The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law sponsored the semi-annual conference for the International Human Rights Funders Group (IHRFG). Held on July 13 and 14, the two-day conference brought the philanthropists who make up the IHRFG’s membership together with legal scholars, policy makers, human rights experts and entrepreneurs in order to exchange information about today’s most pressing human rights issues and the latest developments aimed at addressing them.
Titled “Human Rights in the Digital Age: Mobilizing Freedom, Repressing Dissent,” the conference dealt with some of the opportunities and problems for human rights activist groups that are presented by new media, and introduced the IHRFG’s members to new tech-savvy human rights organizations such as Access, Benetech and Breakthrough. Panels included explorations of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, such as the discussion group “What is the Impact of the Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Juvenile Life-Without-Parole Sentences?” which was moderated by representatives from the public interest law organizations the Equal Justice Initiative and the Juvenile Law Center. Additionally, representatives from the Open Society Institute, the National Security and Human Rights Campaign and the Stewart R. Mott Foundation held the discussion group “What are the Implications of the Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision on the Provision of Material Support to Foreign Terrorist Organizations?”
The conference’s keynote speaker was Michael Posner, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, who delivered a speech on “Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy.” All of the conference’s events were held in NYU Law’s D’Agostino Hall.
