Championing Democracy in Myanmar: Three Years After the Military Coup

In this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Burmese human rights defender Wai Wai Nu and her colleague Hana Seita about their work in Myanmar. Wai Wai Nu spent seven years as a political prisoner in Myanmar and upon her release founded the Women’s Peace Network (WPN) and the Yangon Youth Center. Through WPN she advocates for justice, works to build peace and mutual understanding between Myanmar’s ethnic communities—including her own Rohingya community—and empowers marginalized women throughout Burma.Wai Wai has received many accolades over the last decade and has been named a Next Generation Leader by TIME, a World Economic Forum Young Global leader, and one of 100 top Women by BBC. Hana Seita is the research and advocacy coordinator at WPN and manages WPN’s human rights documentation, research, and international advocacy. Together they speak with Maggie about the work of WPN in Burma and abroad, their advocacy work in the U.S. Congress, the work of the Yangon Youth Center and their holistic vision of changing society, the Rohingya genocide, the current day-to-day life in Myanmar under the military rule, what future they see for Myanmar, and how those from abroad can take direct action to support their cause.You can learn more about WPN at: https://www.womenspeacenetwork.org/

In this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Tiffany Florvil, associate professor of history at the University of New Mexico and fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She is a 20th century cultural historian of Germany whose work focuses on Black Germans and their creation of new intellectual, cultural, and political practices. She is the author of Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement, which is at the center of this episode's conversation. Together, Mathias and Tiffany discuss: how she became interested in the African diaspora in Germany as an American scholar, Germany’s colonial history, the demographics of the current Black German community, the history of organizing in Black German communities, the role of Black women in these organizations, the influences of Audre Lorde and Angela Davis, the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement in Germany, and Tiffany’s work on Black German author May Ayim.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Diego Garcia Blum speaks with Kimberly Zieselman, an intersex woman, lawyer, and human rights advocate with over 25 years of experience in nonprofit leadership. Currently, she serves as a Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons at the U.S. State Department and is also a senior advisor for Global Intersex Rights for Outright international, an organization dedicated to working with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the LGBTQI+ human rights movement. In this conversation, Zieselman discusses what is distinct about intersex, her own journey to discover late in life that she is intersex, the history of medical treatments used against intersex people, bringing a human rights lens to intersex issues, and fighting the shame, stigma, and misunderstandings around intersex people.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Amani Matabaro Tom, educator and community organizer from Eastern Congo who is currently a Scholar at Risk at the Carr Center. Amani is a co-founder of Action for the Welfare of Women and Children in Congo (ABFEC), which possesses several core initiatives: entrepreneurship training, community farming, HIV/AIDs education, and the Congo Peace School. Every teacher and student at the Peace School are trained in nonviolence in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and learn the philosophies, strategies, and practices of nonviolence. In today’s conversation, Amani discusses: the current state of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the history of colonialism and the exploitation of natural resources in the region, how he encountered the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his opinion on the role of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the DRC, the role of foreign companies and their impact on the region, and the work ABFEC is doing on the ground to build peace.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP). STOP litigates and advocates for privacy to ensure that technological advancements don't come at the expense of age-old rights. As a lawyer, technologist, and activist, Albert has become a leading voice on how to govern and build the technologies of the future. He is a frequent commentator with more than 100 articles in publications, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Guardian, Wired, Slate, and Newsweek, and he serves on the New York Immigration Coalitions Immigrant Leaders Council.In today’s conversation, Albert discusses: walking the tactical line between radical change and instrumental victories, police surveillance technology, the risk of children’s privacy technology, anti-abortion digital surveillance, how STOP has taken on the NYPD’s surveillance system, and the ways in which Artificial Intelligence are already undermining civil rights.Albert Fox Cahn's Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVclObff6fc

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Megan Minoka Hill, the Senior Director of the Project on Indigenous Governance and Development and the Director of the Honoring Nations program at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Project on Indigenous Governance and Development works with Indigenous people to provide them with the tools they need to build or rebuild their nations and govern themselves effectively. Together, Mathias and Megan discuss: the Project on Indigenous Governance and Development, the background and major trends around Indigenous governance, the Honoring Nations program, and Hill’s membership in the Oneida nation and the structure of the tribe's governance.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Diego Garcia Blum speaks with Kimahli Powell, former executive director of Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto-based organization that relocates LGBTQI+ refugees from nations where they are at risk. Powell is a senior leader in the INGO field with expertise in community-building and strategic advocacy with a focus on international development, law and policy, HIV/AIDS, and internally displaced persons. In this episode’s conversation, they discuss: how Rainbow Railroad’s work has evolved over time, lessons learned working with LGBTQI+ refugees about the challenges they face, his experience forming partnerships with both the U.S. and Canadian governments, the gaps that exist in how we address the needs of LGBTQI+ refugees in policy and public awareness, and where he sees opportunities for innovation in the field.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Matthias Risse talks with Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School’s Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Democracy, about the state of democracy around the world and the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Fung is the director of the Ash Center for Innovation and Democratic Governance, and his research and teaching have long aimed to understand what kinds of participation, deliberation, or transparency can make governance fairer and more effective. Together they discuss democratic backsliding around the world, the stakes for the upcoming U.S. presidential election, the assassination attempts on Donald Trump, the possible use of generative AI in political campaigning, concerns leading up to and after the election, and if there are any predictions to be made about the election in November. This episode was recorded on September 24, 2024. Links mentioned in this episode:https://www.statista.com/chart/28353/democracies-and-autocracies-around-the-world/

"One of the great virtues of human rights is that it's very alert to the dark side of human nature. All the human rights covenants are a systematic inventory of all the horrible things that human beings can and have done to each other. I respect human rights for their moral realism, and I want human rights that are very realistic in their conception of human capacities and propensities." In this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse talks with Michael Ignatieff, former president of the Central European University and founding director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. He is an author, academic, and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Together, Risse and Ignatieff discuss the state of human rights in the world today, Hungary under the leadership of Victor Orbán, and revisited topics from Ignatieff's Tanner Lecture series—given at the turn of the 21st century—including the politics of human rights, moral universalism, and American exceptionalism.

On this week's episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Dr. Charity Clay, Assistant Professor of Sociology and UNCF Mellon Fellow at Harvard's Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research. As a sociologist of the African Diaspora, Clay's research interests are varied but center around the dispersal, preservation, maintenance, and adaptability of African culture throughout the diaspora. In this conversation, Gates and Clay discuss Clay’s upbringing in Minneapolis, the importance of Black spaces and place-making, commodified Blackness in New Orleans, her theory on systemic police terrorism, using drones for socioeconomic mapping of Black spaces, and how she sees her role as a multi-hyphenate scholar, musician, and athlete.Listen to Dr. Charity Clay's Hutchins Center Lecture on 'Systemic Police Terrorism: A Conceptual Framework', Part of the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Colloquium Series.