Human Rights Prospects in the Year of the Dragon

• February 13, 2012

Sharon Hom’s presentation will review the human rights situation in China and examine the impact of China’s active participation in international human rights debates, including issues relating to counter-terrorism efforts. 2012 will also be a year of significant leadership transitions in China and the region. What are the prospects for change? What are the roles of key social forces and trends such as the exponential growth of the Internet and the micro-blogs (weibos)?

Sharon Hom, executive director, leads HRIC/s human rights and media advocacy and strategic policy engagement with NGOs, governments, and multi-stakeholder initiatives. She has testified on a variety of human rights issues before key U.S. and international policymakers. She has appeared as guest and commentator in broadcast programs worldwide and is frequently interviewed by and quoted in major print media. She was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of 2007’s “50 Women to Watch” for their impact on business. Professor of law emerita at CUNY School of Law, she taught law for 18 years, including training judges, lawyers, and law teachers at eight law schools in China over a 14-year period in the 1980s and 1990s. She has published extensively on Chinese legal reforms, trade, technology, and international human rights, including chapters in Gender Equality, Citizenship and Human Rights: Controversies and challenges in China and the Nordic countries (2010), and China’s Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges (2008). She is co-author of Contracting Law (1996, 2000, 2005), editor of Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry (1999), and co-editor of Challenging China: Struggle and Hope in an Era of Change (2007).