Rights of the Child Conference
University of North Dakota
April 8, 2008
Baker Courtroom, UND School of Law
On April 8, 2008 the student International Human Rights
Organization at UND, the UND Center for Human Rights and
Genocide Studies, and the Multicultural Awareness
Committee will be sponsoring the IHRO's first annual event
on campus -- a conference on the Rights of the Child.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was the first
legally binding international instrument to incorporate
the full range of human rights protections: civil,
cultural, economic, political, and social. The leaders of
the world decided that children needed a special
convention just for them, because people under eighteen years of
age often need special care and protection that adults do
not. It is critical that the world recognize children
have human rights too. Nearly every country in the United
Nations has signed and ratified the convention. The
United States has not.
Every
year, thousands of innocent children are the targets and
victims of numerous human rights abuses--slavery,
starvation, murder, conscription -- the problems are
endless. But they must be discussed, solutions must be
proposed, and action must be taken.
To illuminate the issues of children's human rights, the
Conference will bring together five experts on
the issues of children's human rights. These speakers
will grapple with some of the problems mentioned above.
They will provide a wide range of experience and
information through both individual presentations and a
panel discussion.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
10:00 am: Child Protection Challenges in Southern Sudan: The Legacy
of Culture & Conflict
Professor David Pimentel
Assistant Professor, Florida Coastal School of Law
Former Senior Judicial Affairs Officer and Head of Rule of
Law for Southern Sudan;
Former Chief of Court Management, International Criminal
Tribunal for Yugoslavia
1:00 pm: Slavery: It didn't end with the Civil War: Modern Day
Perspectives on Human Trafficking
Patrick Atkinson
Founder and Executive Director of the God's Child Project
2:00 pm: Child Soldiers: How Should the Law Treat
Victim-Perpetrators?
Professor Gregory Gordon
Assistant Professor, University of North Dakota School of Law
Former Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda;
Former Prosecutor for U.S. Department of Justice, Nazi War
Crimes Prosecution Unit
3:00 pm: The War Crime of Child Recruitment
Joseph Rikhof
Senior Counsel, Crimes Against Humanity & War Crimes Unit,
Canada Dept. of Justice
4:00 pm: Hot Spots, Slow Burns, Open War and Hidden Sins:
Violations of Children's Rights
Q & A Panel Featuring all speakers & moderated by
Professor Paul Sum
6:00 pm: The Welfare of Children in Indian Country
Professor BJ Jones
Adjunct Professor, University of North Dakota School of
Law
Director of the Tribal Judicial Institute;
Chief Justice of the Turtle Mountain Tribal Court of
Appeals;
Serves on the ABA Committee on the Unmet Needs of Children
All events will be held in Baker Courtroom at the UND
School of Law.
Refreshments will be served at each event.
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