About the Event:

Please join CHRGJ as it welcomes Haitian housing rights activist Jackson Doliscar along with human rights lawyer and CHRGJ alumna Ellie Happel in a public talk about ongoing activism to combat homelessness and stop evictions in Haiti. After losing their homes in the 2010 earthquake, more than 100,000 people in Haiti still live in informal tent cities. Insecure land titles jeopardize housing rights of people in the camps who face violent threats of eviction from police and private citizens alike. The panelists will discuss the following questions: How can Haitian activists engage displaced communities to defend their housing rights? What can the international community can do to support local actors? How is the Global Justice Clinic engaging communities to participate in decisions and preserve their rights in the face of prospective gold-mining? What is the potential for forced displacement in mining-affected communities?

About our Speakers:

Jackson Doliscar grew up in a home that doubled as an organizing base in the movement for human rights and democracy under the Duvalier dictatorship, and later gained experience as a member of Chandel, a community organization that uses popular education to promote social change.  After the 2010 earthquake, Jackson helped found FRAKKA, the Force for Reflection and Action on Housing, a platform of organizations and camp committees that organize and accompany the internally displaced as they fight for the right to housing. Jackson worked in hundreds of camps in Port-au-Prince.  He collaborates with Haitian social justice organizations as well as Amnesty International and other allies.  In 2012 Jackson presented before the International Tribunal on Evictions in Geneva and in 2014 he participated in the Equitas human rights training program in Canada.

Ellie Happel is a 2011 graduate of NYU Law School where she was a Root Tilden Kern scholar.  Upon graduating Ellie received the Arthur Helton Human Rights fellowship to work in Port-au-Prince, where she worked on the cholera case against the United Nations and on cases of forced eviction in the internally displaced people (IDP) camps.  In January of 2013 Ellie joined Professor Meg Satterthwaite and the Global Justice Clinic to launch a new project supporting communities affected by gold mining activity in Haiti.  The GJC collaborates with the Justice in Mining Collective (“the Collective”), a platform of 5 Haitian human rights organizations based in Port-au-Prince, to help communities monitor human rights abuses and promote their interests. 

Valid ID and RSVP required. RSVP here or email Audrey Watne at watnea@exchange.law.nyu.edu. Lunch will be served.