This event is online only.
Join us for a meeting of the New York-Russia Public Policy Series, co-hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and the New York University Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia.
During the war on Ukraine, allegations have been made that the Russian army and government have committed numerous violations of human rights and the laws of war, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, brutal executions, and forced relocation and re-education of Ukrainian citizens. Some of these atrocities have already been recognized as war crimes by international institutions, but the investigations are still unfolding. Our panel of human rights experts and political scientists will discuss what we know about Russia’s transgressions so far, how these crimes can be documented and investigated, and what real options exist for the international community to hold the Russian government and military responsible.
This event is supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Speakers
Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch
Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health and a Lecturer in the Department of the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale University
Monika Nalepa, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago
Scott Straus, Professor of Political Science at the University of California-Berkeley and the 2023 Mahatma M.K. Gandhi Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Moderated by:
Elise Giuliano, Senior Lecturer in Political Science; Director of the MARS-REERS Program; Director of the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations
Joshua Tucker, Director of the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University
Biographies
Rachel Denber is Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. She specializes in countries of the former Soviet Union. Previously, Denber directed Human Rights Watch’s Moscow office and did field research and advocacy in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. She has authored reports on a wide range of human rights issues throughout the region. Denber earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in international relations and a master’s degree in political science from Columbia University.
Nathaniel A. Raymond is the Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health and a Lecturer in the Department of the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale. His research interests focus on the health implications of forced displacement, methodologies for the assessment of large-scale disasters, and the human rights and human security implications of information communication technologies. Previously, he was a Lecturer of Global Affairs at the Jackson School for Global Affairs, the founding Director of the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and the Director of the Campaign Against Torture at Physicians for Human Rights, leading investigations into the role of US health professionals in the Bush Administration’s “enhanced” interrogation program. He served as a humanitarian aid worker with Oxfam America and was deployed to Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and the US Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Raymond has formally advised multiple UN, governmental, and non-governmental agencies. His work has appeared in Nature, The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, and other journals.
Monika Nalepa is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. With a focus on post-communist Europe, her research interests include transitional justice, parties, legislatures, and game-theoretic approaches to comparative politics. Her first book, Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe, received the Best Book award from the Comparative Democratization section of the APSA and the Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award from the Political Organizations and Parties section of the APSA. Her current work centers on how transitional justice mechanisms contribute to the quality of democracy. Her second book, After Authoritarianism: Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Her work has been published in the Journal of Politics, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Post-Soviet Affairs, and other journals. Before working at the University of Chicago, she taught at Rice University and the University of Notre Dame. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Scott Straus is Professor of Political Science at the University of California-Berkeley and the 2023 Mahatma M.K. Gandhi Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He studies political violence, genocide, human rights, and post-conflict politics with an empirical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author or editor of nine books, including Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa (Cornell, 2015), which won the Grawemeyer Award for Improving World Order and the Best Book in Conflict Processes from the American Political Science Association. He also wrote The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War (Cornell, 2006), which won the Best Book in Political Science from the Association of American Publishers. Straus has published articles in the American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Foreign Affairs, and other journals. Before Berkeley, he was the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2016, President Obama appointed him to the Council of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Straus continues to serve on the Museum’s Committee on Conscience. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. Prior to his academic career, Straus was a freelance journalist based in Nairobi; he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
