Today: The Guatemala STD Inoculation Studies; Human Rights and the Supreme Court of India

Event Notice

November 13, 2012

“The Guatemala STD Inoculation Studies: What Should We Do Now?”

12:30-2 pm

Wasserstein 3019

Lunch will be served

In the late 1940s, US and Guatemalan researchers conducted a host of experiments on vulnerable Guatemalan subjects, purposefully exposing them to and infecting them with a number of STDs without their consent.  The experiments were kept hidden for more than half a century, until they were discovered and exposed only recently by historian Susan Reverby.  The US government has since apologized for what happened, but a class action suit brought on behalf of the Guatemalan subjects was dismissed in June and efforts to directly compensate the victims have not been forthcoming.   Please join Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center and Human Rights Program for a panel discussion of the study and possible legal and political responses that may be available now, both domestically and from an international human rights perspective.

Panelists will include:  Susan Reverby, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Wellesley College; I. Glenn Cohen, Assistant Professor of Law, Faculty Co-Director, Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School; Holly Fernandez Lynch, Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School; Wendy Parmet,  George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law; Fernando Ribeiro Delgado, Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School.

And later today:

“The Supreme Court of India and the Implementation of Human Rights”

A Panel of Distinguished Guests

5- 7 pm

Wasserstein 1010

This panel discussion, moderated by Professor Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law School, will feature: Chief Justice Altamas Kabir of the Supreme Court of India; Justice Swatanter Kumar of the Supreme Court of India; Justice Arijit Pasayat, of the Supreme Court of India; Shri Salman Khurshid, Honourable Minister for Law and Justice; G.E.Vahanvati, Attorney General of India; T.K. Viswanathan, Secretary General of the Indian Parliament; Rakesh Munjal, Senior Advocate; and Professor S. V. Sivakumar, Director of the Indian Law Institute.

This event is being co-sponsored by International Legal Studies and the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research.