Centre For Justice Call For Emancipation Papers

Centre for Justice has put out a call for papers for its upcoming conference, set to be held on July 10, 2014, that will commemorate the 180 years that have passed since Emancipation and examine society’s current social fabric.

A spokesperson said, “In commemoration of 180 years since Emancipation, Centre for Justice presents a conference entitled “Justice Today: Human Rights Since Emancipation.”

“Centre for Justice is organizing this conference as part of its mandate to promote education in the areas of human rights, civil liberties and administration of justice and to foster civic engagement. To that end, members of the public are invited to submit essays to Centre for Justice and to participate in the conference.

“The conference will be held on July 10, 2014, in Hamilton, Bermuda.

“Successful entrants will be invited to take part in the conference with a panel of local and overseas experts in the field of human rights and justice. They will be asked to make short presentations on their essays and to engage in follow-up discussions with the panelists and with audience participants. Following the conference, Centre for Justice will publish a journal of all successful essays.

“Entrants are invited to submit an essay in respect of one or more of the related themes, and within each theme, we list below suggested topical areas of interest that presenters might wish to touch upon in their papers. Essays may deal with one topic exclusively and in depth or with multiple topics as part of a comparative exercise, provided they address the question posed.

“Our first session will be focused on providing a historical survey of legal, socio-political and economic developments in the arena of justice and human rights since the Emancipation era.

“The wording of our next sub-theme, ‘how equal are we,’ is left deliberately wide so as to provide entrants with as much creative scope to come up with essays as appropriate. As with the question of equality, we would hope to address questions of discrimination and of equality more broadly defined.

“Notwithstanding the scope of the sub-theme, we would expect the papers and session to cover, inter alia, the following:

• Race
• Women’s issues
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity and expression
• Disability
• Age
• Non-Bermudians / Long-Term Residents
• Migrant workers
• Poverty & Socio-economic rights
• Children’s rights
• Any other suggested topic

“The sub-theme ‘how just are we’ is arguably broader in scope than the previous. However, we expect to focus on ‘justice’ within our ‘justice’ system. In particular, we hope to address the following:

• Punishment vs rehabilitation
• Victims’ Rights
• Restorative Justice
• Drugs as health vs criminal issue
• Drug convictions and the stop list
• Diversion from criminal justice system
• Youth Justice System
• Civil debts and imprisonment
• Legal aid & access to justice
• Any other suggested topic

“All residents of Bermuda, including returning students, are eligible to make a submission. Centre for Justice reserves the right to verify the eligibility status of all successful entrants.

“Essays submitted should aim to be no longer than 3,000 – 5,000 words, inclusive of all footnotes and references, and should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style and the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities, free versions of which can be found online here and here respectively. However, Centre for Justice will not be overly prescriptive with this word range.

Other rules include:

• Entrants are permitted and encouraged to submit multiple essays.
• Permission must be obtained for the reproduction of illustrations and quotations from copyrighted material.
• It is a condition of entry that all participants grant a license to Centre for Justice in respect of publication of all essays. Essays may be submitted for publication elsewhere provided the entrant first notifies Centre for Justice.
• Centre for Justice will not publish any essay submitted without an accompanying acknowledgement of the original author.
• Essays must be submitted by 4.00pm on June 20, 2014. A panel of judges will read all entries, which will be assessed anonymously. Winners will be announced on June 27, 2014.
• The judges will chose only those essays which they deem to be of publishable quality within a proper academic or journalistic context and which demonstrate sufficient engagement with the conference topics and themes.
• The decision of the judges will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into by Centre for Justice with entrants in respect of this decision.
• Centre for Justice reserves the right to publish essays by those entrants who are not initially successful or who do not participate in the conference in any form of media thought fit.
• Centre for Justice further reserves the right to accept no entrants in the unlikely event that, in the judges’ opinion, none of the essays submitted are of the required standard.

“A first for Bermuda, Centre for Justice is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-partisan organization whose aim is to promote the rule of law, human rights and civil liberties in Bermuda in accordance with the Bermuda Constitution and the rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

“Centre for Justice has already sparked discussion through public meetings, newspaper columns and a television round table on the topics of Police Stop and Search Powers, Your Right to Know, Human Rights and Sexual Orientation and The Economy and the Link to Human Rights and Social Justice.”

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Category: All, History