The President’s Human Rights Task Force has held three meetings to date: July 7, August 29, and September 12. During these meetings, the Task Force has approved its procedures, elected a Vice Chair, Dr. Dolana Mogadime, established a communication protocol, and refined the Task Force’s timeline.
Revisions to the timeline included an extension of the final report deadline to April 3, 2017. The Task Force was in agreement that the inclusion of thematic meetings focused on sexual violence, racial climate and ableism (inclusive of mental health and physical disabilities) would help focus the discussions on human rights at Brock University, without excluding other important issues. The Task Force will strive to raise awareness about the intersections that may be experienced between these three focused concerns. For example, the growing diversity among the university population means racism and xenophobia may also be linked to discrimination in the context of multi-faith based realities.
The five-staged timeline includes:
- Stage 1: Developing an Understanding of Human Rights at Brock and Refining the Plan and Process of the Task Force
- Stage 2: Information Gathering
- Stage 3: Interim Report
- Stage 4: Consultation on the Interim Report
- Stage 5: Final Recommendations and Report
Discussions to date have included a contextual discussion of Human Rights from a global perspective, an overview of the Human Rights Landscape at Brock (committees, task forces, services and policies), discussion about the Ontario Human Rights Code, and a review of the complaint procedures under the Respectful Work & Learning Environment Policy, which are administered by the Office of Human Rights and Equity Services at Brock University.
The Task Force also agreed that it would develop a shared human rights vocabulary (a list of definitions) to accompany the Committee’s Final Report and also investigate and include a recommendation with regard to an Equity Audit.
The Task Force looks forward to inviting speakers from other universities and leading human rights researchers to present their findings on human rights in the university context, with a focus on practical applications at Brock University.
The next meeting of the Human Rights Task Force is on September 26, 2016, from 9-11 AM in Sankey Chamber. Members of the Brock community are welcome to attend. For more information, please visit the Human Rights Task Force website.