The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law awarded a team of researchers at the Faculty of Law and Political Science (FLPS) at Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) the Future of Human Rights Governance (FORGE) Experiments for Change fellowship.
FORGE kicked off in November 2023 with a major conference in New York City, titled “Reimagining the Future of Rights and Governance”. It gathered like-minded practitioners and academics from around the world. “Against the despair of critics who announce that current challenges spell the ‘end times’ of human rights, the Future of Rights and Governance (FORGE) program at NYU Law is committed to proposing new ideas and strategies for the next generation of global rights and justice thinkers and doers,” says program founder César Rodríguez-Garavito, Professor of Clinical Law and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law.
At the conference, the FLPS team composed of Rouba El Helou, Lecturer at the FLPS, and Dr. Eugene Sensenig, Professor at the FLPS and Director of the Lebanese Research Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies, presented their Experiment for Change draft project, titled “The Political Economy of Sectarianism and Coexistence – Human Rights of Human Resources” (HRofHR), under the theme of Democratic Renewal.
Through a rigorous selection process, four applicants were chosen for the FORGE fellowships, representing diverse thematic areas: Ecological Emergencies (Europe and North America), Technology (Caribbean), Rising Inequalities (Africa and North America), and Democratic Renewal (South West Asia and North Africa - WANA). This selection brings the ongoing research program in Lebanon, the Political Economy of Sectarianism and Coexistence (PESC), to an international audience. This project began in spring 2021 through a collaboration with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Beirut.
The one-year fellowship presents unparalleled opportunities, enabling groundbreaking research and facilitating impactful collaboration. It focuses on vital issues such as human rights, workplace policies, organizational structure for quality assurance, good governance and democratic renewal in Lebanon. The FLPS researchers will work alongside three international teams, fostering synergy across regions, disciplines, and approaches. “Each project team is running an independent experiment, but the four teams will meet in a regular cadence throughout the year to share their progress, thoughts, and input with each other,” notes the FORGE team.
El Helou and Sensenig will incorporate critical education models such as Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), targeted training programs, and the power of artistic traditions. “This multi-layered approach goes beyond traditional research methods, it embraces innovative methodologies to drive meaningful change,” stated El Helou. HRofHR will interface with key human rights organizations and stakeholders throughout Lebanon and prepare for scaling up within the WANA region.
The four teams will also publish aspects of their work in Open Global Rights (OGR) an independent global platform for analysis and opinion on international human rights issues. “The FORGE change experiments are able to present their visions for promoting human rights work to a global audience on OGR, helping us find partners for our efforts on the ground, as well as for rigorous research endeavors,” stated Sensenig.
Over the course of the FORGE program, the four Experiments for Change will delve into critical issues and present concrete deliverables, enabling change in their specific fields of expertise. Each Experiment for Change will be working to create local changes while positioning aspects of their work to expand regionally and/or globally. Imagining a world where groundbreaking research leads to change, that is the promise of the upcoming one-year process from the NDU-FLPS team.
The Lebanese HRofHR project will be working with employers in a variety of industries to help develop human rights training aiming for an equitable society. Using a tripartite ‘multi-stakeholder group (MSG)’ approach, it will partner with industry, civil society leaders, and government players. This dynamic process will foster gender equality, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. “Through this fellowship we are particularly interested to see how focusing on training and education within the workplace might strengthen equity discourse and civic participation in Lebanon and beyond,” noted Youssef Farhat, Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the NYU School of Law. “Rouba and Eugene are pollinators who effortlessly carry ideas into many spaces and champion experimenting with innovative models that enrich forward thinking in human rights education and practice,” he added.
Lebanon’s Experiment for Change will be benefiting from advisory support from the FORGE team at NYU Law and collaboration with its global partners. In the words of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, “FORGE will unlock tools and strategies that will help shake global governance and justice out of a suboptimal current state, creating momentum toward a more impactful and flourishing future for both fields.”