Tuesday 22 November 2011

Assessing “The Responsibility to Protect” Ten Years On


The Security and International Relations Programme at the University of Westminster is hosting a roundtable on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to mark the ten-year anniversary of the publication of the seminal report by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS). The ICISS report has become a key document on humanitarian intervention and the international protection of human rights, and R2P has since achieved a remarkable ubiquity in international political discourse. NATO’s intervention in Libya in March 2011 – widely heralded as “R2P in practice” and the dawn of a new era” – reinvigorated this debate, while ongoing events in the Middle East and Africa have ensured the currency of the topic. This roundtable brings together prominent academic specialists in this field to assess the evolution of R2P and its likely future efficacy.


Participants:

·         Professor Meryvn Frost, Kings College London

·         Professor Jennifer Welsh, Somerville College, University of Oxford

·         Dr James Pattison, University of Manchester

·         Dr Aidan Hehir, University of Westminster 


This roundtable will be held on the 8th December 2011, at 18:00 in the Boardroom, 309 Regent Street, University of Westminster, W1B2UW. Places are limited; those not affiliated with the University of Westminster should contact Aidan Hehir (a.hehir@wmin.ac.uk) to reserve a seat.




Tuesday 8 November 2011

FORTHCOMING PREMIERE OF “3 KOSOVOS: IMAGINING THE FUTURE OF KOSOVO”

The Security and International Relations Programme at the University of Westminster is delighted to announce the forthcoming premiere of a new documentary “3 Kosovos: Imagining the Future of Kosovo” on the 17th November 2011. The event will be introduced by Dr Aidan Hehir and a question and answer session with the director will follow the screening.


Friday 4 November 2011

24 Hours for Darfur: “Darfurian Voices”.

Below is information about the NGO “24 Hours for Darfur” and its recent publication, “Darfurian Voices”. One of DPIR’s student’s - Abdelrahim Kadok – was involved in writing this fascinating report.



24 Hours for Darfur is a non-profit organization dedicated to research and advocacy about the conflict in Darfur, Sudan. In 2010, 24 Hours for Darfur released “Darfurian Voices,” a report detailing the results of the first ever representative survey of Darfurian refugees’ opinions on peace, justice, and reconciliation. The organization spent four months in the 12 Darfurian refugee camps in eastern Chad, interviewing 1872 randomly-sampled civilians and 280 civil society and rebel leaders. The data gathered from the civilian sample is representative of the adult refugee population in Chad, and sheds light on important questions about participants’ specific beliefs about the root causes of the conflict, past peace negotiations and agreements for Darfur and southern Sudan, the nature and importance of justice in bringing about a sustainable peace, the possibility of reconciliation, land-related issues, democracy, power-sharing, and the national elections, and which actors, if any, best represent their views. The project is structured to serve as a mechanism through which these views can be accurately transmitted to policymakers, mediators, negotiating parties, and other key stakeholders. The report can be found here:

24 Hours for Darfur also produced a documentary film about refugee views on the conflict in Darfur and the prospects for peace. The film can be found here:

Our Team consist of 34 students and researchers from universities of USA-Canada-France-Denmark and Sudanese Student and activist at the diasporas