News

NPR WorldAffairs new podcast episode: "The Crisis in Syria: A Geopolitical Reshuffling of Power"
David L. Phillips interviewed on WorldAffairs
Tuesday, November 5, 2019

The withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria has had grave repercussions for the security and stability of the entire region. The Turkish military has invaded northern Syria, killing dozens of Kurdish civilians and forcing over 200,000 Kurds to flee. In the absence of US troops, Russian and Syrian troops have rushed in to fill the power vacuum. Meanwhile, hundreds of ISIS fighters have escaped detention.

Securing Syria's Oil
Thursday, October 31, 2019

Trump's peripatetic Syria policy zigzagged again over the weekend. After announcing that the U.S. would withdraw from Northern Syria, Trump changed course, announcing: "We've secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil. And we're going to be protecting it, and we'll be deciding what we're going to do with it in the future."
 

Global Indigenous Youth: Through Their Eyes
Institute for the Study of Human Rights honors 2019 Native American Heritage Month at Columbia University
Thursday, October 31, 2019
The Institute for the Study of Human Rights is pleased to announce that, through its Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Program, it is launching the electronic edition of its recent publication, Global Indigenous Youth: Through Their Eyes, in honor of Native American Heritage Month. The electronic version of the whole book and, also, its chapters individually, has been posted on Columbia University’s Academic Commons.
Turkey’s Erdoğan protected ISIS leader Baghdadi
Thursday, October 31, 2019

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan protected Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - and U.S. President Donald Trump should have known.

In his national address announcing that U.S. Special Forces killed Baghdadi, Trump commended Turkey while turning a blind eye to Turkey’s collusion with ISIS.

While Trump thanked “the Syrian Kurds for certain support they were able to give us,” he downplayed the importance of intelligence provided by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). But the SDF’s information was critical to the mission.

1994 Advocate Samuel Kofi Woods II of Liberia Visits HRAP
Thursday, October 31, 2019

1994 Advocate Samuel Kofi Woods II of Liberia took time out of his trip to the USA to meet participants in the 2019 HRAP. He spoke with the advocates about his journey as a human rights advocate, including his unrelenting focus on the need to maintain his integrity in all that he does. Woods is a Liberian journalist, academic, activist, and politician. He began his activism as the student president of his university and a leader of the national student organization in 1986.

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