From Global Standards to Local Justice: 60 Years in the Struggle Against Racial Discrimination and Police Violence
2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), one of the oldest UN human rights conventions targeting oppression and discrimination. Over the past 60 years, the civil rights movement in the United States and anti-racist movements around the world have secured landmark gains. At the same time, systemic racism and deep racial inequalities persist, including the epidemic of police brutality in the United States.
During the week of February 17-20, join the Human Rights Program in honoring the movement against racism and police violence and reflecting upon today’s challenges with two upcoming events.

Cowles Auditorium
Humphrey School of Public Affairs
4:00 - 7:00 PM
Director Sofia Drai’s 2023 film, MAMA!, follows three mothers from Minnesota, the national hotbed for the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, as they fight for accountability for their fallen sons, finding strength in each other to make sure no mothers suffer their grief again.
Join us for the film screening followed by a discussion with Amity Dimock and Katie Bryant, two of the subjects of the film. Learn more and register.

120 Elmer L. Andersen Library
4:30 - 7:30 PM
Collette Flanagan founded Mothers Against Police Brutality (MAPB) after her son, Clinton Allen, was shot to death by a Dallas police officer in March 2013. Clinton, who was unarmed, was shot once in the arm, five times in the chest, and once in the back. Flanagan’s experiences in the aftermath of this official homicide – the indifference of Dallas City Hall, the lack of assistance to the surviving family, the vilification of her son in the media, and the impunity enjoyed by the killer – turned her grief into anger and then into action. A former IBM executive, Flanagan has, in a very short time, built MAPB into an inter-generational, multi-ethnic, multicultural organization with a local and national presence.
Following Collette Flanagan’s address will be a conversation with affected Minnesota families. Join us in the atrium afterwards for a reception and refreshments. Learn more and register.
The Scallen Lecture in Human Rights is funded through a generous gift from Stephen and Chacke Scallen. The series explores the erasure of cultures and the role of corruption in human rights violations. It highlights leaders and thinkers who distinguish themselves by carrying out their passion for human rights, cultural awareness, democratic principles, fairness, and dignity, often at great odds and great personal risk. Learn more about the Scallen Lecture and past lectures here.