The Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime & Security at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School will host a special forum on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan today from 10am to 4pm in the Senate Chamber, N940 Ross Building, Keele campus.
The session, “Moral and Legal Responsibility with Respect to Alleged Mistreatment of Transferred Detainees in Afghanistan”, will see experts make presentations on various issues related to the detainee-transfer issue. A period of questioning will ensue either after each presenter has spoken or after several have spoken on related matters.
“This special forum is intended to facilitate reflection by Canadians on the morality and legality of conduct related to the Afghan detainees,” says Osgoode Professor Craig Scott, director of the Nathanson Centre.
The special forum is open to all. The proceedings will be videotaped and then archived on the Web for full public access after the event. Written or transcribed contributions by presenters, along with background documents, will be published after the special forum and made available online as well as in print form.
To date, nine presenters have been confirmed to testify before the special forum. They are: Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics & International Law at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law; Paul Champ, barrister, Champ & Associates, Ottawa; Willem de Lint, head of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology, University of Windsor; Michael Mandel, professor of law, Osgoode Hall Law School; Frédéric Mégret, Canada Research Chair in the Law of Human Rights & Legal Pluralism at the McGill University Faculty of Law; Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International (Canada); Kent Roach, professor of law, University of Toronto; William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at National University of Ireland, Galway; and Christopher Waters, associate dean, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor.
For more information, contact Scott at cscott@osgoode.yorku.ca.