CIRI Welcomes New Co-Director K. Chad Clay

CIRI is very pleased to welcome new Co-Director, K. Chad Clay, who has worked on CIRI in varying roles since 2006.

Chad is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia, and his areas of specialization include international relations, comparative politics, and methodology. His research focuses on the impact of international factors on human rights practices, political violence, and economic development. In particular, Chad has a strong research interest in the spatial diffusion of these political outcomes, as well as the institutions, organizations, and processes that facilitate such diffusion. This research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Politics and International Studies Quarterly, and he has received several grants and awards, most recently receiving Binghamton University’s Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research.

Click Here to Visit Chad Clay’s Webpage.

New CIRI Production Schedule

Dear CIRI Users,

In order to maintain project stability and data quality in the absence of external funding, CIRI will be moving its annual data-production process from spring to autumn, effective immediately.

We realize the inconvenience this might cause some of our users but, without external funding, we are forced to take this step to ensure the reliability and validity CIRI users expect and deserve.

Data for the calendar year 2011 should be available in the late spring / early summer of 2013. Data for the calendar year 2012 will be available in early winter, 2014. Thereafter, early winter will be the annual data-release time frame.

Sincerely,
The CIRI Project

New Report on Torture

CIRI Co-Director David L. Richards, Mandy M. Morrill (Valparaiso University) and Mary R. Anderson (University of Tampa) have published a new report in the Nordic Journal of Human Rights on the origins of US attitudes towards torture. Among the findings are that while US citizens are largely opposed to "torture", generally, they at the same time are acceptant of a wide range of torture techniques when asked about them, individually. Also found are that previous exposure to violence is related to one's attitudes towards torture and those most acceptant of spanking as an appropriate punishment for a misbehaved child are most acceptant of torture. The report can be read here: http://bit.ly/PGCYrR

Cyber-Attacks On CIRI

Today, the CIRI server has been hit by "countless brute force attempts" to remotely take control of the server.  These attempts are believed to have originated in China.

We are glad to say that service to our users was not interrupted at any time, thanks to the IT team at Binghamton University.

New Human Rights Major @ UConn

The University of Connecticut and its Human Rights Institute & College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have announced that a new undergraduate major in human rights will begin in May 2012. CIRI is very proud to be affiliated with these institutions and with this new interdisciplinary major, and encourages anyone thinking about an education in human rights to check it out.

Read the full story in CLAS Today HERE.

For those interested in graduate studies in human rights, the Human Rights Institute at UConn already offers a graduate certificate in human rights, and  many PhD-granting departments such as political science, history, English, anthropology, and economics have many top scholars in the field of human rights who participate in this program (as well as will be participating in the new undergraduate major).

SOPA Statement

CIRI will not be joining Wikipedia in blacking out its web presence in protest of SOPA. While opposing censorship in any form as a clear human rights violation, we feel it in the best interest of our core mission to stay online and continue to make available our ratings of government respect for human rights across the world.

That said, we provide  -- in solidarity--  the following link to an Electronic Frontier Foundation analysis of how SOPA would likely constitute a violation of fundamental principles of freedom of speech: http://goo.gl/zsmOh

Follow CIRI on Twitter

You can now also follow CIRI on Twitter at @humanrightsdata 
Follow @humanrightsdata
Follow along as CIRI begins a new year and begins to produce its data about human rights respect in 2011.  This year, also look for more CIRI-produced reports using these data.

Also on Twitter are:

CIRI Co-Director: David L. Richards  @D_L_Richards
Follow @D_L_Richards

CIRI Senior Associate: K. Chad Clay @kchadclay
Follow @kchadclay