Canadian Consortium on Human Security

1. Conference: 'Eliminating Human Insecurity: Local, Regional and Global Governance'

The Human Security Working Group, a sub-group of the British International Studies Association (BISA), is in the early stages of planning this international conference, currently scheduled to be held in Belfast, N. Ireland, in April 2009.

Many pre-eminent thinkers in the fields of global governance and human security have already lent their support, including Michael Barnett, Raymond Duvall, Colin Wight, David Chandler, Caroline Thomas, Jean Grugel, Don Hubert, Peter Hough, Malcolm Mcintosh, Taylor Owen, and Edward Newman. The organizers are contacting government representatives, members of international institutions, field workers and managers in NGOs and INGOs, and are invoking an interdisciplinary approach to include health specialists, development planners, economists and academics from a range of disciplines, including social policy and international law, and from all epistemologies and ontologies.

Initial topic proposals include power and global governance; conceptualising human security; operationalizing the idea further; and health security. Interested participants are invited to propose additional topics.

For further information, contact Dr. Dave Roberts, Human Security Working Group.

2. Conference: 'Coordinating Chaos: Taking a Multi-Dimensional Approach to Stabilization Operations'

The Peace and Conflict Society (PACS) at the Trudeau Centre for the Study of Peace and Conflict at the University of Toronto will hold its third annual conference on February 8 to 10, 2008. Entitled Coordinating Chaos: Taking a Multi-Dimensional Approach to Stabilization Operations, the conference will focus on the changing nature of humanitarian intervention and on how to integrate the multiple actors operating within conflict zones in order to foster a lasting peace. The conference seeks to advance the academic dialogue surrounding conflict intervention and to expand potential policy options available to global leaders whose decisions determine the fate of nations and directly impact global stability. Coordinating Chaos will examine the challenges of integrating political, military, economic, and humanitarian actors within conflict zones so as to develop coherent, multi-dimensional strategies for peace support and counterinsurgency operations.

For more information see www.coordinatingchaos.ca

3. Web Resource: Justice and Reconciliation Project

The Justice and Reconciliation Project  works with marginalized and war-affected communities to strengthen locally-owned approaches to the reintegration of ex-combatants, justice and reconciliation in war-torn northern Uganda.The project was co-founded by the Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Canada and the Gulu District NGO Forum, Northern Uganda. It has a field office in Gulu, northern Uganda and satellite offices in Amuru, Kitgum and Pader.

4. Web Resource: Sherpa

Sherpa is a French non-governmental organisation founded in 2001 by William Bourdon, a former Secretary-General of the International Federation of Human Rights and Paris-based attorney, noted for his pursuit of perpetrators of human rights abuses at the national and international level.

Sherpa has two principal objectives, the first being to investigate and pursue civil and criminal proceedings against enterprises as well as both holding and subsidiary companies for human rights abuses and other serious violations of national and international law. To this end, Sherpa is able to call upon the expertise of its broad network of legal professionals from a range of specialisations. While its first targets have been French companies, Sherpa also aims to pursue foreign companies with an aim to act on a truly international scale. Sherpa has also investigated or instigated legal proceedings by individuals and NGOs as third-party plaintiffs, for a range of proceedings including money laundering, arms trafficking, and the misappropriation of public funds by corrupt heads of state.

Sherpa also provides expertise, analysis, auditing, consultancy, and training on aspects of globalization where its direct or indirect effects are likely to infringe on human rights. Sherpa can at the request of an international or regional institution, members of civil society, or a state provide an opinion, audit or other advice on the activities of private or public economic agencies or the effects of economic policies.

5. Online Publication - Human Security Journal

CERI Program for Peace and Human Security, Sciences Po, Paris

Available in both French and English, the Human Security Journal is a multi-disciplinary academic journal run by graduate students at Science Po, Paris. This publication attempts to disseminate concepts from the fast-growing field of human security, and weave them together with research and opinions from a wide variety of academic disciplines. The current issue of the Journal highlights articles generated during a conference on "IR and Security Theories: Impact and Influences".

6. The CERI Program for Peace and Human Security

The CERI Program for Peace and Human Security is a new thematic center whose mission is to engage in academic and practical work in the field of peace studies and human security. In addition to engaging in academic research and organizing courses on peace studies and human security, the Program hosts regular conferences, seminars and lectures. It also publishes the Human Security Journal.