Brian Concannon & Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

Events at HaitiAction.net

Tuesday Night

The Haiti Action Committee presents

VOICES FROM HAITI

Special Update and Analysis by

Brian Concannon
human rights lawyer with the International Attorneys Office in Haiti

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine
outspoken Haitian activist and human rights advocate recently arrived from Haiti

Tuesday March 30 7:00 pm

Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship
Corner of Cedar and Bonita

for more information 510 483-7481 haitiaction@yahoo.com

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Wednesday night

Hastings to Haiti Presents...

Haiti Coup: International Law Implications in Haiti & the U.S.

A Forum Moderated by Dennis Bernstein of KPFA's Flashpoints

Wednesday, March 31, 2004, 5:30pm
UC Hastings College of the Law
LBML Auditorium
198 McAllister, San Francisco
(One block from Civic Center Bart Station)


contact: hastingstohaiti@yahoo.com

Panels include: (see complete bios below)

Brian Concannon, Jr.
Human Rights Attorney
Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, Port au Prince, Haiti

Pierre Antoine Lovinsky
Psychologist and Victims' Rights Advocate
Fondasyon Trent Septamn, Port au Prince, Haiti

The Rev. Jomanas Eustache (Hastings only)
Co-Founder and Dean of the Catholic Law School of
Jeremie, Haiti
Visiting Professor, Seton Hall Law School

Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza (Hastings only)
International Human Rights Law Professor
UC Hastings College of the Law


Panelists' Biographical Information:

Brian Concannon, Jr., Human Rights Attorney, Bureau des Avocats
Internationaux, Port au Prince, Haiti. Since 1996, Mr. Concannon has worked with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux to provide legal representation to victims of politically motivated human rights abuses suffered under the military dictatorship in Haiti from 1991 to 1994. Mr. Concannon helped push forward Haiti's first successful prosecution of former military and paramilitary leaders responsible for the Raboteau Massacre of April 1994. Previously, Mr. Concannon was a human rights observer for MICIVIH, the U.N./O.A.S. civilian mission to Haiti. Mr. Concannon is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.) and Middlebury College (B.A.). He is a recipient of a Brandeis International Fellowship in Human Rights, Intervention and International Law. Mr. Concannon writes and speaks about issues of transitional justice, human rights, and the persistence of impunity in Haiti. He recently returned from a delegation to the Central African Republic that met with President Aristide.

The Rev. Jomanas Eustache, Co-Founder and Dean of the Catholic Law School of Jeremie, Haiti - Visiting Professor, Seton Hall Law School. Fr. Jomanas found the l'Ecole Superieure Catholique de Droit de Jeremie in 1995 with Bishop Willy Romelus. The law school was founded to advance the Haitian Bar and judiciary dedicated to the rule of law, and promoting the respect and protection of human dignity. Fr. Jomanas is Dean of the law school where he teaches Constitutional Law, Comparative Law,Introduction to the Law and Roman Law. He is a graduate of the Grand Seminaire Notre-Dame in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He received his J.C.D. in Canon Law at the Pontifical Urbanian University in Italy. Currently, Fr. Jomanas is on leave from his permanent position of Dean, teaching as a visiting professor at Seton Hall Law School.

Pierre Antoine Lovinsky, Psychologist and Victims' Rights Advocate,
Fondasyon Trent Septamn, Port au Prince, Haiti. Recently forced to leave Haiti for his safety, Mr. Lovinsky visits us from the front lines of the struggle for human rights in Haiti. A trained psychologist, Mr. Lovinsky began organizing clandestine group
meetings for victims of political violence under Haiti's military dictatorship that took power through a bloody coup d'Ètat on September 30, 1991. Focused on the need for psychological healing and justice, Mr. Lovinsky heads a grassroots victims' organization, the 30th of September Foundation. Up until recent violence sent them into hiding, these members marched every Wednesday for over six years in front of the National Palace
demanding an end to impunity for Haiti's former military and paramilitary
leaders.

Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza, International Human Rights Law Professor,
UC Hastings College of the Law. Prof. Roht-Arriaza teaches in the areas of torts, domestic and global environmental law and policy, and international human rights. She is the author of Impunity and Human Rights in International Law and Practice, published in May 1995. She is an Associate Editor of the Yearbook on International Environmental Law, and her book on the impact of the Pinochet case will appear in 2004. She serves on the boards of human rights and environmental groups, including the Center for Justice and Accountability, the human rights attorneys currently pursuing federal litigation against former Haitian colonel Carl Dorelien. Prof. Roht-Arriaza received her J.D. from UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall (Note and Comment Editor of the law review; Order of the Coif), as well as a Masters from the Graduate School of Public Policy. She clerked for Judge James Browning of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and has been honored with the first Riesenfeld Fellow in International Law and Organizations, the European Community Fulbright in Spain, and a research grant from the U.S. Institute of Peace and the MacArthur Foundation. Prof. Roht-Arriaza continues to write on accountability, both state and corporate, as well as on other human rights and environmental issues.

Dennis Bernstein (moderator, Hastings only) hosts KPFA's Flashpoints News Magazine and is a frequent commentator on WBAI airwaves. His articles, essays, and poetry have appeared widely in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The London Observer, The Japan Times, and The Nation Magazine. In addition to co-authoring several books and a musical, he is a frequent lecturer and holds workshops at universities and colleges nationwide.