"When They Come For Your Identity: The Ongoing Destruction of Living and Historical Heritage in the Uyghur Region, China"

Since 2017, a cultural genocide is unfolding in Western China. This illustrated lecture reveals the staggering scope: The living, historical, and archaeological heritage of the Uyghurs, the Kazakhs and other indigenous peoples is being systematically demolished. Pilgrimage sites and houses of worship are razed, historical cemeteries obliterated (one dating to 960AD), indigenous architecture destroyed -- even home interior decoration is forcibly torn down. Native cultural and religious practices are forbidden; hundreds of native artists, poets, musicians, and academics have been disappeared into concentration camps, alongside hundreds of thousands of other innocent people. This presentation focuses on the material destruction, and places it in the context of the unfolding genocide.

I also discuss how the campaign relates to the legal constraints of the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention (from which cultural genocide was dropped, due to objections from the former colonial powers), and to China's current commitments to cultural heritage protection as a human right, as defined in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2018 -- the closest we have to a legal writ against cultural genocide. I also look briefly at how the new Chinese state program of accelerated, forced cultural assimilation is being expanded to Tibetans and other non-Chinese peoples ruled by China.

About the speaker:

Magnus Fiskesjö is an associate professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology & Material Studies (CIAMS). Professor Fiskesjö's research concerns ethnic relations and political anthropology in China and Southeast Asia. He is affiliated with the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies as a steering committee and/or core faculty member of the Judith Reppy Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, the East Asia Program and the Southeast Asia Program.

Join a webcast as some of the world’s most prominent human-rights leaders, along with his physicist colleagues and students, gather to honor Professor Yuri Orlov.

Renowned dissident Yuri Orlov, professor emeritus, died at age 96 in September. Born in Moscow, Orlov pursued a distinguished career in physics until his activities in support of human rights led to his arrest by the KGB, years of prison and labor camp, and Siberian exile. The Moscow Helsinki Group, which he founded, inspired human-rights monitoring groups throughout the world, including Human Rights Watch. Deported to the United States in 1986, he continued his human rights activity and, at Cornell, resumed his physics research and later taught physics and human rights. He retired as Professor Emeritus of Physics at the age of 91.

Learn more about Professor Orlov's life and legacy—and what it means to be an activist and dissident— by attending this special remembrance.

Part of International Education Week #IEW2020 with Global Cornell.

Co-sponsored by the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Mario Einuadi Center for Interational Studies, the Migration and Human Rights Program at Cornell Law School, and the National Security Archives.

Gaurav Kampani, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Tulsa, will join will join the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies for a discussion of “The West's Imagined versus India’s Conventional Nuclear Reality.”

Please note that the author will not give a formal presentation of his work, so it is best to read in advance. A link to the reading will be sent to you upon confirmation of registration.

Please pre-register at https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwudOCurDssGNJ6hMav_EP6ZLuGIp….

This is part of the Peace and Conflict Studies Reading Group Series.

In this CUSLAR and LASP Public Issues Forum, speakers from Asociacion Sembrando Semillas de Paz, or Sembrandopaz, will speak to the challenges of grassroots peace-building with a human rights framework in post-civil war Colombia. A large part of their work includes a focus on sustainability and agroecological farming practices.

This event will be in Spanish with interpretation into English.

Lillian Hall '84 is an agronomist by profession and currently serves as the international relations coordinator and manager for Sembrandopaz at the Villa Barbara farm in Sincelejo, Colombia. She is an alumna of Cornell University and lived for nearly 30 years in Nicaragua, where she developed her expertise in international public relations as director of a small NGO in Nicaragua and served as a leader of delegations for understanding and solidarity

Andres Ruiz is a community leader in Sucre, Colombia. He has worked with Sembrandopaz for more than 20 years. He has served as the leader of the victims division for more than 9 years, and has worked on the forefront of the group’s various reconciliation projects. He has also worked on the part of the Municipal government of Coloso, Colom-bia in the Familias en Accion (Families in action) as well as the Colombia Mejor (A Better Colombia) initiatives.

Register at: tinyurl.com/SowingSeedsNov2020

The Committee on U.S. Latin American Relations (CUSLAR), in partnership with the Cornell Latin American Studies Program and the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, is sponsoring this event highlighting the role of community initiatives in constructing peace in Colombia. The event is sponsored in part by the Student Activities Finance Commission and funded in part by the LASP Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) grant from the US Department of Education.

The Cornell Arab Student Association in coordination with the Near Eastern Studies, Government, and History departments, as well as the Einaudi Center for International Studies and Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, invites Professor Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University to talk about his latest book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance.

Professor Khalidi is a leader in his field and serves as the director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. For any questions please contact us at asacornell@gmail.com.

Feel free to check out the Facebook event with this link https://fb.me/e/3LLzsC1nN and mark yourself as going!

Protests against racism and police violence crescendoed in the United States and around the world in 2020. In the United States and internationally, how can we balance social justice, accountability, and personal freedom with demands for order and security?

This Lund Critical Debate brings together the United Nations’ police commissioner and a noted expert on political conflict resolution to discuss strategies—both inside and outside the policing framework—for public safety and law enforcement. The conversation will address current questions around security and policing, including political violence, racial injustice and Black Lives Matter, and global responses to unlawful use of force.

The panel welcomes questions in advance and during the event. Registration is required.

Panelists
Luís Carrilho, United Nations Police Adviser. He has served since November 2017 as police commissioner and director of the UN’s Police Division. He previously served as the police commissioner in multidimensional United Nations peacekeeping operations in Timor Leste, Haiti, and the Central African Republic.

Christian Davenport, Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Michigan. His research focuses on racism, social movements, and political conflict, including human rights violations, genocide, torture, political surveillance, and civil war. His most recent book is The Peace Continuum: What It Is and How To Study It (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Moderator
Sabrina Karim, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies; Hardis Family Assistant Professor for Teaching Excellence, Department of Government, A&S. Her research focuses on conflict and peace processes, international involvement in post-conflict security, and state building in the aftermath of civil war.

About the Debate
This year’s Lund Critical Debate is hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, part of the Einaudi Center. Established in 2008, the Einaudi Center's Lund Critical Debate Series is made possible by the generosity of Judith Lund Biggs ’57.