All interested people in the Boston area are welcome to this event at Harvard University

Harvard Panel on Ethiopia
Wednesday, December 7, 2005, 6:00 PM
Askwith Lecture Hall – Harvard Graduate School of Education

Political Detentions, Elections, and “Democracy” in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government has recently arrested twenty-four political prisoners, including two men with strong connections to Harvard. Amnesty International considers these detainees prisoners of conscience. These recent arrests followed a second round of violence related to the May 2005 elections in which more than 40 Ethiopians were killed. This panel will examine the political events that precipitated the arrests and violence and investigate the implications of these detentions on the maintenance of human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia.

The panel will include Dr. Jacqueline Bhabha, Executive Director of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies, Dr. Damtew Teferra, Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Higher Education in Africa, Dr. Meqdes Mesfin, a public health activist for Cambridge Health Alliance, and Yitayew Alemayehu Taye, PhD Candidate in Law, Policy and Society at Northeastern and MALD candidate at the Fletcher School. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Fernando Reimers, the Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of the International Education Policy program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This event is sponsored by the Harvard Educational Review and co-sponsored by the Committee on African Studies, the University Committee on Human Rights Studies, the Harvard Scholars at Risk Committee, Amnesty International USA, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean’s office.

For information, please contact Benjamin Piper ([email protected]).

Benjamin Piper, MA, EdM
Co-Chair, Harvard Educational Review