Professor Bennoune discusses human rights, cultural rights in events across the (virtual) world
A busy fall semester for Professor Karima Bennoune featured speaking engagements across the world via Zoom and streaming video events.
Just a few days ago, Professor Bennoune spoke at Muslims for Progressive Values’ Celebration of Life 2020, a cultural event honoring Muslim human rights defenders. The event on Dec. 10 coincided with International Human Rights Day.
She delivered the keynote address, “Vandalism in the Name of God,” on Dec. 8 for the Norwegian Council for Religious and Life Stance Communities, analyzing the 2020 “war of the monuments” from a human rights perspective. The event was via Zoom and Facebook.
Early this month, during the Safe Havens Conference Global Stream, Professor Bennoune chaired and spoke at a panel featuring Norwegian foreign ministry officials and NGO experts, "Ensuring that the artistic freedom sector is collegiate, collaborative, cooperative and noncompetitive." The Dec. 3 event was presented by Safe Havens, Safe Muse and the Museum of Movements (Sweden).
Her November speaking engagements included a video address, in French, on a panel about women’s rights and extremism, part of the Nov. 28 live conference by Regards de Femmes. The conference theme, translated, was “Women's struggles against obscurantism Instruments and actions.”
On Nov. 25, Bennoune gave the keynote address, via Zoom, for “In Our Own Words: Discrimination and Violence Against Women of Religious Minority Backgrounds in Pakistan,” presented by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and the Center for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development. She appeared along with members of religious minorities and researchers speaking from Pakistan.
At a virtual conference sponsored by the German foreign ministry, Bennoune spoke at Plenary III: “Keeping Faith in Times of Hate: Combating Hate Speech as a Cornerstone of Conflict Prevention.” The Nov. 11 event was part of Religions for Peace and Ring for Peace 1st Assembly on Women, Faith and Diplomacy, “Keeping Faith and Transforming Tomorrow.”
In October, Bennoune presented a video address, “Cultural Rights in the Face of the COVID-19 Crisis,” for the International Congress on Cultural and Creative Industries, presented by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the State of Jalisco, Mexico; and gave the opening address via video to a conference focused on solidarity, activism and resistance, hosted by Freemuse at Oslo World on Oct. 26.
Professor Bennoune, Homer G. Angelo and Ann Berryhill Chair and Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, is an author, lecturer, teacher, and international law scholar as well as the first Arab American to be honored with the Derrick A. Bell Award from the Section on Minority Groups of the Association of American Law Schools. In 2014, she was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for her book Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight against Muslim Fundamentalism (W.W. Norton & Company). In October 2015, she was appointed U.N. Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. She received the 2016 Rights and Leadership Award from IANGEL, the International Action Network for Gender Equity & Law.