[van-announce] Conference: Crimes Against Humanity and the effect of war oncivilian populations (fwd)

[Tony Tracy]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 16:17:42 -0800
From: VDLC <vdlc at telus.net>
Subject: Timely Conference Announcement

Crimes Against Humanity and the effect of war on civilian populations.

The issue of Crimes Against Humanity, and the effect of military actions
on innocent civilian populations is once more in the news and on our minds
as we sit poised on the brink of an aggressive war against Iraq.

These are important issues that can only benefit from open discussion and debate.

WE CAN LEARN FROM HISTORY!
Important Conference March 21 and 22, 2003

* * *
Canadian Conference on Preventing Crimes Against Humanity:
Lessons from the Asia Pacific War (1931-1945)

CONFERENCE  INFORMATION  SHEET

The two-day conference will address the question: How do you prevent
crimes against humanity?  It will focus on history of the Asia Pacific War
(1931-1945) and examine how the lessons learned from this terrible past
are relevant today.  The conference is organized to commemorate the 40th
anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Date:        March 21 - 22, 2003
Venue:    First Nations Longhouse, University of British Columbia, 1985 West Mall
(If CUPE strike continues, alternate location will be arranged. Check the website.)

Sponsors:
* Canada Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII  in Asia (ALPHA)
* Canada Asia Pacific Resource Network (CAPRN)
* Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association (JCCA),
* Human Rights Committee
* UBC First Nations House of Learning
* UBC Women's Studies and Gender Relations
* UBC International House

Featured Guest Speakers

Grandma AHN Jeom Soon, from Korea,
- survivor of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery

Mr. XU Jiaxi, from China,
- survivor of  Japanese Biological Warfare

Prof. Suh Sung, former Korea
- prisoner of conscience for 19 years

Iris Chang,
- author of best seller The Rape of Nanking

Judge Maryka Omatsu, first female judge of Asian descent,
- author of Bittersweet Passage: Redress and the Japanese Canadian Experience

Prof. Roland Chrisjohn,
- author of The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada

Indai Lourdes Sajor, co-convener of Women's International War Crimes Tribunal
on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery

Erna Paris, author of Long Showdows - Truth, Lies and History

And many more.


PLENARY AND SAMPLE WORKSHOP TOPICS:

(Learn about the past and apply lessons to the present)

* Racism and the Asia Pacific War
* Japan's Biological Warfare in the Asia Pacific War
* Japanese Military Sexual Slavery
* Facing the Past: Healing and Redress
* Preventing Crimes against Humanity Today
* Terrors of A-bomb
* Canadian Hong Kong veterans & other POWs: Wounds and Closure
* Rape of Nanking: Remembering and Denying
* Identifying Racism in Politics: Japanese Uprooting and Internment
* "Comfort Women", Forced Labour & the International Labour Organization
* Crimes Against Humanity: Residential School Experience
* Violence Against Women in War & in Peace
* Teachers' Workshop on the Teachers' Guide "Human Rights in the Asia Pacific
1931-1945: Social Responsibility & Global Citizenship"
* Racial Profiling
* Peace and Justice in the Middle East
* International Networking for Peace Movement

And many more.

Please register online at http://www.aplconference.ca
$20 for students   $50 regular fee
(Lunch included for those register by
March 18, 2003)

Or contact: Peter Scott
Phone: 604-822-4904
E-mail: apl.conference at ubc.ca

A Victoria Symposium on the same topic will be held on March 20th,
from noon to 6 pm at the Cinecenta.
-- 

Student Subsidies Available:
Full-time students can apply for conference fee subsidy.  For more details,
visit the conference website http://www.aplconference.ca

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