Rainbow Railroad: Relocating LGBTQI+ Refugees to Safety

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.

On this week's episode of Justice Matters, co-host Diego Garcia Blum talks with Kristopher Velasco, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University about his research on the global anti-LGBTQI movement. Professor Velasco’s research centers on the intersections of global & transnational sociology, organizations, political sociology, culture, and sexuality. Globally, he investigates how transnational advocacy networks, NGOs, and international institutions facilitate the expansion of LGBTQI rights around the world by changing cultural understandings of gender and sexuality. This line of research, and the backlash these processes invite, is the subject of Kristopher's current book project. In this episode he discusses the global anti-LGBTQI movement, how it is organized and who are the primary players, what connection it has to global geopolitical trends, how the movement is financed, regional success and backlash to the movement, and what advice he has for LGBTQI activists.

On this week's episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse talks with Desirée Cormier Smith, the Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice for the U.S. State Department. In this position, she is the face of the United States for all matters regarding racial equity in the world outside of the United States. Together they talk about her role as the inaugural Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, what led to the creation of this position at the U.S. State Department, her own journey graduating from HKS to her current position, and the recent convening of the Symposium on Global Anti-Blackness and the Legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade that Special Representative Cormier Smith presented in collaboration with the Carr Center and UNESCO.

On this week's episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates talks with Jessica Yamoah, the CEO and Founder of Innovate Inc., an organization that provides awareness and access to underrepresented communities at the intersection of business, entrepreneurship, and technology. Together they discuss Innovate's work to provide awareness and access in the technology sector, why diversity and inclusion matters, and her work with the African Descendant Social Entrepreneurship Network.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Danson Kahyana, a fellow at the Carr Center and Associate Professor in the Department of Literature at Makerere University in Uganda. His recent work includes an examination of the effects of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 on artistic freedom; exploring the representations of the right to healthcare in Ugandan literary and other cultural productions and investigating the right to dignity among the elderly citizens as depicted in selected East African fiction. Mathias and Danson discuss these research areas as well as the current political situation in Uganda, his work using poetry to teach his students to articulate issues they face in society, the backlash he has faced to his work including the circumstances that led to being violently attacked in April 2022, his 2018 publication of a book of creative writing from inmates inside a Ugandan prison, his own poetry, as well as his current position as a Scholar at Risk at the Carr Center and how he finds courage to continue his work in the face of hardship.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates talks with Diego Garcia Blum, Program Director of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. His work is dedicated to advocating for the safety and acceptance of LGBTQI+ individuals globally, particularly in regions where they face significant risks. Together they discuss the state of anti-LGBTQI+ legislation across the globe, the backlash against this population globally, and what the Carr Center is doing to make a difference with the launch of its new Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program.