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Pre-Conference Institutes Now Available

April 17th-20th, 2008, USHRN will be hosting their HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE 2008 at the Chicago Marriott O'Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois.

Special thanks to our conference sponsors. Your support helped make this conference possible

Listen to our National PSA

Come and take full advantage of all that the Human Rights Conference 2008 has to offer, including:

• Full day Human Rights Training Institutes
• Full day Youth and Human Rights Summit
• Workshops led by community based activists on the Human Rights framework
• Networking with national, regional and local grassroots organizations that are utilizing the human rights framework in their day to day work.
• And much more!

Program Schedule
Location and Dates
Registration
Youth Summit
Full Day Institutes
Refunds
Lodging
Childcare
Interpretation
Scholarships
Conference Sponsorship Packages
Tabling Information
Film Festival
Human Rights Writers Symposium
Specialized Volunteers
Media and Communications

Key Dates

• March 3rd. – Early Registration Ends
• March 8th – International Women’s Day (Special Registration Price)
• March 15th- Last day to apply for scholarships.
• March 20th – deadline for placing ads in conference program book
• March 27th- Last day to book hotel at discount price
• March 30th – Deadline for submitting tabling request
• April 1st- Last day to get a refund on registration fees.
• April 1st- Submission deadline for Human Rights Film Festival
• April 17-18 – Training Institutes and pre-conference meetings
• April 18th- Student and Youth Summit
• April 17th- April 20th – US Human Rights Network National Conference in Chicago, Illinois.

Location and Dates
The US Human Rights Network Conference will take place from Thursday April 17th until Sunday April 20th. It will take place in Chicago, Illinois at the Marriott Chicago O’Hare Hotel located on 8535 West Higgins Rd. Chicago, Illinois, 60631 USA. This facility is wheelchair accessible and provides other services for those with disabilities.

Registration
Registration for the US Human Rights Network conference in Chicago Illinois is available. Please register early spaces are limited.

• The cost for provided meals (continental breakfast on all pre-conference and conference days, reception on Friday and lunch plenary on Saturday)

• Access to all plenaries and workshops
• Conference materials.

Participants are encouraged to register online using a credit card or check, or by mailing a registration form and check or money order to the US Human Rights Network.

Onsite registration is not guaranteed due to space limitations.

Refunds
For cancellations, registration fees will be fully refunded if notification is given to US Human Rights Network no later than April 1st, 2007. No refunds of registration fees will be made after that date. Please call 404 588 9761 and ask for Suga Matthews.

Lodging
We have secured rooms with the Marriott Chicago O’Hare Hotel for $104.00 per night. Please call (800) 228-9290 and give the Reservation Agent group code USHUSHA. Or reserve online at www.marriott.com

Childcare
Limited childcare will be available during the scheduled conference times beginning on Friday April 18th until Sunday April 20th, please call 404 588 9761 and ask for Suga Matthews, or email smatthews@ushrnetwork.org if you are in need of childcare

Interpretation
We want to guarantee all that are in need of interpretation that their needs are fully met. In order for this to happen, we need the support of all our member organizations and general volunteers.

If you are a member of an organization (staff, volunteers, board member, intern, etc.) and you can volunteer for interpretation, please share those skills with us in exchange for your registration fee. You would be required to volunteer for 2 shifts during the conference, and commit to it. Please email twilliams@ushrnetwork.org

If you are in need of interpretation, please state your needs during the registration process online, or call us at 404 588 9761 and ask for Tonya Williams.

Scholarships
The US Human Rights Network has separated a small scholarship fund to assist with travel scholarships for those who need financial assistance in order to attend. Scholarships applications are due March 15. Notifications will be made by March 20.
Member organizations will have priority for scholarships.

Conference Sponsorship Packages
If you would like to sponsor the US Human Rights Network Conference, there are several affordable packages available. Packages include display on banner and visual materials, logo placements, ad in conference book, ad in TwelveTen Magazine, link to conference web page, full table during conference, etc. Please download the sponsorship package form, fill it out and mail to the US Human Rights Network along with your check with the amount of your corresponding support level. Download Sponsorship Application

In order to accommodate all organizations and recognizing all budgetary restrictions of many of our organizations, we have a ‘share your support’ sponsorship available. More information is available on the Sponsorship Package Form

The deadline for sponsorship requests is March 20th, 2008.

Tabling Information
There will be limited free space for shared materials at the conference. To reserve a table, please fill our tabling form or our sponsorship package and to the US Human Rights Network, along a check for $50.00. Priority will be given to member organizations. (This is for organizations that will not be selling items). Download Application

The deadline for submitting tabling requests is March 30th, 2008

Human Rights Writers Symposium

Thanks to the dedication of dozens of US Human Rights Network members and allies, twenty books were submitted for evaluation by the "Writer's Symposium" review committee. The Committee was composed of academics and activists, who are members of the Network and familiar with its principles and values of the coalition, from the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. This symposium highlights the scholarship of authors utilizing the human rights framework as a central referent in their analyses of social movement activity, social justice campaigns and human rights abuses in the United States. The subjects of submissions ranged from economic rights and welfare
reform, human rights and healthcare and a multi-volume human rights anthology. During our national conference, each of the three authors (editors) will be provided a space to discuss their books on Friday, April 18. Writers Symposium

Specialized Volunteers

If you are a yoga, bellydance, capoeira, meditation, low impact aerobics or other forms of exercises instructor and you would like to volunteer your expertise for 1 or more hours during the conference to facilitate morning exercises for our participants, please email jwilliams@ushrnetwork.org

Full Day Institutes (5 scroll down)

Introduction to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina taught US based activists many lessons, one of them that the rights of Internally Displaced People still need to be recognized and addressed in the United States. But what is an internally displaced person, people and community? This pre-training institute will help participants understand the significance and relevance of employing international human rights standards and law in the extension of protection and assistance to those Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, promote and disseminate the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and other related international human rights standards as it relates to development and natural disaster induced displacement and to identify unfulfilled needs of internally displaced Gulf Coast residents and work to develop solutions based on human rights standards on internal displacement.

Using the Human Rights Framework in LGBT Advocacy

Join us for a half-day pre-conference institute tracing how human rights have evolved to recognize, articulate and and address the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT), and sharing ways in which queers have been utilizing human rights frameworks to organize for justice across the country and around the world! We’ll look at human rights instruments and jurisprudence, talk about the Yogyakarta Principles - which advance a framework for application of human rights principles to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, learn about current efforts to pass a U.N. Resolution explicitly recognizing LGBT rights, discuss existing research and advocacy applying human rights to LGBT issues, and brainstorm ways in which we can use international human rights in our day to day organizing work!

Facilitated by: Andrea Ritchie & Lisa Davis

Video Advocacy: Using moving image media in human rights documentation and advocacy, online and offline

Video advocacy incorporates the tools of modern communication into human rights campaigns for accountability, participation and change. This workshop includes strategies for advocacy plans built around visual evidence, testimony and stories, and using video to target a range of international and domestic audiences, as well as introduces online video advocacy approaches including the WITNESS Hub

WITNESS partners with locally-based human rights organizations worldwide, equipping, training and supporting them to use video as a tool for human rights documentation and advocacy. The workshop will include presentations around the WITNESS methodology and audio-visual case studies derived from the global network of local organizations with which we partner. The workshop will use interactive exercises to help participants develop concrete ideas for using video in their rights work, as well as opportunities for participants to share their own ideas and experiences with effective video use. The objective will be for all participants to leave with an expanded sense of the possibility for using video in their campaigns, and resources to enable them to integrate this tool into their work for accountability and change in the USA.

Fundamentals of Advocacy Evaluation

The workshop will consist of a three-hour inter-active training at which two consultants from Innovation Network, a consulting firm based in Washington DC specializing in advocacy evaluation will present the fundamentals of advocacy evaluation; introduce evaluation frameworks that connect advocacy activities to desired social change; and discuss how to measure success.

Human Rights Communication Data

The Opportunity Agenda will present the findings from its 2007 public opinion research on human rights in the US, including the results of focus groups, a national poll, and interviews with social justice activists. The purpose of this research was to examine how Americans perceive established international human rights laws and conventions, to determine the degree to which Americans see social justice problems in the U.S. as human rights issues, and to establish the best ways to communicate a U.S. human rights agenda to Americans. The results provide a baseline of understanding of public opinion on U.S. human rights and will assist in the development of a more unified message and broader constituency for human rights. In this session, participants will also have the opportunity to discuss various sub-issues and how the research relates to them, learn about framing effective messages for specific audiences, and build and practice messages based on this opinion research.

Media and Communications
If you are part of the media and would like a press pass, please email jwilliams@ushrnetwork.org for more information.