Wednesday, April 1 10:30 AM - 11:35 AM
On-Campus Event - — LM 141B
Noted human rights attorney Thomas Becker, a graduate of University of San Francisco and of Harvard Law School, is coming to USF for a three-day residency March 31-April 2. Becker served as chief counsel in a landmark federal case against a former Bolivian president for war crimes and has served as a Clinical Instructor at Harvard, Columbia, and other law schools. He has conducted human rights work around the world, investigating torture and extrajudicial killings of Adivasis in India and Sahrawis in Western Sahara; documenting war crimes in Lebanon and Nagorno-Karabakh; examining land rights in South Africa and Palestine; exposing death squads in Honduras and Colombia; and serving as a nonviolent bodyguard for the Zapatista guerrillas in Mexico. His writings have been featured in major publications worldwide.
Tuesday, March 31, 11:45am-1:00pm USF Law School KN 102
“Human Rights Lawyering”
Becker discusses his career as an international human rights lawyer and how attorneys can make a positive impact
Tuesday, March 31, 5:00-6:00pm Masonic 123
“Human Rights and Social Change”
Becker’s personal story of his journey from USF student, to rock star, to one of the country’s preeminent human rights lawyers
Wednesday, April 1 10:30-11:35am Lone Mountain 141B
“Bolivia’s 2019 Coup and Its Legacy Today”
An eyewitness account of rightwing efforts to derail Bolivia’s socialist experiment, popular movements for justice, and the current political situation
Wednesday, April 1 1:00-2:05pm Malloy LL5
“From the Streets to the Courtroom: How Indigenous Bolivians Won the First Human Rights Case in the U.S. Against an Ex-President”
Becker describes his role as lead attorney in Mamani v. Sánchez de Lozada, the first successful human rights lawsuit in the United States against a living former head of state
Wednesday, April 1 2:45-4:00pm Masonic 122
"Erased in Silence: Documenting Ethnic Cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh"
Becker reports on his recent investigation of Azerbaijani atrocities against Armenians in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Caucasus
Wednesday, April 1 4:45-6:15pm Masonic 123
“Reflections from the Gaza Flotilla”
Becker tells his story of his role as a legal observer on a flotilla to provide food and medicine to the besieged Gaza Strip and his kidnapping and torture by the Israeli government
Thursday, April 2 11:45am-1:00pm Getty Study
Sociology Forum: “Sociological Imagination in Action"
Becker will revisit his time as a Sociology major at USF, how that prepared him for his career, and how students of Sociology and related fields can apply their education in support of justice
Events are co-sponsored by the USF Politics Department, USF Middle Eastern Studies Program, USF Sociology Department, and the USF Institute of Nonviolence and Social Justice.