03.26.06
CCE Career Panels: Human Rights; International Development
The fine folks at CCE are having some career panels. First is about careers in human rights:
Come to this panel to hear professionals in the field discuss their current jobs and career paths. Panelists will speak about what it is like to work in various areas of human rights, including international human rights law, related international development issues, and human rights consulting. For further information regarding this event, please contact Katherine Jo by sending email to kkj2102@columbia.edu.
Next, international development careers:
If you’ve ever contemplated a career in international development this is the opportunity to hear from professionals in the field. Find out about career opportunities and what it’s like to work for development agencies. Representatives from United Nations agencies and from private not-for-profit development organizations will address their career paths, entry points, and expected competencies. Bring your questions!
Both events are “full” according to the CCE site. Now, we all know that people don’t show up for these things, but plan accordingly.
Aditi Sriram said,
March 28, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Hello all,
I was fortunate enough to attend the Human Rights Career Panel, and it was quite incredible. All 5 panelists have extensive and impressive backgrounds, academically and in the field, and probably speak 20 different languages between them. They were very open to questions and sharing, and I managed to get 3 of their email addresses. Email them if you have specific questions — they’ll never know if you weren’t ACTUALLY at the talk:
Sara Rakita – sararakita@yahoo.com
Jehanne Henry – Jehanne123@yahoo.com
Bede Sheppard – sheppab@hrw.org
Aditi Sriram said,
March 28, 2006 at 7:58 pm
PS: Here are their bios:
Sara Rakita
Sara Rakita is a freelance consultant specializing in human rights and
African affairs. She is currently consulting at the Ford Foundation, where
she is helping to establish TrustAfrica, an exciting new African grant
making foundation dedicated to supporting creative solutions to the
continent’s most pressing challenges. In the past, she worked
extensively on human rights, transitional justice! and the rule of law in
the Great Lakes region of Africa. She has worked in numerous African
countries, including two years as the representative of Human Rights Watch
in Rwanda, and has also spent time in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia, and Uganda among other places. She holds a law degree
from NYU and a master of international affairs from Columbia University.
She speaks fluent French and proficient Spanish and Russian.
Jehanne Henry
Jehanne Henry has been involved in overseas work since undergraduate days
at Columbia College (CC ’93, Philosophy), when she spent summers in
Latin America with Amigos de las Americas. Following graduation, she lived
in Egypt for two years, working at the American University in Cairo and
writing about development issues for a monthly magazine. Upon return to
the U.S. she continued to work in journalism and attended law school at
the University of Texas School of Law, where she was active in the public
interest law association and spent summers working against the death
penalty and at the ACLU. Also while in law school, she was an editor of
the Texas International Law Journal and was selected to spend 6 months
assisting the prosecutors office at the International War Crimes Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Holland. She clerked for a federal
judge in New York and gained admission to the New York Bar before going
overseas again to work for the American Refugee Committee in Kosovo, the
United Nations Mission in Kosovo, and for USAID in Cambodia..
Bede Sheppard
Bede Sheppard is currently working in the Asia Division of Human Rights
Watch, as the Leonard H. Sandler Fellow, a fellowship for recent Columbia
Law School graduates. At present, he is working on the issue of forced
evictions and land acquisition in Indonesia, and counter-terrorism
legislation in Australia. During his first summer at law school at
Columbia, Bede completed a three month internship with the Human Rights
Clinic at Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone. This Open Society
Institute-supported project trains student members in human rights
fundamentals and advocacy skills. During law school he also interned
within the legal protection unit of the United Nations’ Refugee
Agency (UNHCR) office in Tehran, Iran. Prior to law school, Bede worked
for 15 months with UNHCR in Croatia as an associate field officer,
conducting field surveys and investigations to monitor and evaluate
repatriation and reconstruction programs. Bede has an undergraduate degree
in Politics from Harvard, and a Masters degree from the Fletcher School of
Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he studied international
migration and refugee studies, and development economics.
Monim Elgak said,
February 7, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I would like to get more insights from Jehanne on her recent engagment on human rights work in Sudan.