen the university’s equity teams, including the appointment of Karima Hashmani to the recently created role of executive director of equity, diversity and inclusion.

“Recognizing our responsibilities in responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Anti-Black Racism Task Force, the Anti-Islamophobia Working Group and the Anti-Semitism Working Group, we will continue to invest in and strengthen the equity portfolio so they can develop robust institutional supports for our community,” Hannah-Moffat said. “Our ability to recognize and acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do – and to watch our community embrace the opportunity to do that work across all of the divisions and central portfolios – is something I’m very proud of.

“We have a strong foundation for continuing equity and diversity work, and I look forward to re-imagining our systems and practices to empower our community to thrive.”

Going forward, Hannah-Moffat said her reimagined role will enable more support for employees engaging in complaints processes, create new pathways to leadership for Black, Indigenous and racialized employees, and focus on generating better equity data.

“We need good data to better understand the makeup of our community and look at issues around talent management, recruiting, mentoring, retention and hiring through an equity lens,” she said. “Digital analytics and transformation will help us understand our community and provide information to the divisions so they can use it to inform their decision-making.

“I value evidence-based decision making. I think that when you combine a principle-based approach with evidence, you have a really strong foundation for building teams and cultures and moving the university forward in a way that exemplifies our excellence and creates a more inclusive environment.”

Prior to being named vice-president, human resources and equity, Hannah-Moffat served as vice-dean, undergraduate and interim dean and acting vice-principal at U of T Mississauga. During that time, she also served as an adviser to the vice-president and provost and the vice-president, human resources and equity on sexual violence and crisis services.

A professor in the department of sociology at U of T Mississauga, Hannah-Moffat is cross-appointed to the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science, where she previously served as director. She earned both her master’s degree and PhD from U of T.

Alongside her work as vice-president, people strategy, equity and culture, Professor Hannah-Moffat will continue her interdisciplinary research focusing on human rights, criminal records disclosures, solitary confinement, AI and risk algorithms, punishment, risk-based discrimination and institutional risk management practices.

U of T students join universities around the world to address laws that suppress media, freedom of expression

Romi Levine — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 16:19:59 +0000

U of T students join universities around the world to address laws that suppress media, freedom of expression

Romi Levine Thu, 09/05/2019 - 12:19

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Edward Snowden, a whistleblower who exposed the U.S. National Security Agency's electronic surveillance practices, is currently living in Russia (photo by Barton Gellman/Getty Images)

Topic

Research & Innovation

High-profile charges against whistleblowers and leakers like Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning are exposing the legal consequences for publicly releasing government secrets and are shedding light on the way nations use the law to suppress media and freedom of expression.

A global network of universities, including the ��Ƶ, has begun to engage in a large-scale research project to explore how countries are using local laws to stifle journalists, media outlets and whistleblowers.

The International Human Rights Program in U of T’s Faculty of Law is leading the charge in Canada. Students participating in a clinical course, called the Media Freedom Model Laws Project, will conduct research and contribute to a report on how countries are using espionage and official secrets laws to respond to media leaks. U of T will be working alongside Irwin Cotler, former federal minister of justice and attorney general, on the project.

Other participating universities include King’s College London, Columbia Law School and Korea University. Each school will tackle a different issue or legal tactic – including blasphemy, misinformation, defamation, and anti-terrorism – and provide regional contexts for the different reports.

The initiative came out of the Global Conference for Media Freedom in July and is part of a larger media freedom campaign and legal panel led by David Neuberger, former president of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and Amal Clooney, human rights lawyer and special envoy on media freedom to the U.K. foreign secretary.

“The tax on media freedom is manifesting in a lot of different ways, and thus far there hasn't been much of a concerted effort to bring all of these threads together,” says Vincent Wong, an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law and IHRP research associate, who is teaching the media freedom course.

U of T students will have the chance to work with Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who is the legal adviser for National Security Agency whistleblower Snowden. He will serve as one of the expert reviewers for the report.

“Students will really have the opportunity to not only learn from the readings and from the theoretical angle, but will also talk to some of the key players that were involved in these kinds of ground-shaking cases that are still going on and still having ramifications all over the world,” says Wong.

Vincent Wong says the global reach of the media freedom project will give it the scope needed to make a difference (photo by Romi Levine)

U of T law student Kate Somers is looking forward to taking a deep dive into the laws affecting media freedom during the law clinic.

“I was excited to be involved further in that because it's a really great way to learn about what's happening, keep myself informed, and to equip myself with the tools and the connections so hopefully I can continue being part of the conversation about freedom of expression in the future.”

Somers says she’s interested in working as an in-house counsel for an international newspaper, so the media freedom project, “really lets me reinforce and explore the parallels between journalism and law.”

Using a legal cover to silence journalists is a relatively new activity, says Wong, with a prime example being the punishment for those involved in WikiLeaks.

Manning’s 35-year sentence (which was commuted after seven years) for leaking classified documents was an unprecedented move by the U.S. government, he says.

“In terms of severity of sentencing for media leaks, this was completely off the charts. This was multiples of years in terms of length of any sentence that had ever been issued for media leaks for national security,” says Wong. “This was really a turning point and it showed how America was using the national security and the espionage acts in a way that had never been contemplated when the espionage act was created about 100 years ago.”

Canada doesn’t shy away from these types of legal actions, either, he says.

In 2015, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, who was then the Canadian military’s second-in-command, was accused of leaking information about a naval ship contract and charged with breach of trust. He pleaded not guilty and, while the charge was eventually stayed, Wong says the case is a reminder that the long tradition of government disclosure to media is on shaky ground.

“It is really only in the last about 10 years or so that the legal framework all over the world has really shifted against this and has targeted and prosecuted this relationship between government officials and political reporters in the press.”

The IHRP report will include a review of problematic state practices regarding espionage and national security laws, and on the flip side, legislation that could serve as positive examples of media protection. Researchers will also look at international guidance on media freedom and freedom of expression from organizations like the United Nations Human Rights Council and Human Rights Committee, and provide recommendations for how to create a legal framework that balances public interest and national security concerns.

The global media freedom project is a chance to advocate for better global protections for journalists, media organizations and leakers, using the clout of Neuberger and Clooney and the network of university researchers, says Wong.

“We have a unique opportunity and ability here to put pressure on a lot of different governments,” he says. “The ultimate point is that it makes a practical impact because if it doesn't, then why are we here? The practical function of this is on the top of the minds of everybody who was involved in this project. That's one of the ways that makes it exciting.”

Students’ Indigenous human rights clinics receive US$100,000 from American College of Trial Lawyers

lanthierj — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 17:06:50 +0000

Students’ Indigenous human rights clinics receive US$100,000 from American College of Trial Lawyers

lanthierj Wed, 03/27/2019 - 13:06

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Pro Bono Students Canada, pictured above at a conference in May, will receive a US$100,000 grant to assist with two pilot clinics (photo courtesy of Faculty of Law)

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Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC), an organization founded and headquartered at the ��Ƶ Faculty of Law, has been recognized with the 2019 Emil Gumpert Award for its groundbreaking proposal to pilot two Indigenous human rights clinics in Ontario.

The award, given by the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), comes with a US$100,000 grant.

“These pilot clinics are needed, important and timely,” said Kim Snell, the organization's interim national director. “This generous award allows us – PBSC and our partners – to make a real step forward in redressing the human rights of Indigenous Peoples. We are so grateful to the ACTL for believing in our vision.

“We will build clinics that will make us all proud.”

The PBSC clinics are to be located in Toronto and Ottawa at the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC). They will be staffed by law student volunteers and pro bono human rights lawyers who will provide culturally sensitive legal services to Indigenous Peoples in a safe and welcoming clinical setting.

The legal services offered will include:

Assisting clients to identify, draft and file human rights complaints with provincial and federal human rights bodies
Providing pro bono representation to clients in mediations or at hearings before human rights tribunals
Developing and delivering public legal education workshops
Assisting community organizations to document systemic human rights abuses, over time creating an evidentiary foundation for advocacy, law reform and litigation, with and on behalf of Indigenous communities.

“The college is proud to facilitate the creation by Pro Bono Students Canada of these pilot Indigenous Human Rights clinics,” said Jeffrey S. Leon, ACTL president and a U of T Law alumnus. “Promoting access to justice is fundamental to the college’s mission to maintain and improve the administration of justice in Canada and the United States.

“We recognize the particular importance at this juncture in Canadian society of providing culturally sensitive legal representation, as part of the truth and reconciliation process for those Indigenous individuals who are in need of legal services. This imaginative project captures the spirit and essence of our Emil Gumpert Award and we are so pleased to be able to provide financial assistance for this most worthwhile endeavour.”

PBSC’s legal and community partners, such as the OFIFC, are an integral part of this project. The OFIFC is the largest urban Indigenous service network in Ontario. In addition, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, one of Canada’s leading firms and PBSC’s national law firm partner since 2004, will provide lawyers to represent Indigenous clients pro bono at human rights mediations and tribunals.

Other important partners include the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Human Rights Legal Support Centre (Ontario), Thomson Reuters, the ��Ƶ Faculty of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School at York University and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.

PBSC will be honoured at a ceremony on April 24 at the 18^th annual symposium sponsored by the Advocates Society and ACTL.

U of T’s Citizen Lab, international human rights program explore dangers of using AI in Canada’s immigration system

Romi Levine — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 13:26:07 +0000

U of T’s Citizen Lab, international human rights program explore dangers of using AI in Canada’s immigration system

Romi Levine Wed, 09/26/2018 - 09:26

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Researcher and co-author of a report on AI uses in Canadian immigration, Petra Molnar, in the international human rights program office (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Artificial Intelligence

Research & Innovation

Canada is fast becoming a leader in artificial intelligence, with innovators across the country finding new ways of using automation for everything from cancer detection to self-driving cars.

According to a joint report by the international human rights program (IHRP) in the Faculty of Law and Citizen Lab, based in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, the Canadian government is beginning to embrace automation too, but if used irresponsibly, it can trample on human rights.

The report looks at the ways the Canadian government is considering using automated decision-making in the immigration and refugee system, and the dangers of using AI as a solution for rooting out inefficiencies.

“The idea with this project is to get ahead of some of these issues and present ideas and policy recommendations and best practices in terms of, if you're going to be using these technologies, how they need to accord to basic human rights principles so they do good and not harm,” says Petra Molnar, one of the authors of the report and a technology and human rights researcher at IHRP.

Read the full report

Read Petra Molnar's op-ed in the Globe and Mail

Molnar, along with co-author Lex Gill, who was a Citizen Lab research fellow at the time, found that the Canadian government is already developing automated systems to screen immigrant and visitor applications, particularly those that are considered high risk or fraudulent.

“But a lot of this is being talked about without definitions,” says Molnar. “So what does high risk mean? We can all imagine which groups of travellers would be caught up under that. Or fraudulent – how are they going to determine whether a marriage is fraudulent or not or if this child is really your child? There are no parameters.”

The report includes a taxonomy of immigration decisions. "We take the reader through what it would look like if you are applying to enter Canada – all the different considerations you have to think about," says Molnar. "Each section is broken down by applications and questions of how these technologies might actually be impinging on human rights." (Illustration by Jenny Kim/ Ryookyung Kim Design)

Finding concrete information about government practices has proven to be tough. Molnar says the research team filed 27 access-to-information requests but were still awaiting response as of writing the report.

The problem at the core of automation, says Molnar, is that algorithms are not truly neutral.

“They take on the biases and characteristics of the person who inputs the data and where the algorithm learns from,” she says. “The worry is it's going to replicate the biases and discriminatory ways of thinking the system is already rife with.”

Read about the report in The Toronto Star

The authors also looked at case studies from around the world of governments using AI for immigration-related decision-making.

“No one has done a human rights analysis of these technologies, which to me is kind of bonkers,” says Molnar. “How are these technologies actually going to impact people’s daily reality? That's where we come in.”

The report highlights international cases of algorithms failing to protect the rights of the people affected by immigration decisions. This included the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) setting an algorithm to justify 100 per cent detention of migrants at the border, and the U.K. government wrongfully deporting over 7,000 students who they claimed cheated on English language equivalency tests that were administered using voice recognition software. The automated voice analysis was proven to be incorrect in many of the cases when compared to human analysis.

“There are all these ways the algorithmic decision-making tool can be just as faulty but we view them with perfection so without realizing, we risk deploying them irresponsibly and ending up where possibly we were better off with human decision-makers,” says Cynthia Khoo, Google policy fellow at Citizen Lab and one of the reviewers of the report.

(Illustration by Jenny Kim/ Ryookyung Kim Design)

The report offers a list of recommendations the authors hope will be adopted by the Canadian government, including the establishment of an oversight body to monitor algorithmic decision-making and informing the public about what AI technology will be used.

The research team hopes to update the report once the access-to-information documents are received and to continue its work on automation by looking at other uses of AI by the federal government, including in the criminal justice system, says Molnar.

For both IHRP and Citizen Lab, the nature of this report is unusual – focusing on potential harm and not existing violations of human rights, says Samer Muscati, director of IHRP.

“This gives us great opportunities to have impact right from the start before these systems are finalized,” he says. “Once they're in place, it's much harder to change a system than when it's actually designed.”

Ahead of the report’s publication, IHRP and Citizen Lab met with government officials in Ottawa to present the report.

Muscati hopes beyond these meetings, the report can make a real difference.

“It's when we see practices and policies being changed – that's when we know we're having some impact."

U of T experts on the brutal personal costs of the Philippines' human rights abuses

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 15:19:37 +0000

U of T experts on the brutal personal costs of the Philippines' human rights abuses

noreen.rasbach Fri, 08/03/2018 - 11:19

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Ephraim Escudero’s child holds a photo by his memorial. The father of two was murdered in the brutal drug war of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte (photo by Sheerah Escudero)

Topic

Subheadline

The Conversation with U of T's Petra Molnar and Anna Su

In September 2017, Sheerah Escudero’s world came crashing down. Her beloved younger brother Ephraim had been missing for five days and the Escudero family was growing increasingly desperate. Then the call came: His body had been found lying by an empty road more than 100 kilometres away in Angeles City, in Pampanga province in the Philippines, northwest of Manila. Ephraim had been shot in the head, his body wrapped in packing tape.

The 18-year-old had been a recreational drug user but as far as his family knew, hadn’t used in a few years. Yet the father of two had still become ensnared in the increasingly brutal drug war of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose government has been killing suspected drug users and “drug pushers” since 2016. Duterte recently announced he was ramping up his efforts.

Sheerah Escudero

Sheerah and her family tried to identify those responsible for Ephraim’s death. They reported his disappearance immediately to police. Local police departments have refused to release any information or leads. Witnesses have told Sheerah that Ephraim was picked up by two men on a motorcycle, a common killing tactic now known as “riding in tandem.” CCTV footage confirmed this.

Sheerah, a diminutive woman in her early 20s with a bright smile, bears the trauma of her brother’s death with stoicism. Her Facebook page is a mix of joyful pictures with friends at coffee shops, juxtaposed with photos of her brother’s bloodied body lying in the street.

His death made the impact of the drug war personal in the most visceral sense – a brother lost, a father taken too soon.

Human rights workers targeted

We met Sheerah in late April 2018, during a trip to the Philippines to investigate the deteriorating human rights situation in the country – part of a broader research project at the international human rights program, in the ��Ƶ's Faculty of Law, to understand Canada’s role in the region.

Sheerah Escudero (photo courtesy of the authors)

Our conversations with more than 50 human rights defenders, environmental activists, lawyers, artists and Indigenous groups revealed troubling patterns in a country that’s increasingly closing its borders to outsiders.

Sheerah’s story is all too common. The Duterte government’s brutal crackdown on drugs continues unabated. Duterte has publicly galvanized the Philippine National Police force to “slaughter them all,” proclaiming that we "can expect 20,000 to 30,000 more" deaths before the war is over.

As with any state directly targeting its own people, actual numbers are difficult to quantify, but Human Rights Watch estimates there are more than 12,000 dead. The body count rises daily; victims include children and young people like Sheerah’s brother Ephraim. Their deaths destroy families and the social fabric of communities.

‘Currently Detained vs Released’ A file cabinet at Karapatan, a human rights organization in Manila, containing information on the fate of human rights workers in the country (photo courtesy of authors)

Sheerah’s story shows the profound and far-reaching reverberations of state-induced violence. This violence takes many forms. For example, the regime has been explicitly targeting human rights advocates, placing many lawyers, NGO workers and environmental activists on a “suspected terrorist” hit list, which the government filed at a Manila Court in March 2018.

The lawyers and organizations we spoke with in metropolitan Manila all mentioned numerous colleagues who have been placed on this list, with some detained by the regime, while others have ominously disappeared.

Mining and degradation of the environment

The hit list has also created a climate of fear among environmental activists who have been advocating for agrarian reform, basic human rights for farmers, as well as highlighting environmental degradation as a result of extractive mining activities across the country.

During our time in rural Santa Cruz in the province of Zambales, we interviewed numerous environmental activists and farmers who spoke about the inaction of the government to address the tremendous environmental impacts of a neighbouring nickel mine.

A coalition of environmental activists at a meeting in Zambales province with the authors (photo provided by the authors)

The mine has destroyed rice paddies, polluted rivers and ocean water, killed livestock, and made it extremely difficult for farmers and fisherfolk to sustain their livelihoods.

The community’s incredible hospitality during our stay was contrasted by the stark poverty as a result of ongoing mining in the region. Many farmers and activists also expressed fatigue at having to deal with more researchers who ultimately do nothing to help their situation.

As one farmer told us: “I don’t want to talk to another Westerner ever again – nothing is changing. Your mines come in, our government sells away our lives, and we are left with nothing.”

While Canada is not operating a mine directly in Zambales, the deteriorating security situation at the time of our fieldwork did not allow us to visit Canadian mining sites as we had initally planned in the southern island of Mindadao, or the Oceana Gold mining facility in Didipio in central Luzon, which has already faced strong criticism by environmental groups in Canada.

Canadian mines also devastate the environment

However, the environmental impacts we observed in Santa Cruz are apparently similar to those at the Oceana Gold mine, according to representatives of the Didipio community as well as environmental activists in Manila who regularly monitor Canadian mines.

In Mindanao, thousands have been displaced by the mining activity and the counter-insurgency war, including numerous Indigenous peoples, who are often also directly targeted and murdered by the Duterte government for speaking out.

According to an Indigenous Lumad chieftain, Datu Lala: “Mindanao is now so militarized that we cannot breathe. We have to get out – otherwise we will be killed.”

The chieftain and his community have been seeking sanctuary in Manila for the last few months after a number of their family members, including children, were killed. Communities such as the Lumad are increasingly afraid to speak out for fear of reprisal, and environmental activists do not want to become the next target.

The Duterte government has also undermined fundamental democratic institutions and the independent judiciary, removing Maria Lourdes Sereno, the chief justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, and publicly attacking the Commission on Human Rights, an independent and constitutionally mandated body that monitors and investigates human rights in the Philippines.

Duterte has even threatened to slash its annual Human Rights Commission budget to a mere $20 and has called its chairman, Chito Gascon, a “pedophile” on national television.

Jose Luis Martin ‘Chito’ Gascon, chairman of the Comission on Human Rights in the Philippines (photo provided by the authors)

Duterte doesn’t stop with his own people.

His administration has also been sealing its borders to international observers, and he’s barred foreigners like the Italian politician Giacomo Filibeck and a delegation from entering the country in April.

Even religious missionaries are not immune. During our time in the Philippines, Duterte ordered the expulsion of 76-year-old Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox, who has been living in the country for 20 years, for so-called “human rights activism.”

And the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the right of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, has been placed on the suspected terrorist list and is now afraid to return to the Philippines.

Our fieldwork was marred by this increasingly hostile environment. We were repeatedly told to keep a low profile, and our sources warned us that the government does not like foreign criticism.

Canada must do better

As two Canadian lawyers specializing in human rights law, we were profoundly disturbed by the discrepancy between this reality on the ground and Canada’s silence on the Philippines.

The International Criminal Court has initiated a preliminary investigation against Duterte himself, and the president retaliated by calling for a complete withdrawal from the court and threatening to arrest its chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, if she ever dared to set foot in the Philippines.

However, during our visit to the Canadian Embassy in Manila, a spokesperson emphasized Canada’s insistence on maintaining “friendly relations” with the Philippines.

It’s possible that Canada benefits from these friendly relations. We import labour from the Philippines through its many temporary foreign worker schemes. Perhaps calling out human rights abuses in the Philippines would not bode well for maintaining a steady stream of labour that bolsters the Canadian economy.

At the absolute minimum, however, Canada must critically re-examine its foreign aid policy and trade relations with the Philippines, such as the recently cancelled $300 million helicopter deal, which would have sent 16 combat-ready helicopters to the Philippine military were it not for backlash by the Canadian public and the media.

However, in April 2018, there were renewed discussions about the sale of the same helicopters, as well as an additional helicopter going directly to the Philippine National Police in June this year — the very same police force perpetrating the drug war murders.

Sheerah and Ephraim Escudero as children (photo by Sheerah Escudero)

It’s hard to reconcile Canada’s rhetoric of upholding international human rights with the suffering of people like Sheerah, who lost her only brother to the drug war.

Sheerah is particularly disturbed that “Duterte has made it OK to tell people that it is normal to kill, that people should die for using drugs instead of having access to treatment and rehabilitation.”

To deal with her trauma, Sheerah has become an activist and writer, volunteering with Rise Up, a network of organizations advocating against the drug-related killings.

Ephraim’s death continues to reverberate through her life in unexpected ways, acting as an “ice-cold” wakeup call, but one that also makes her life more dangerous. Keeping her brother’s memory alive makes her a target, she says, with a mix of quiet resignation and courage: “If this bloodshed continues, we are all potential victims here.”

Petra Molnar is a lawyer in U of T's international human rights program and Anna Su is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at the ��Ƶ.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

U of T law student helps reform trans rights in Israel

ullahnor — Tue, 01 May 2018 17:40:19 +0000

U of T law student helps reform trans rights in Israel

ullahnor Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:40

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From left to right, Ido Katri at Israel's Supreme Court earlier this year with attorneys Hagai Kalai and Haya Erez, for the case of Doreen Bilia (third from left), a transgender woman who was held in solitary confinement in a men's prison

Topic

A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) student at the ��Ƶ's Faculty of Law is seeing the payoff for his advocacy and research work on the rights of trans inmates in Israel's prison system.

Until now, the unspoken policy has been that prisoners or detainees whose gender identity was "ambiguous" should be kept in administrative segregation. Thanks to Ido Katri's work and that of his colleagues in Israel, the prison service recently announced that it will no longer keep transgender inmates in isolation.

The changes along with Katri's involvement have been featured in various Israeli media, including Haaretz.

The risks faced by China's human rights lawyers: U of T sociologist Sida Liu

ullahnor — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 19:51:55 +0000

The risks faced by China's human rights lawyers: U of T sociologist Sida Liu

ullahnor Thu, 08/10/2017 - 15:51

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Portraits of detained Chinese human rights lawyers Jian Tianyong (left) and Wang Quanzhang (right) are seen as Hong Kong pro-democracy activists hold a silent protest for human rights lawyers in China (photo by Tengku Bahar/AFP/Getty Images)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

His book was just reviewed in the New York Review of Books, and he was recently quoted extensively in a New York Times Magazine article on the lawyers representing China's dissidents, but for Sida Liu the latest interest in China's human rights abuses is not surprising.

He says his book, Criminal Defense in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work, co-written by Terence Charles Halliday, began receiving media attention even before the book was out in print.

“The irony, however, is that much of it was owing to the plight of Chinese criminal defence lawyers in recent years,” he says. “It was painful for me to see our book getting good reviews while some of our informants suffered in the criminal process.”

Liu, who officially joined U of T Mississauga’s sociology department in 2016 as an assistant professor, spent last year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., for an academic sabbatical. When classes resume in the fall, students will finally get a chance to attend his lectures and learn about what's unfolding in China today.

#UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grad Amal Basha

Romi Levine — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 15:26:36 +0000

#UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grad Amal Basha

Romi Levine Thu, 06/15/2017 - 11:26

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Honorary degree recipient Amal Basha (right), who dedicated her career to the promotion of international law in the Arab world and the rights of women and girls, with University Professor Janice Stein (photo by Steve Frost)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Yemeni activist Amal Basha has been fighting for human rights and gender equality in the Middle East for more than 25 years.

Today, Basha will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, “for her outstanding service for the public good, as an uncompromising advocate for gender equality and human rights.”

She is among 16 people being recognized with honorary degrees by the ��Ƶ in 2017.

As she talked to graduates today about fighting for human rights and the two-year war that has ravaged Yemen, Basha said the honorary degree was a surprise, a welcome recognition for her efforts: “I felt like the universe was being gracious to me, wiping the sadness of my soul, making a touch of tenderness and power, and telling me that what you have done in your life is well-recognized and that, there is still room for joy, despite the sorrow.”

Below, are three things you should know about Basha.

Fighting for women’s rights

Growing up in Yemen, Basha was forced to marry at a young age. By the age of 17, she would have a baby and divorce her husband. Basha then decided to focus on her education.

“The day after my marriage, I went to school to play soccer,” she told the LA Times. “I did not feel I was a woman. It was not time to play the wife.”

She completed her education at the American University in Cairo, received a master’s degree in international development and gender from the University of Sussex, U.K.

Her career has been dedicated to fighting for the rights of women and girls, many of whom are forced into marriage at a young age. She co-founded the human rights organization Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF), which has played a vital role in this mission, tackling corruption and inequality and addressing issues affecting vulnerable communities.

Activist at risk

Basha is an outspoken critic of the Yemeni government, pushing to hold it accountable under international humanitarian law. For example, a 2009 SAF report that looked at the violation of prisoner rights in Yemen led to a United Nations investigation into unlawful killings by security forces.

She has been supporting and assisting the peaceful demonstrators in her country calling for democracy since the beginning of the uprising. She also has been informing the international public on the development of the human rights situation in Yemen.

But Basha's activism has sometimes put her in harm’s way.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, she's received numerous threats and once found that someone had tampered with the brake line in her car.

Tireless work recognized

For her pioneering work, Basha has been awarded a number of national and regional awards including Arab Woman of the Year by the Takreem Foundation in 2014 and Person of the Year by the Al-Saeed Foundation for Science & Culture in 2007.

Human Rights

U of T Mississauga students lead efforts to understand justice in global conflicts

Research reveals what Google searches can tell us about the global human rights movement

Kelly Hannah-Moffat takes on expanded role as U of T’s vice-president, people strategy, equity and culture

U of T students join universities around the world to address laws that suppress media, freedom of expression

Students’ Indigenous human rights clinics receive US$100,000 from American College of Trial Lawyers

U of T’s Citizen Lab, international human rights program explore dangers of using AI in Canada’s immigration system

Read the full report

Read Petra Molnar's op-ed in the Globe and Mail

Read about the report in The Toronto Star

U of T experts on the brutal personal costs of the Philippines' human rights abuses

Human rights workers targeted

Mining and degradation of the environment

Canadian mines also devastate the environment

Canada must do better

U of T law student helps reform trans rights in Israel

Read more at Haaretz

The risks faced by China's human rights lawyers: U of T sociologist Sida Liu

Read more about Liu

Read more about research on China's social media crackdown by the Munk School's Citizen Lab

#UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grad Amal Basha