McGoldrick, a lecturer, author, and expert in international law, the Middle East peace process, and humanitarian aid, previously held the position of deputy special coordinator, resident coordinator, and humanitarian coordinator in UNSCO, from 2018 to 2020, when he was replaced by Lynn Hastings.

Hastings stepped down in early December, and McGoldrick was asked to oversee relief efforts in Gaza and the West Bank until a permanent replacement can be found.

McGoldrick said that previous experience gives him a good sense of who he’ll have to work with to successfully deliver aid to the region. The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, and the resulting war that has raged in Gaza since then, has radically changed the reality on the ground, but the major players are in many ways the same, he noted.

“It will be a challenge taking on a job like this, but I know the context, and I think I can work in that context, especially with the national and international staff in place,” he said.

“I believe that if there’s goodwill with all the people that you work with, then you can optimize what you’re trying to do. And I hope to work with all the different constituencies to try and get them to be receptive towards the humanitarian endeavor.”

A Focus on Current Needs

McGoldrick said he’s focused on getting aid to the residents of Gaza as soon as possible. A U.N. report issued on Dec. 21 laid out how dire the stakes currently are there, noting that half of residents there are on the verge of starvation.

“When you get a crisis or a disaster of this kind, you have to plan for prioritization and quick expansive response in order to try and save lives and protect people,” he said.

In April 2020, McGoldrick reflected on the challenges of working in the region, in the fifth installment of the Ireland at Fordham Humanitarian Lecture Series. At the time, he noted how excruciatingly difficult it is to separate politics from relief work in the region, but how it’s absolutely paramount. That’s still true today.

“No matter what happens at the end of this conflict, there will be community structures, groups and leaders, and authorities who will want to work with the people,” he said.

“We just have to try and find out how we can locate those and use them to try and mobilize.”

Sharing Insights with Students

As an instructor in the IIHA’s International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance program, McGoldrick will share his insights with students at Fordham when he finishes his current assignment. He currently does so via the podcast Humanitarian Fault Lines.

“There’s a lot of theory and policy that people should understand, but I think people learn more from case studies and stories,” he said.

“If you tell somebody a story about an individual who was in a crisis or a conflict, and how their life was affected, and then changed and improved, people remember that more.”

Ultimately, he said, a humanitarian aid worker is only successful if a level of trust exists among people on all sides of a conflict.

“That is where it makes a difference because somebody might not agree with what you do immediately, but you can get them to understand why you’re doing it,” he said.

“I think that’s the approach that you have to adopt. Otherwise, it’s just sides rubbing against each other, and that doesn’t help anyone.”

The Orthodox Christian Studies Center welcomed 28 scholars and journalists to Fordham from March 20 to 22 for the first seminar in its five-year research initiative on Orthodox Christianity and human rights.

The meetings brought together an international group of experts in Orthodox Christianity from several disciplinary backgrounds and areas of specialization to discuss the major issues surrounding Orthodoxy’s complicated and often contentious relationship to human rights discourse.

According to center co-director George Demacopoulos, the goal of the project is to “flood the field” with publications analyzing multiple facets of Orthodoxy’s relationship to human rights: the history and theology of human rights in the Orthodox tradition, as well as current engagements with human rights among Orthodox communities in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Over the next five years, the participating scholars will not only publish their research in academic books and journals but, in consultation with journalists, will disseminate their work through popular media to promote a more nuanced public understanding of Orthodoxy and human rights.

The three-day seminar, held at the Lincoln Center campus, featured sessions offering a broad overview of the current state of the field.

Kristina Stoeckl of the University of Innsbruck introduced participants to the Russian Orthodox Church’s recent statements on human rights, especially in debates in the United Nations over the family and “traditional values.” Stoeckl said that over the last decade, Russia has become the global leader in challenging Western understandings of universal human rights and has sought to transform human rights language to promote its “traditional values” agenda.

Michael Hanna of the Century Foundation led a discussion on Christians in the Arab world, where their status as religious minorities has led to a different relationship to human rights than in Orthodox-majority countries like Russia. For Middle Eastern Christians, negotiating questions of human rights is fundamentally an issue of survival, not one of values, he said.

The center also welcomed as a guest speaker Samuel Moyn, a leading historian of human rights at Yale University, who offered a historical overview of the origins of 20th-century human rights discourse through the work of Roman Catholic “personalist” philosophers like Jacques Maritain and their promotion of human dignity. Discussion turned to Maritain’s links to Russian Orthodox personalists who fled to Paris following the Bolshevik revolution, as well as to the role of Lebanese Orthodox thinker Charles Malik in drafting the 1948 Universal Declaration of human rights.

Major support for the project is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation with additional support provided by Leadership 100.

–Nathaniel Wood

The two-day summit, which took place at the McGinley Center on the Rose Hill campus, drew over 250 attendees as well as participants who joined through an online broadcast.

On Day 1 of the conference, Michele Burris, associate vice president in the Office of Student Affairs at Fordham, highlighted the need to address sexual violence on college campuses all across the country. She touched on the tenets of Jesuit education as a call to action, in particular St. Ignatius of Loyola’s desire for “something greater”—magis. 

“We will not accept mediocrity when it comes to how people are treated, when it comes to the respect of each and every person’s body, and when it comes to ending sexual violence,” Burris said.

Burris worked closely with Katie Koestner, the executive director of the Take Back the Night Foundation, to sponsor the conference and bring like-minded activists together from around the globe. The summit featured a keynote by Margaret Huang, interim Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, who has advocated for human rights and racial justice for more than two decades.

Huang stressed that women’s rights are at the heart of Amnesty International’s work in protecting human rights, and that one of the biggest barriers to women’s freedom is sexual violence.

“One of the greatest barometers of a society’s freedom is whether women are fully free and empowered,” Huang said.

In the United States, Amnesty International has worked with Native American and Alaskan native women, who are two and a half times more likely to be raped than non-indigenous women, said Huang. She also said that 86 percent of those who rape native women are non-native men.

Particularly appalling is the fact that, in the past, American laws have prohibited tribal courts from prosecuting non-native men, Huang noted.

In 2007, Amnesty published a groundbreaking report, “Maze of Injustice,” which included contributions from indigenous women’s rights leaders from across the country. With the help of this report and advocacy from Amnesty International, Congress passed the Tribal Law and Order Act in 2010, which grants tribes the jurisdiction to prosecute non-native accused rapists in tribal courts.

While this is a major step forward, Huang stressed that there is still much to be done in countries around the world, including in India, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), among others.

According to Huang, Burkina Faso ranks among the top 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage, where one in every two girls will be married before the age of 18. In fact, on the African continent forced marriage affects 15 million girls each year, with one in nine girls marrying before the age of 15.

“Child brides are at a much higher risk of suffering from dangerous complications in pregnancy, HIV, and domestic and sexual violence,” Huang said.

In India, rape is the fastest growing crime, with a startling increase of 873 percent in cases reported between 1971 and 2011, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, said Huang. Women from low-income communities there “face shame and stigma when reporting rape, which makes it even more difficult for them to seek justice.”

In response, Amnesty International India has launched a campaign to ensure that women who choose to report sexual violence can do so safely, with dignity, and without prejudice through the website www.readytoreport.in.

The two-day event featured more than 100 presenters and performers taking a collective stand against sexual violence of all kinds, including dating violence, campus sexual assault, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and trafficking.

—Angie Chen, FCLC ’11

In the aftermath, however, it is crucial that the global community avoids acting on xenophobic fear and instead prioritizes the protection of human rights—the most ethical and effective response to ensure global peace and stability.

The panel consisted of a Rwandan genocide survivor, the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, a Columbia law professor, and a Fordham ethicist, all of whom weighed in on subjects including terrorism, torture, and capital punishment at a discussion, “In Good Conscience: Human Rights in an Age of Terrorism, Violence, and Limited Resources.”

“Human rights abuses like genocide don’t happen overnight,” said Consolee Nishimwe, a human rights activist whose family was murdered during the Rwandan genocide. “It [first involves]a systematic discrimination of a particular minority group or groups within a society with the encouragement or participation of the government or authorities.”

The global spike in human rights abuses is alarming, said Ivan Šimonović, PhD, the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of refugees and displaced persons increased by 20 percent, reaching a record high of 60 million. Between 2013 and 2014, the number of people killed in conflicts around the world increased 33 percent.

“A lot of [these]conflicts can be attributed to the clash between aspirations and opportunities,” Šimonović said. “Access to information has never been better, which means people are aware that life can be better than how they’re living. This leads to frustration, dissatisfaction, and demand for change.

“If regimes do not want to change . . . what does that lead to? Rebellion, extremism, and terrorism.”

With the number of violent incidences climbing, interventions such as Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter—which allows the UN Security Council to take military and nonmilitary action to restore international peace and security—need to happen once red flags appear, and not after mass atrocities and widespread abuses have already occurred, Šimonović said.

One of the earliest signs of impending mass violence is dehumanizing language, he said. In the case of the Rwandan genocide exactly 22 years ago, the country’s radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines broadcasted racist propaganda to incite hatred against the Tutsi ethnic group, calling them “cockroaches” and “snakes,” and accusing them of being witches.

“Genocide doesn’t come out of the blue. Not even sexual violence comes out of the blue—sexual violence in conflicts is a reflection of the treatment of women during peacetime,” Šimonović said.

“There are patterns and symptoms of human rights violations that can predict that we’re heading toward potential mass atrocities… One of these is dehumanization—saying that this group isn’t human. It was the case for Jews, the same for the Tutsis, and it is happening now with the Yazidis [an Iraqi ethnic and religious minority].”

Other presenters included Matthew Waxman, the Liviu Librescu Professor of Law at Columbia University, and Celia Fisher, PhD, the Marie Ward Doty University Chair in Ethics and director of Center for Ethics Education.

Waxman, an expert on national security law who worked at the White House during George W. Bush’s administration, spoke about the use of torture in counterterrorism efforts and how we might structure laws to clarify interrogation policies in the event of national crises.

Fisher discussed the ethical dilemma that psychologists face when called upon to do diagnostic assessments in death penalty cases. According to the American Psychological Association’s ethics code, psychologists must uphold ethical standards and protect human rights even when these standards conflict with the law.

Death sentences are disproportionately given to poor and disenfranchised people, because these populations often lack equal access to due process, Fisher said. Because the law is inequitable and thus immoral, psychologists should refuse to participate in the process, she argued.

The panel was moderated by Andrea Bartoli, PhD, dean of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University.

Oil Prices & Airline Profits

Oil Prices & Airline Profits: A big story in 2015 will be the continued fall in the price of oil.  Brent crude, $115/barrel in June 2014, is now down to $60 and will likely fall to around $50 next year.  The impact is perhaps most visible at the pump where gasoline is now below $2/gallon in some parts of the country.  The effect on the U.S. economy has been a stimulus far more effective than any that government could provide: reduced production costs for businesses and significantly greater disposable income for consumers.  One major beneficiary will be the airline industry.  Fuel accounts for 25-30 percent of airline costs, the industry’s single biggest expense.  Lower oil prices will add over $6 billion to airline profits worldwide in 2015.  However, fares are unlikely to decline on most routes since the airlines are already filling their planes and have little incentive to discount prices to sell the remaining seats.

-Frank Werner, associate professor of finance and business economics

Net Neutrality No, Faster Streaming Yes

Net Neutrality No: The big social media development in 2015 will be the increase in original television watched by streaming, adding to the success of House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Marco Polo, and The Peaky Blinders on Netflix and Alpha House on Amazon.  Viewing unique to smart phones, tablets, laptops, and smart television will continue to compete with and supplant traditional cable and network offerings.  Net neutrality won’t be enacted, insuring even faster streaming and better viewing for millions of consumers.

-Paul Levinson, professor of communication and media studies

A New Human Rights Movement

Human Rights: What we have witnessed during the latter half of this year is a revolutionary transformation in the way we think and act in regard to race-based injustice. I hesitate to call the protests, actions, and community mobilizations that have occurred in response to Mike Brown’s murder in Ferguson and Eric Garner’s death in Staten Island “trends”. As a young woman activist recently told me, “Mike Brown is the catalyst and Ferguson the site” that highlights the pervasive nature in the United States of state violence against people of color (who are usually black and poor), and an enduring anti-black ideology. People of all class and race backgrounds have come together to call out these inhumane practices. This is a new movement. This is a human rights issue, not a matter of partisan politics. We will see this movement for justice continue into 2015 and beyond. And, it will be largely led by the courageous and smart organizing of black youth who refuse to be silenced or see anyone refused his or her full rights of citizenship.

-Aimee Meredith Cox, assistant professor of African and African-American Studies

Pope Francis in the Land of the Free

A Papal Appeal: This coming Earth Day (April 22nd) Pope Francis will release a much-anticipated encyclical on ecology. I suspect his visit to the United States, which comes only five months later, will focus on ideas from that document. My sense is that he will call Americans–especially given our status as trend setters when it comes to the world’s economy–to radically rethink our consumerist lifestyles and addiction to technology. These twin forces are destroying both the world’s ecology and what the Pope will refer to as “human ecology.” For decades, Catholic social teaching has connected the health of the human heart or spirit with the health of the earth. I anticipate that the Pope will call on Americans to resist the disconnected lifestyle that consumerism and technology produce, and instead live a life concerned with and connected to the health and flourishing of those in need and, indeed, of the whole planet.”

-Charles Camosy, associate professor of theology

Apple Watch Drives Wearable Tech

Design and Tech: Fashion and fashion law are all about trends, and 2015 will be no exception.  The wearable tech sector will continue to grow, generating a steady stream of patent applications and licensing deals between designers and tech companies, and the expected release of the Apple watch is likely to boost interest still further.  Data privacy problems will remain critical for online retailers and are on the horizon for wearable tech companies as well.  And social issues, from environmental sustainability and working conditions to gender-specific workplace dress codes to ruffled feathers over Native American headdresses and other forms of cultural appropriation, will continue to be topics of conversation.  In other news, following a recent legal settlement, New York Fashion Week will leave Lincoln Center after February.  Enjoy the spectacle now!

-Susan Scafidi, academic director for the Fashion Law Institute

The Supreme Court has a Big Decision to Make

A Presidential Legacy: In the spring of 2015 the Supreme Court will hear another challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The judicial question revolves around the extension of federal subsidies to individuals in the 36 states that have not established health care exchanges. Plaintiffs argue that the government avoided establishing federal exchanges in the ACA, encouraging individual states to establish them instead. Contrarily, the government argues it intended to establish federal exchanges, but still encouraged states to join them in doing so. As a result, the Court has a serious decision to make. It could deconstruct the signature piece of legislation passed by the executive and legislative branches in the last six years, which would likely cement itself to critics as a politicized institution and not an objective appellate judiciary. It could also refrain from any decision with major impact. As the Obama Presidency draws to a close, a decision on this case could significantly affect his legacy.

– Bobby James DeNault, FCRH 2016, political science major

Restorative Justice and Transformative Power

Fixing What’s Broken: Next year we’re going to see much needed attention on restorative justice that focuses less on punishment and more on repairing harm for all involved because of crime. Fordham collaborated on an exceptional restorative justice consultation in November 2013 that brought leadership in the faith community and justice officials together with leaders from around the world who have experienced restorative justice’s transformative power. Everyone there agreed that the U.S. justice system is broken, particularly for people of color. We are inhumane with the way we handle justice. Right now the Beck Institute is working with judges, lawyers, social services and congregations in Westchester who have committed themselves to doing something about this. Currently there isn’t a program of restorative justice in the county; a tragic omission, particularly for youth. Judge George McKinnis has provided the leadership, establishing a 501c3 for Community Restorative Justice.”

-Anita Lightburn, professor of social work and director, Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty

— Janet Sassi

Next week, as part of Human Rights Day, Fordham’s Be the Evidence Project will host a screening of Mothers of Bedford, a documentary that follows five incarcerated women as they struggle to maintain relationships with their children from behind bars.

Directed by Jenifer McShane, Mothers of Bedford follows five inmates with children ranging in age from infancy to adolescence. From the outside, moms Melissa, Tanika, Mona, Rosa, and Anneathia are like all other moms—they worry about their children’s grades, their first dates, whether they’re part of the wrong crowd. Where they diverge from normal is that they must worry about their children from inside the walls of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

The film follows the women over four years as they undergo such surreal experiences as celebrating Mother’s Day and their child’s first birthday inside prison, and help their children to understand why they have had to endure years of separation.

BTEP, which is part of Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, will screen the documentary on the eve of Human Rights Day, which has been celebrated globally every December 10th since 1950. The day is meant to bring attention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as “the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations,” according to the United Nations.

The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Jenifer McShane. For more information, email BTEP or call (212) 636-6640.

To read more about BTEP, click here.

Chi Mgbako, clinical associate professor at Fordham Law, has been named to the National Law Journal’sMinority 40 Under 40 list.

The list celebrates the top 40 minority lawyers in the country under the age of 40. Mgbako was recognized for her leadership of the law school’s Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic, which creates opportunities for Fordham Law students to learn firsthand about international and human rights law.

From the National Law Journal article:

Faced with the opportunity to design a new human rights clinic at Fordham University School of Law in 2007, Chi Mgbako decided to bypass large, well-known advocacy groups such as Amnesty International. Instead, she opted to form working partnerships with small, grassroots organizations in the United States and around the world.

“I think a lot of people have been left out of the human rights discussion,” said Mgbako, 32, a 2005 Harvard Law School graduate. “We need people from all different walks of life to view themselves as human rights leaders.”

That message has resonated with the Fordham students who have cycled through the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic, as became apparent at a recent fifth anniversary party for the clinic. Many of the clinic alumni now work in human rights, and those who have chosen corporate law careers still show a strong pro bono commitment, Mgbako said.

Each semester, between eight and 12 students sign on to several different human rights projects. They have previously tackled employment discrimination against the transgender community in Lebanon, female gender mutilation in Sierra Leone and the potential deportation of Cambodians living in the United States, to name a few causes.

In early November, Mgbako’s students will head to Africa, where half will conduct research on a project advocating the decriminalization of sex work in South Africa. The other half will go to Malawi and run a domestic violence legal assistance clinic.

“Professor Mgbako is really phenomenal,” said Mehak Jamil, a student who plans to pursue a career in human rights law. “It’s been a terrific experience. My writing has improved so much, and the clinic really pushes you. We’re spending 25 to 30 hours a week on it, but it never feels overwhelming.”

“The traditional [business]model equals profit maximization,” said Twaalfhoven, a featured speaker at the Conference on Entrepreneurship and Human Rights, held Aug. 1 to 3 on the Lincoln Center campus. “Now, in a global world, we are shifting to social responsibility. CEOs and boards of directors in America should be held more and more responsible,” he added, noting that community service should be a top priority of large international companies.

The three-day meeting brought together award-winning social entrepreneurs, economists, legal experts, representatives from non-governmental organizations and researchers representing a dozen countries to highlight common ground between human rights and pro-business initiatives and policies.

“If the two sides focus on what they agree [upon]and support a centrist position, they can become a formidable joint force in favor of higher living standards and improved human rights around the world,” said conference organizer H.D. Vinod, Ph.D., professor of economics at Fordham University. His paper, titled “Common Ground in Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Human Rights,” includes statistical results from a study on data for seven variables dealing with governance, corruption, entrepreneurship activity, human rights, capital markets and economic freedom.

Participants also developed a list of policy recommendations that they argue will extend human rights and employment opportunities to those traditionally excluded from the economic and political mainstream — the ultimate goal being the building of human capital in underdeveloped countries. The Journal of Asian Economics will publish these recommendations, along with selected research papers and transcripts from the conference in future publications.

Links to detailed biographies, photos, abstracts and many of the papers presented at the conference can be found online at www.fordham.edu/ehr05.

The conference was hosted by Fordham University in conjunction with Mexico’s Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA). Opening doors for the poor and disadvantaged has long been part of the Jesuit tradition that is a pillar of both universities.

Twaalfhoven, a venture capitalist who has created or bought 51 companies, knows firsthand the benefits of the Jesuit tradition. In 1948, he came to Fordham from the Netherlands, after his family lost everything in the World War II bombing of The Hague. The move was made possible by Robert Gannon, S.J., then president of Fordham University, who offered Twaalfhoven a scholarship to study at Fordham’s College of Business Administration. He graduated in 1952 and went on to Harvard Business School, where he earned an M.B.A. in 1954.

UIA combines pre-professional preparation with a strong liberal arts curriculum and the Jesuit commitment to service and social justice. Fordham University and UIA forged an academic partnership in 2003 that allows the two institutions to exchange faculty and students, collaborate on research, and build upon a global network connecting Jesuit institutions of higher education.

The conference will feature economists, legal experts, representatives from non-governmental organizations, researchers representing a dozen countries and award-winning social entrepreneurs, including Jonathan Schnur, CEO of New Leaders for New Schools and winner of Fast Company ’s 2005 Social Capitalist Award; H. D. Vinod, Ph.D., professor of economics and director of the Institute for Ethics and Economic Policy at Fordham; and Bert W. M. Twaalfhoven, a Fordham alumnus, entrepreneur and founder of the European Foundation . For a conference schedule, go towww.fordham.edu/economics/vinod/pages\ehr05pgm.htm.
Conference participants will develop a list of policy recommendations to promote entrepreneurship and human rights. The Journal of Asian Economics  will publish these recommendations, along with selected research papers and transcripts from the conference.

DATE:     MONDAY, AUG. 1—WEDNESDAY, AUG. 3
TIME:      1—5:30 P.M. (MONDAY)
PLACE:   POPE AUDITORIUM, LEON LOWENSTEIN CENTER
113 W. 60TH STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y.

UIA combines pre-professional preparation with a strong liberal arts curriculum and the Jesuit commitment to service and social justice. Fordham University and UIA forged an academic partnership in 2003 that allows the two institutions to exchange faculty and students, collaborate on research, and build upon a global network connecting Jesuit institutions of higher education.

“When this happens there is an urgent need to reestablish the principle of individual responsibility for crimes. If serious human rights violations are not addressed and a climate of impunity is permitted to continue, the effect will be to stoke the fires of long term social conflict.” When whispers of human rights violations are heard, swift action should be taken, she said. More than that, though, world leaders must be proactive in preventing such crimes from occurring because once the word is out, lives have already been lost.

“There is an urgent need to step up the level of preventive actions,” she said. “There must be an end to the pattern where intervention by armed forces stops atrocities only after the fact and then the donor governments are expected to contribute billions of dollars to rebuild shattered societies.”

Robinson’s remarks will be printed in the Fordham International Law Journal dedicated to the subject of “Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity.”