Lawrence Lessig receives two Harvard appointments

60HarvardcelebratesThe UniversalDeclaration ofHumanRightsDecember 18, 2008-February 4, 2009 Harvard University Gazette/ 17Rights celebration capped with talk, song, danceThis is the last in a series of eventsand academic innovations in a semester-longHarvard celebration ofthe 60th anniversary of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights.Semester’sseries ends withdaylong panelsBy Corydon IrelandHarvard News OfficeSixty years ago this month, the UnitedNations released to a war-shocked worldthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR), a catalog of norms understood toapply to all human beings.The document’s 30 articles seem self-evidenttoday — the right to freedom ofspeech, belief, and property, for instance.Yet all these years later, experts say, there isstill a gap between theory and practice — betweenthe inspiration of landmark wordsand the way those words are implemented.It was into that gap that experts steppedin a daylong series of panels last week (Dec.11) at the Harvard Faculty Club. It was thelast event in a semester-long interdisciplinaryretrospective on the UDHR at Harvard.In opening remarks, Wilhelm Krull predicted“an intensive cultural and academicexchange” — and perhaps a recognition thatthe humanities have a heightened role inthe human rights debate. (Krull is secretary-generalof the Volkswagen Foundation,a co-sponsoring organization that recentlyfunded two humanities fellowshipsat Harvard.)Krull got his wish for a flashbang event,in part because panel participants camefrom diverse disciplines. The law, medicine,literature, advocacy, education, and publicpolicy are only recently beginning to viewhuman rights implementation cooperatively.“These debates actually unite,” and that’srare, said organizer Jacqueline Bhabha, directorof the Harvard University Committeeon Human Rights Studies (an event cosponsor)and Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturerin Law at Harvard Law School.The humanities and human rights can“dovetail,” said Harvard’s Dean for the HumanitiesDiana Sorensen, the James F.Rothenberg Professor of Romance Languagesand Literatures and professor ofcomparative literature, employing a carpentrymetaphor. “If we put those things together,we’ll fly.”Anja Mihr said human rights studies recentlymade a leap from law schools, theirtraditional nexus, into the social sciencesand other disciplines. European universitiesalone now offer more than 100 master’sdegrees with “human rights” in the title, shesaid, and in the United States Harvard offersAccompanying Oumou Sangare, ‘The Songbird of Wassoulou,’ CheickOumar Diabete (above) performs on the jembe.Laurence Tribe (above) takes part in a dramatic reading of the Declarationof Human Rights. Mali’s great diva Oumou Sangare (below) sings.Theater, music,dance, and ideasmark rights fêteBy Alvin PowellHarvard News OfficeHarvard marked the 60th anniversary of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, highlightingboth the document’s power and its unfulfilledpromise through theater, song, and ideas.As images of the declaration’s articles were displayedin light onto University buildings in an outdoortribute, hundreds gathered inside at the HarvardKennedy School’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for anevent featuring dozens from the Harvard communityand beyond, spanning fields from acting to economics,from music to medicine.“We’re here to celebrate a truly remarkable document… and all its ramifications and all it means,” saidHarvard Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood, whointroduced the event. “There have been periods of remarkableprogress and real setbacks.”Jacqueline Bhabha, executive director of the UniversityCommittee on Human Rights Studies, whichsponsored the event, said that it is part of the missionof places like Harvard to inspire students and channeltheir idealism toward worthy goals, something shehoped Wednesday’s event would help accomplish.The night opened and closed with the arts. It kickedoff with a dramatic reading of the declaration’s 30 articlesby 30 different people whose lives have beentouched by a particular article’s content. Among themwere Bol Riiny, a former Sudanese “Lost Boy”; SvangTor, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide; and HassanBility, a Liberian journalist and former prisoner of conscience.Readers also included several members of theHarvard community, including Loeb University ProfessorLaurence Tribe, Evron and Jeane KirkpatrickProfessor of International Affairs John Ruggie, andLearned Hand Visiting Professor of Law Richard Goldstone,who was the chief prosecutor of the InternationalCriminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslaviaand Rwanda. The evening ended with a performanceby Malian singer Oumou Sangare, also known as “theSongbird of Wassoulou.”In between was a discussion of the current state ofhuman rights by economist Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prizelaureate and the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor,and Paul Farmer, the Maude and Lillian PresleyProfessor of Medical Anthropology and a founderof the nonprofit Partners In Health. The panel event,(See Retrospective, page 20) (See Anniversary, page 20)Photos Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News OfficeAt the Dec. 10 celebrationmarkingthe 60th anniversaryof the UniversalDeclaration ofHuman Rights,President DrewFaust, AmartyaSen (obscured),and Paul Farmerall spoke.