Hidden Genocides – Second Human Rights Summit

May 2-5, 2005
Seven Hills Conference Center, SFSU

Co-Sponsored by the Anthropology Department, the College of Behavioral
and Social Sciences, and the Public Research Institute at SFSU

Organization: Anthropology and Human Rights Class of 2005, Prof. Mariana Ferreira & the Students for Critical Anthropology at Dept. of Anthropology, SFSU. Contact: M. Ferreira marianaf@sfsu.edu ; A. Young ayahpapaya@yahoo.com ; J. Wolowic jwolowic@hotmail.com

Schedule of Events

Mon. May 2nd: Opening of Summit: Hidden Genocides

• 12:00-Welcome, Mariana Ferreira (SFSU Anthropology), MC
• Introduction: Jim Quesada (SFSU Anthropology)
• 1:00-Panel 1. Psycho-Social Effects of Violence and Conflict
• 3:00- Don Pascual Yaxom: Psycho-Social Effects of Torture in Guatemala
• 4:00-Live Music and Performance with Ernesto Olmos
• 5:00-Reception and Amnesty International Film Festival, opening.

Tues. May 3rd: Gender Violence

• 12:00-Film Festival: Cathryn: Making the Transition Male to Female.
• 1:00-Panel 2. Women's Rights (SFSU History Dept.)
• Discussants: Sherry Keith (SFSU)
• 3:00-Youth Speaks Spoken Word Performance
• 3:30-Progressive Martial Arts: Self-Defense Workshop
• 5:00- Panel 3. Transnational Gender Violence.
• Discussants: Linci Comy (Women’s Choice Clinic), Phoebe McKinney (Amnesty International)
• 6:30-Reception & Film Festival: What Sex am I?; The Question of equality.

Wed. May 4th: The Prison Industry

• 12:00-Keynote Speaker: Loren Buddress (Chief Probation Officer, San Mateo County)
• 1:00- Panel 4. The New Prison Industry.
• Discussants: Karen Lovaas (SFSU), Zachary Norris (Books Not Bars), dom brassey (SFSU) and Kenza Oumlil (SFSU)
• 3:00-Youth Speaks Spoken Word Performance
• 4:00- Music and Reception
• 5:00-Film Festival: Presumed Guilty; The Execution of Wanda Jean; Tulia, Texas.

Thurs. May 5th: Indigenous Peoples' Rights

• 12:00-Film Festival: Bones of Contention; Thieves of Time; Radioactive Reservations.
• 1:30-Keynote Speaker: Don Pascual Yaxom (Indigenous Activist in Guatemala)
• 3:00-Youth Speaks Spoken Word Performance
• 3:30-Panel 5. Sovereignty and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
• Discussants: Manuel Pino (SCC) and Tony Gonzalez (IITC)
• 5:30-Panel 6. Repatriation and Indigenous Peoples' Rights in the United States
• Introduction: David Kojan (SFSU)
• Discussants: Melissa Nelson (SFSU), James Riding In (ASU),
• 7:30- Music and Reception

Panels

Panel 1. Psycho-Social Effects of Violence and Conflict

• Discussant: Jim Wiley (SFSU), Director of the Public Research Institute
• 1. Jim Quesada (SFSU), Coming to Terms:Seeking Justice and Healing, Are Civil Rulings Enough For Survivors of Torture?
• 2. Ken Miller (SFSU, Psychology), A Contextual Approach to Understanding Mental Health in Afghanistan
• 3. Erika L. Seid (Mental Health Specialist), The Challenge of Providing Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Programs in Post-Conflict Rural Congro-Brazzaville
• 4. Laurel Fletcher, (UCB, Director of Boalt's International Human Rights Law Clinic) The Legal Aspects of Human Rights Violations.

Panel 2. Women’s Rights as Human Rights

• Discussant: Prof. Sherry Keith (SFSU, History Dept)
• 1. Amanda Watson (SFSU, International Relations) -- International Relations Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women –CEDAW
• 2. Antonia Vitale (SFSU, International Relations) -- The Role of Women in Food Security
• 3. Abroo Khan ( SFSU, MA Candidate Women’s Studies) -- Unwelcome Guests: Refugee Women & Children
• 4. Kimberly Pace (SFSU, International Relations) Today, AIDS has a Woman's Face

Panel 3. Transnational Gender Violence

• Discussants : Linci Comy (Women’s Choice Clinic), and Phoebe McKinney (Amnesty International)
• 1. Lindsey Friedberg – Denial of Health Coverage for Transgender Individuals
• 2. Michael Mallory – Intersex Genital Mutilation Without Consent
• 3. Nani Ratnawati – Female Migrant Domestic Workers: “Servants of Globalization”
• 4. Ayah Young -- China’s Coercive Birth Limitation Practices as a Means to Ethnic Cleansing in Tibet
• 5. Melinda Cordasco – The Consequences of Sexual Violence in Sudan

Panel 4. The Prison Industry Today

• Discussants : Karen Lovaas (SFSU, Speech and Communications), Zachary Norris (Books Not Bars), dom brassey (SFSU) and Kenza Oumlil (SFSU)
• 1. Ashley Davenport – Detention of Refugees and Asylum Seekers
• 2. Jeffery J. Leddy – Rape in Prison
• 3. Cassandra Bauer – Mental Health Paradox in the California Youth Authority
• 4. Melina Gregorian – Gender-Based Physical and Sexual Abuse of Women in Prisions
• 5. Lindsay Clark – Invisible Genocide: The Prison Industrial Complex
• 6. Matthew Downs – The American Prison System: Racism by Ignorance
• 7. John Aynsley – The Criminalization of the Mentally I ll
• 8. Claudia Santangelo – The Death Penalty and State Violence

Panel 5. Sovereignty and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

• Discussants : Prof. Manuel Pino (SCC) and Tony Gonzalez (UN Liason/IITC)
• 1. Nina Starks – The Gwich’in People and Oil Drilling in Alaska
• Identity
• 2. Julie Anderson – Wall of Genocide: A New Crime against the Palestinian People
• 3. Benny Parks -- Structural Violence and Athletic Mascots
• 4. Amy Broussard – Human Rights Violations of Our Favorite ‘Savages’
• 5. Ashley Putnam – Institutionalized Education and the Ethnocide of American Indians
• 6. Jennifer Wolowic – Religious “Superiority,” The Western Shoshone and the Impotent
• International System

Panel 6. Repatriation and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

• Discussants : Prof. Melissa Nelson (SFSU American Indian Studies) and Prof. James Riding In (ASU)
• 1. Emily Birky (IITC) – Local Alert: Glorification of Genocide in San Francisco Bar
• 2. Iniobong Udosen (SFSU) – The Preservation of Sanctity
• 3. LisaAnn Buettner (SFSU)– The Ethics of NAGPRA Law at SFSU
• 4. Rachel Huffman (SFSU) – The Havasupai ‘Detective Physiology’ Affecting American
• Indians
• 5. Cyrus Card (UCB) – Preparing Culture: A View of Repatriation from Inside the Hearst
• Museum

Abstracts

Panel 1. Psycho-Social Effects of Violence and Conflict

Discussant: Prof. Jim Wiley (SFSU), Director of the Public Research Institute.

Coming to Terms: Seeking Justice and Healing, Are Civil Rulings Enough for Survivors of Torture? (Jim Quesada, SFSU Anthropology)

Drawing from an initially successful civil suit that three Salvadoran survivors of torture won against Salvadoran military ex-Generals residing in the United States, the issue of personal healing and pursuing social justice is explored. The tension between personal psychological healing and the requirements of a successful legal process is examined.

A Contextual Approach to Understanding Mental Health in Afghanistan (Ken Miller, SFSU Psychology)

This presentation will present findings of a recent study on mental health in Afghanistan, a country that that has survived 23 years of war and repression, terrible poverty, and the mass displacement of its population. I will consider the multiple contexts that shape the experience of wellbeing and distress among Afghans, and will discuss stressors and protective factors at the individual, family, community, and societal levels. I will also discuss the challenges of doing mental health work in the face of ongoing violence, poverty, and discrimination, and consider the importance of incorporating religious practices and beliefs into the healing process.

providing mental health care in rural Congo-Brazzaville ( Erika L. Seid, Mental Health Specialist)

Many questions and considerations arise when we look at whether and how to apply a western mental health/psychotherapeutic model in a rural African context. Erika will talk about some of the traumatic events and resulting psychosocial effects experienced by people in the Pool region of Congo-Brazzaville during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She will also emphasize some of the challenges, assumptions, etc. that come up in this kind of situation, especially around race, culture and the role of the international NGO.

The legal aspects of human rights violations ( Laurel Fletcher, UCB Director of Boalt's International Human Rights Law Clinic)

Panel 2. Women’s Rights as Human Rights

Presented by Students from “Women and The World” (International Relations/Political Science/Social Science 544)

Discussant : Prof. Sherry Keith (SFSU History Dept.)

Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women –CEDAW (Amanda Watson, International Relations)

CEDAW originated at the First United Nations (UN) World Women’s Conference in Mexico City, 1979. It is based on principles of Human Rights, Human dignity and Women’s equality in regards to economic, social, political, cultural and civil rights. Provisions of the document define “discrimination against women” and call for State Parties to eliminate discrimination in the areas of law, education, health, property rights, marriage, family and employment. The convention also calls for an end to violence against women and human trafficking. The document sets forth a Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against women, that shall regulate and monitor the fulfillment of these provisions. To this day, 168 countries, including Iraq, have ratified the CEDAW and consented to its provisions. The United States refuses to ratify this agreement.

The Role of Women in Food Security (Antonia Vitale, SFSU International Relations)

"Without women we all go hungry." -Ancient African proverb

Women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries and are responsible for half of the world's food production, yet their key role as food producers and providers and their critical contribution to household food security is only now becoming recognized. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a division of the United Nations, studies confirms that while women are the mainstay of small-scale agriculture, farm labor force and day-to-day family subsistence, they have more difficulties than men in gaining access to resources such as land and credit and productivity enhancing inputs and services. It is the access to these resources that hold the key to food security in many developing countries, especially in Africa. Gender-related constraints, especially the absence of property rights and lack of access to bank credit lower women's productivity and are almost never mentioned as explanations of Africa's food security problems. The solution is to target the food producers who are in fact, women.

Unwelcome Guests: Refugee Women & Children (Abroo Khan, SFSU MA Candidate Women’s Studies)

“Abuses against women are relentless, systematic, and widely tolerated, if not explicitly condoned. Violence and discrimination against women are global social epidemics.” Women have been raped as a weapon of war in countries such as Sierra Leone, Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Afghanistan. The realization of women's rights is a global struggle. Refugees are individuals who are forced from their countries by war, civil conflict, political dissension or gross Human Rights abuses. According to United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) by the end of 2003, the global number of refugees reached an estimated 13.7 million. Afghanistan has been by far the largest country of origin of refugees under UNHCR care. The vast majority of refugees over the past two decades have fled to Afghanistan’s nearest neighbor – Pakistan. Pakistan has been the main asylum country, accounting for 12 percent of all refugees under UNHCR mandate. Refugees living in neighboring countries have limited rights. The safety and security of most refugees, especially women and children, is extremely limited.

Today, AIDS has a Woman's Face (Kimberly Pace, SFSU International Relations)

Past decades have publicized men as the majority carrier of the HIV virus however, the tables have turned and today, AIDS has a woman’s face. Currently, the United Nations and numerous global AIDS funds have gathered chilling statistical reports showing a swift increase among women transmitting the HIV virus. Combined factors which are propelling the transmission of HIV are related to issues of gender inequality including lack of education, access to health care, violence towards women and lack of property rights. This being said, the lack of enforcement of women’s basic human is perpetuating the deadly cycle of soaring HIV/AIDS transmissions among women worldwide. Examples of Human Rights issues which pertain to my topic are covered in several articles of the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

Panel 3. Transnational Gender Violence

Discussants : Linci Comy (Women’s Choice Clinic), and Phoebe McKinney (Human Rights advocate/activist)

THE Denial of Health CARE Coverage for Transgender Individuals (Lindsey Friedberg, SFSU)

This essay discusses issues surrounding the denial of health care coverage for transgender individuals. This has become a major topic of concern over the years, because people are more readily speaking up about being transgender. However, health care providers are denying these individuals coverage because insurance companies say it is a risk, and that the procedures are cosmetic procedures rather than needed surgeries or medications.  In my essay and through my research I am here to prove that this is a form of structural violence.  The denial of health care coverage is a violation of Human Rights. Everyone should have an equal chance to what is available in the medical field. Unfortunately, this is not the case. A greater awareness of this problem by the general American society is urgently needed, which is why I am discussing this topic. I want to raise awareness about human right violations that are occurring not only in San Francisco, California, but around the world.

Intersex Genital Mutilation Without Consent (Michael Mallory, SFSU)

Fear, shame and secrecy surrounding issues of genitals and sex have stymied our understanding of gender roles and how they are constructed. The rudimentary understanding of gender has been the impetus of reconstructive surgery for children born with “ambiguous” genitals. The group called intersex has appeared in popular media in the last two decades. Not a gender category, the intersex group has asserted their identity in order to counter the unsubstantial research of John Money which led pediatricians and other health care practitioners to support the concealment-centered model of care for intersexed infants. People with intersex conditions and their allies have come together to shift this paradigm to a more appropriate patient-centered model, which would empower children to make their own decisions. The Nuremberg Code, American Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child are a few of the international covenants that could protect the child from this type of surgery. Language perpetuates the fear, secrecy and shame attached to issues regarding sex and gender and implicates many people into a type of symbolic violence—“exercised through cognition and misrecognition, knowledge and sentiment, with the unwitting consent of the dominated” (Scheper-Hughes: 2004).

Female Migrant Domestic Workers: “Servants of Globalization” (Nani Ratnawati, SFSU)

Demand for the labor of domestic workers (nannies, maids, and care takers of the elderly) in developed countries has increased dramatically. Most domestic workers migrate from developing countries and are women. Both host countries and countries of origin have failed to protect these workers’ rights, and they are often invisible because of the private or “indoor” nature of their work.  I will discuss this issue from a macro-economic perspective: how global market economy and international institutions such as the World Bank have influenced and contributed to the patterns of labor migration and increasing demand of domestic workers. I will then present a case study of Filipina domestic workers in the United States who work as live-in servants in the homes of the affluent. Their basic Human Rights are denied- from wage and hour violation to being physically abused. I argue that these women are “servants of globalization” who are subject to physical, psychological, as well as structural violence (Parrenas 2001).

China's Coercive Birth Limitation Practices as a Means to Ethnic Cleansing in Tibet (Ayah Young, SFSU)

Coercive birth limitation policies being enforced in Tibet are resulting in forced sterilizations and abortions for women throughout the region. By controlling women's bodies through acts of violence the Chinese government is enacting a political agenda that could result in genocide of the Tibetan people. There are multiple international instruments of protection that could serve to illuminate and aid in the prevention of these inhuman acts of violence against Tibetan women. The UN's Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Rome Statute of International Criminal Court, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are all applicable. Utilizing Akbar Ahmed's (2004) research on ethnic cleansing in conjunction with data gathered by NGOs I conclude that China's attempts to control Tibet's population are motivated by chauvinistic ideals.

The Consequences of Sexual Violence in Sudan (Melinda Cordasco, SFSU)

The issue I address in this essay is the Genocide of the Nuba and Dinka populations in the Darfur region of Sudan. Specifically this essay deals with the rape, torture, and removal of these Sudanese women caught in the conflict as a means of political and social control. I argue that is a direct violation of Human Rights as stated in the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the Geneva Conventions Article 4. Rape is congruent with war and women too often suffer from some of the worst atrocities associated with international and civil wars. The consequences of rape are devastating, as it destroys not only the individuals well being but also produces a social stigmatism. Unfortunately rape is seldom mentioned in media and rarely used when trying war criminals. Sexual violence against any human is a crime against humanity and deserves immediate agency.

Panel 4. The Prison Industry Today

Discussants : Prof. Karen Lovaas (SFSU, Speech and Communication), Zachary Norris (Books Not Bars), dom brassey (SFSU) and Kenza Oumlil (SFSU)

The Detention of Unaccompanied Refugee Children in U.S. Jails and Prisons (Ashley Davenport, SFSU)

This paper discusses the detention of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in U.S. prisons and jails. Refugees are often detained for long periods of time during the process of appealing for asylum, but this practice is especially harmful to children.  Children are at a disadvantage because they have no adult advocate and are often unaware of the options offered to them through international law. Refugees in detention in the U.S. can be aided or thwarted by institutions including the UN, the INS, and the prison industry. The prison industry directly profits from the detention of minors, especially since post 9/11 security measures.  The detention of immigrants is an expression of the State's power to punish, as well as its power over life and death. The policing of borders indicates the government's interest in regulating the makeup of its citizens. Detention punishes those who evade State regulation and criminalizes asylum seekers, despite the rights guaranteed to them by the United Nations.

Rape in Prison ( Jeffery J. Leddy, SFSU)

The fact that male rape occurs regularly in U. S. prisons is well known. It's so well known in fact, that jokes are cracked about it all the time by people around us, in movies and on TV as well. Everyone seems to turn a blind eye to rape and violence done by prisoners to other prisoners. The social contract we are part of as members of this society states clear penalties for breaking the law. None of these penalties include rape, beatings, forced gang membership, and murder in their sentence, yet this is what even nonviolent offenders face when convicted. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, The Body of Principles for the Protection of Prisoners, and many other legislative documents spell out protections for prisoners, yet their Human Rights continue to be violated every day with no accountability from the prison system.

MENTAL HEALTH pARADOX in the California Youth Authority (Cassandra Bauer, SFSU)

In January 2003 the complaint brought against the California Youth Authority in the California Superior Court by Margaret Farrell brought to light the multi-layered forms of Human Rights abuses being committed by CYA staff. Farrell’s nephew was kept in a cell for 23 hours per day and forced to take psychotropics even though the CYA had no legal right to do so. The reliance of Mental Health Services on psychotropics has caused the abuse and mistreatment of not only 65% of CYA wards but also numerous wards who are misdiagnosed or placed on medication as a form of punishment. The administering of psychotropic medication must be accurately documented and evaluated by a board certified psychiatrist for the mental safety of the wards. The CYA has created an environment where wards constantly feel unsafe because of high levels of violence and are threatened with placement on suicide watch or another form of violent punishment if they refuse to take medication. The systematic use of psychotropics to control ‘troubled youth’ is in violation of both the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, Article 3, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5 and 9.

GENDER-BASED PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL ABUSE OF WOMEN IN PRISONS (Melina Gregorian, SFSU)

This paper will explore how structural violence of the U.S. government and prison system gives rise to physical violence toward female inmates. Special attention needs to be given to the status and treatment of women prisoners in the criminal justice system, and to the unique problems and difficulties they face, especially in the context of gender-based abuse that results from their custodial status in a male dominated detention system. Women have nowhere to run from their abusers, and must be protected in this situation. Recent reports of conditions in women’s prisons have documented the widespread nature of the sexual harassment and cruel and unusual treatment related to gender that women prisoners face all over the country. The U.S. government appears, by and large, to underestimate grossly the problem of rape, sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and other custodial abuse of women in U.S. prisons. Given the steadily rising female prison population, the United States can no longer afford for these Human Rights violations in its women's prisons to be what one attorney called the "dirty little secret of corrections." The secret is out and the U.S. government must uphold its international Human Rights obligations to prohibit and punish custodial sexual abuse.

Institutionalized Racism: The Prison Industrial Complex (Lindsay Clark , SFSU)

This essay examines the everyday violence against poor, people of color in the US prison system. There are presently over two million people behind bars-- the largest population of incarcerated people in the world—and 68% are ethnic minorities. Ironically, since 1991, violent crime has decreased 20%, yet the number of those incarcerated has increased 50% as a result of the thirty-year-old war on drugs and crime. In Texas and California, with the largest prison population combined (327, 583 inmates), various forms of violence are involved in the displacing, disenfranchising and disappearing of prisoners. The structural violence that was clearly evident in the previous enslavement of blacks and the Jim Crow segregation laws persists today in the poverty- stricken ghettos and prison complexes. Communal violence is in motion as well with the misrecognition by the public of the prison as a functioning system of ‘justice and rehabilitation.’ This has allowed for the passing of legislation, such as the three strikes law and mandatory minimum sentencing, further increasing prison population. Private corporations, such as the CCA and Wackenhut are profiting millions of dollars from the exploitation of prisoners. This system of injustice and social control must be addressed for it is in violation of Human Rights as defined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, especially in articles 25 and 27.

The American Prison System: Racism by Ignorance (Matthew Downs, SFSU)

Research on the Prison System in America has focused on the identity of the ‘criminal’ and lifestyle of the prisoner. Prisoners’ identities are directly monitored by those in power, closely examined by prison guards and inmates, and ultimately by the media. Strict surveillance helps shape inmates’ identities and perpetuates racial discrimination, which scholars insist to ignore past a surface level. In the US penal system, most black and poor prisoners, who constitute the majority of the prison population, are having their identities shaped by a ‘white system’ that refuses to recognize ethnic diversity. Racism within the American penal system is a clear violation of the International Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – also known as the CERD Committee.

The Criminalization of the Mentally Ill ( John Aynsley, SFSU)

Throughout many United States’ urban centers, responding to mentally ill people has become largely a police peacekeeping function. This ever-increasing level of the mentally ill locked within the criminal justice system has become an urgent problem for both social scientists and those who work within the legal and incarceration fields. My presentation will discuss the criminalization of the mentally ill, its causes, the role of police and mental health professionals, as well as recommendations for future programs for the alleviation of the problem ­ the key being a synthesis between theory and practice with a clear emphasis upon treatment.

The Death Penalty and State Violence (Claudia Santangelo, SFSU)

I discuss the Death Penalty and the violent nature of the Californian law enforcement. This topic is explored in terms of the systematic racism that exists within the death penalty and the law enforcement that particularly targets African American peoples. State and structural violence are revealed as major contributors to this unjust system and its potential to become genocide. The aim of discussing this issue is to uncover the role of racism in the Death Penalty and state violence rather than ignore this poignant issue which is so often silenced by racial scape-goating and common misconceptions. This issue is worthy of discussion as people are being killed by the state under the guise of law and justice. The Death Penalty needs to be seen in a socio-historical context alongside the problems of our violent capitalist society and our racially dominated world. The Death Penalty and the inherently violent law enforcement system in the U.S are violations of human rights because "All persons under any form of detention or imprisonment shall be treated in a humane manner and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person" (Principle 1, Body of principles for the protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, UN General Assembly, 1988).

Panel 5. Sovereignty and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

Discussants: Prof. Manuel Pino (SCC) and Tony Gonzalez (UN Liason/IITC)

The Gwich’in People and Oil Drilling in Alaska (Nina Starks, SFSU)

The creation story of the peoples closely ties them to the caribou. Because the US government is bulldozing and sucking oil out of the only place this People has called home for 20,000 years, the Gwich’in’s right to their own culture and way of life is being violated. In the process, we are also destroying much of the ecology and wildlife of this area and their homes that they have held for hundreds of years. This is a clear violation of International Covenants on Human Rights, in particular Article 1 of both the International Covenants of Civil and Political Rights and on Economy, Social, and Cultural Rights, which read in part: “In no case may a people be deprived of their own means of subsistence.” The Artic National Wildlife Refuge is home to approximately 129,000 caribou and the threatened area is where caribou calves are born. The Gwich’in have 15 villages scattered across the caribou’s migratory route and hunt the caribou for food, clothing, and tools using every part of these animals out of respect for their life. Destroying this refuge is an act of genocide against the Gwich’in People according to the UN Genocide Convention.

Wall of Genocide: A New Crime against the Palestinian People ( Julie Anderson, SFSU)

In 2002, Israel commenced the illegal building of a wall through and around the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. This nine foot high concrete monster will stretch over 786 kilometers upon completion, imprisoning and impoverishing the indigenous Palestinian population and annexing 43.5 percent of West Bank land to Israel for settlement growth and colonial expansion. In the construction of the wall, Israel has destroyed and isolated Palestinian villages, agricultural land, and water resources, forcing the transfer of the Palestinian people from their homes and cutting off 37.5 percent of the West Bank population from their income source. I argue that this wall of apartheid constitutes an act of genocide and violates international law, such as the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on the Crime of Apartheid. I will further illustrate how Israel’s rationale for the wall is congruent with Foucault’s “Right of Life” theory concerning killing for survival.

Structural Violence and Athletic Mascots (Benny Parks, SFSU)

My paper will examine American Indian mascots in light of the unexamined structural violence that forms the larger backdrop of these highly discriminatory portrayals of American Indians and other groups. Implicit in the idea of structural violence is that the exact extent of the violence is unseen and therefore “taken for granted”. The justifications for violence are unexamined and accepted uncritically by society. What can be taken for granted, such as a mere name, may reveal a hidden structure of unexamined historical assumptions, viewpoints, and expectations about entire groups of people. Often these assumptions are hidden apologies for abuses of history. American Indian Mascots can do this on a national scale, since athletics attracts a large number of enthusiasts in America and from abroad. But violence against groups begins with names invented by the conquering power, and accepted without question by majority groups. Part of anthropology’s task is to expose and examine such structures of violence. This paper is a modest but important effort in that direction.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS OF OUR FAVORITE ‘SAVAGES’ (Amy Broussard, SFSU)

Human Rights violations against Indigenous Peoples in Alaska have occurred as a result of discriminatory US Indian policies ever since the first colonizers identified these Peoples as ‘savages.’ Reducing Indigenous Peoples’ status to less than human helped justify the colonizers’ villainous behavior in scalping and spreading disease in infected blankets, for instance. The Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) is yet another form of extermination of Alaskan First Peoples because it has destroyed the land and access to food and clean water. The Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 also helped deteriorate the environment where these Peoples have lived for thousands of years. I argue that the ways in which Indigenous Peoples in Alaska have been treated until this day constitutes genocide according to the UN Genocide Convention, facilitated by the use of Plenary Power – when Congress has total power over Indian law. American Indians have characterized the situation as an ongoing war, which further qualifies these nations for protection under the Geneva Conventions.

Institutionalized Education and the Ethnocide of American Indians (Ashley Putnam, SFSU)

The Untied States government’s implementation of institutionalized education as a method of assimilating Natives into colonial and contemporary society, perpetuates the ethnocide of Native American cultures. Cultural ethnocide is loss of identity, land, resources, language, and culture. The United States poor administration of Native American education has resulted in Natives loss of self-identity, language, and heritage. The 2003 class action lawsuit filed against the United States government by Sioux peoples for physical and emotional abuses suffered while attending Indian Boarding schools from the late 19 th century to the late 20 th century, brings attention to the residual effects of violence and ethnocide employed by federally operated Native American educational institutions. Currently, Native students suffer from a loss of identity due to effects of the public schooling system, as well as insufficient funding of tribal schools. From the times of Indian boarding schools to the contemporary administration of education, the United States government purposely aims at native assimilation instead preservation.

Religious “Superiority,” The Western Shoshone and the Impotent International System (Jennifer Wolowic, SFSU)

Combined American Indians tribes are the largest land holders in the United States, but they are also the “single poorest population” facing the enormous structural violence of US law. The Western Shoshone of the Great Basin for example, have been fighting the violence of “poverty, hunger, social exclusion” and the humiliation of being forced from their 60 million acre ancestral homeland to a contested 50 thousand. Over the last five decades they have battled in every level of the courts fighting a system founded on Christian Rights of Discovery and written into law by Chief Justice John Marshall. Loosing in the US, the Western Shoshone went to the Inter-American Human Rights Court of the OAS and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination who agreed the US is in violation of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man but structural violence exists embedded in the passive UN and OAS charters preventing the enforcement of these rights.

Panel 6. Repatriation and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

Discussants : Prof. Melissa Nelson (SFSU, American Indian Studies) and Prof. James Riding In (ASU)

Introduction: David Kojan (SFSU, Anthropology) – Contextualizing the Repatriation Movement

LOCAL ALERT:  GLORIFICATION OF GENOCIDE IN SAN FRANCISCO BAR (Emily Birky, IITC)

An Indigenous woman’s remains are currently displayed at downtown San Francisco bar Eddie Rickenbacker’s.  It is important to examine this ‘small genocide’ because of our potential to exert local pressure and help with the return of this woman’s remains to her People. I argue that this small-scale case has large-scale implications within the continuum of genocide of Indigenous Peoples in the United States. This raises questions of repercussions of the Eddie Rickenbacker’s display and possible courses of action.  I address these questions in light of state, federal and international law and suggest options for student involvement.  

The Ethics of NAGPRA Law at SFSU (LisaAnn Buettner, SFSU)

San Francisco State is in possession of about 900 human remains and 12,000 cultural objects that come from American Indian Peoples in the United States. San Francisco States is in compliance with the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA for short. This is an act that requires SFSU to take in American Indian human remains and funerary objects and to the best of our ability identify them, name the tribes they may have come from, and if possible give the items back to the appropriate People. At SFSU though, as in other California institutions that hold American Indian remains, there is a troubled history surrounding these remains, particularly involving administrators and policy makers. What is regarded as ‘disrespect’ can often take the form of structural violence because there is a consistent lack of interest in protecting these remains by academic institutions and the general population, resulting in inadequate storage and funding for the proper care of these items. This alone creates a hostile environment between Indigenous Peoples and academic institutions, including faculty and students, while questioning if everything is being done for the appropriate care of these remains.

PREPARING CULTURE: A View of REpaTRIATION FROM INSIDE THE HEARST MUSEUM ( Cyrus Card, UCB)

In this essay I discuss repatriation from the perspective of my position as "Museum Preparator" in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.  It is a narrative that shows how classroom theories at Berkeley, the relationship between American Indians, NAGPRA and anthropology, and my own experiences as a student preparing objects for repatriation have produced within me a consciousness of what Paul Rabinow, quoting Michel Foucault, calls "subjectification." Subjectification is a process of self-formation that takes place actively through ". . . operations on [peoples’] own bodies, on their own souls, on their own thoughts, on their own conduct" (Foucault 1984).  In short, this is a story about how I have made myself into a subject using the objects, ideas, and problems of ‘culture’ at UC Berkeley.

The Havasupai ‘Detective Physiology Affecting American Indian Identity ( Rachel Huffman, SFSU)

Throughout American history, American Indians have been noted to be particularly vulnerable to diseases such as diabetes and alcoholism, and blamed for their illnesses due to "thrifty genotypes" or increased risk associative behaviors. My argument is that such health disparities need to be seen as a response to a colonial oppressor who has through marginalization, ethnocide and discrimination, placed Indigenous Peoples at risk for these ailments and damaged their self-concept or their own identity of tho they are. In the essay "The Birth of the Asylum", Foucault speaks of recognizing an illness as a principle of coercion in which the "afflicted" integrate their illness into their self-concept and become a prisoner of their own minds. I also explore the recent court case of the Havasupai vs. Arizona State University. ASU collected numerous blood samples from the Havasupai during the 1990s for diabetes research. Instead, the blood samples were used without Havasupai consent for research on schizophrenia, inbreeding and migratory patterns. This misuse of information has resulted in a devastating effect on the identity and self-concept of the Havasupai.

The Preservation of Sanctity (Iniobong Udosen, SFSU)

Multimedia Exhibits—videos, workshops, posters, paintings, poetry—

SFSU Anthropology and Human Rights students (ANTH 588), class of 2005

• UNDERSTANDING GENDER ROLES and IDENTITY Michael Mallory
• JUXTAPOSING IMAGES OF WORLD POVERTY AND LUXURY Nani Ratnawati
• THE END OF PINOCHE Melinda Cordasco
• TRANSGENDERISM EXPLORED Lindsey Friedberg
• DRAFT DECLARATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Jennifer Wolowic and Liberty Winn
• MEXICO/CALIFORNIA BORDER PROBLEMS Amy Broussard
• the criminalization of the mentally ill John Aynsley
• A snapshot of American Indian life on the reservation Rachel Huffman
• Security Fence or Palestinian Prison? Julie Anderson
• REFUGEE CHILDREN Ashley Davenport
• HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CONGO Jeffery J. Leddy; Access to Action Claudia Santangelo
• HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE CALIFORNIA YOUTH AUTHORITY Cassandra Bauer
• DEBT. AIDS. TRADE. AFRICA Michael Mallory
• NAGPRA and SFSU Ethics LisaAnn Buettner
• Proving Ourselves: Power, Authority, and International Sexual Health STUDENT INTERN Jeanie Crossfield
• ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AT HUNTER’S POINT Benny Park
• 21st CENTURY DISPARITY: IMAGES OF LUXURY AND POVERTY Nina Starks

HUMAN RIGHTS SUMMIT FILM SELECTIONS

Pictures are stronger than thousands of words and films can reach millions of people making visual media one of the most powerful forms of communication, especially for Human Rights.  In regards to gender violence, prisons and indigenous rights, films have been used as important tools to inform and persuade an unknowing public. We invite you to view these films from the SFSU and Amnesty International film collections.

Gender Violence – Tues. May 3rd, 2005

Cathryn: making the transition male to female (1998)
Documentary about one individual's quest for a sexual identity change.

What sex am I? (1987)
A thought-provoking discussion of sex changes in humans and takes you on a journey into the unseen world of transsexuals, transvestites and she-males.

The Question of equality (1995)
Using archival footage and interviews, this video set documents the hard-fought gains and heartbreaking losses in the struggle for gay and lesbian equality.

Aids in the Barrio: Eso no me pasa mi (1989)
Health Consequences of aids and Puerto Rican gender ideologies.

The Prison Industry – Wed. May 4th, 2005

Presumed Guilty
A startling, no-holds-barred new documentary that takes a behind the scenes of the San Francisco Public Defenders office as it allows the audience to step inside holding cells, courtrooms, police stations and even into the inner sanctum of lawyer-client confidentiality while following two high-profile murder cases.

The Execution of Wanda Jean
This is a documentary about the first black woman to be put to death in the United States in the modern era. The film tells her story and follows her through her final months on death row.

Tulia , Texas
The film illuminates the collateral consequences of the American War on Drugs through the documentation of a case in which 1 White and 11 Black residents of a small Texas town were arrested in a drug sting by one undercover officer with no corroborating evidence .

Indigenous Peoples’ Rights – Thurs. May 5 th, 2005

Bones of contention (1998)
An even-handed examination of the conflict between Native American groups and scientists, historians, and museum curators concerning the issue of the remains of more than 10,000 Native Americans unearthed at archaeological sites across the U.S. In doing so, it also provides an excellent survey of American Indian archaeology in the U.S.

Thieves of time (1992)
Traces the history of public interest in and abuse of Native American burial grounds, legislation to protect them, and evolving cooperation to research and preserve them.

Powerless politics
John Kauffman explores the political life of the American Indian since 1880.

Radioactive reservations (1995)
Tribal leader Ron Eagleye Johnny travels to four Indian reservations in Oregon, Utah, New Mexico and Nevada to discuss with the inhabitants their negotiations with the U.S. government to place Monitored Storage Retrieval sites for radioactive waste from nuclear power plants on their land. He also visits a power plant in Minnesota.

Campaigns: Support for Amnesty International Campaigns at SFSU:

http://www.amnesty.org/campaign/

Please support AI campaigns at the SUMMIT

Second SFSU Human Rights Committees:

General Organization : Prof. Mariana Ferreira (SFSU Anthropology). Organizing Committee: Jennifer Wolowic, Lindsey Friedberg, John Aynsley, Liberty Winn, Ayah Young, Spencer Goodman; Audio-Visual Committee: Spencer Goodman, Jennifer Wolowic, Rachel Hoffman, Claudia Santangelo, Liberty Winn; Fund-Raising and Budget Committee: Lindsey Friedberb, LisaAnn Buettner, Cassandra Bauer; Receptions/Food: Ashley Putnam, Nani Ratnawati; Music: Melinda Cordasco, Rachel Huffman

Promotion Committee: Ayah Young, Ashley Davenport, Liberty Winn.

Co-Sponsored by the SFSU Department of Anthropology, SFSU College of Behavioral and Social Sciences; and the SFSU Public Research Institute;

Special thanks: Dean J. Kassiola (BSS), Prof. J. Quesada (Anthropology), Prof. J. Wiley (PRI), Sylvia Leng (Anthropology), and Trader Joe’s.