UMass Boston Hosts Forum on Human Rights In Latin America
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Boston Hosts Forum on Human Rights In Latin America
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By Melissa Fassel
On April 25, the university hosted a human rights forum featuring activist Joyce Horman, Harvard-trained lawyer Jennifer Harbury, and UMass Boston professor and human rights expert Winston Langley.
Joyce Horman is the widow of Charles Horman, a North American journalist who was arrested, tortured, and killed in Chile during the 1973 military coup lead by former Chilean president and dictator Augusto Pinochet. She is also a plaintiff in a criminal case in the Chilean courts against Pinochet. The academy award winning 1982 Costa-Gavras movie Missing was based on the search for Charles by Joyce and his father.
Jennifer Harbury began working with refugees from Guatemala in the 1980s, which led her to meet her future husband, Efrain Bamaca Velásquez (Everardo), a guerilla leader and Mayan Indian. In 1992, Everardo was captured, tortured, and killed. Harbury’s book Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War, and the CIA in Guatemala charges the U.S. government with complicity in her husband’s murder.
Professor of economics Paul Cantor sees this forum as a springboard for future human rights-related activities. His ultimate hope is that UMass Boston will follow the lead of many U.S. and European universities, including Yale, Harvard, and Columbia, in developing majors and minors in the study of human rights.
The university community clearly shares Cantor’s sentiments regarding the importance of human rights issues. The forum received great support among students, faculty, and administrators, and across departments. It was sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the offices of the deans of College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Public and Community Service; the Student Senate; the Gastón Institute; the Departments of Anthropology, Economics, Hispanic Studies and Political Science; the International Relations and Women’s Studies Programs; Arms Advocacy for Resources for Modern Survival; the Politics Society; the Radical Student Alliance; and the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences.