Human Rights and Climate-Driven Migration: A Conversation with Dean Atuguba

This event is a part of Energy Week at Penn, a week of energy-focused events across Penn’s campus. Browse and register for other Energy Week events: energyweek.upenn.edu

Please join us for a reception at the Kleinman Center following the talk!

Join us for a fireside chat exploring the intersection of human rights, climate change, and immigration in the global south with one of this year’s University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Bok Visiting International Professors, Dean Raymon Atuguba of the University of Ghana Law School. The discussion will explore the relationship between these pressing global issues and their impacts: how climate change exacerbates humanitarian crises, triggers migration flows, and tests human rights protections. Through insightful dialogue, we will navigate the ethical, legal, and socio-political dimensions inherent in addressing the interconnected challenges of environmental degradation, forced displacement, and the protection of vulnerable populations in the global south.

Speaker

Raymond Atuguba is currently the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, where he has taught since 2002. He has been a Visiting Professor of Law and the Henry J. Steiner Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Harvard Law School (2018–2019), and has taught over 40 related courses at several universities in Africa, Europe, the United States of America, Canada, and Australia. His research interests are in constitutional and administrative law in the global south; law and development in Africa; and human rights and community lawyering.

A graduate of the University of Ghana and of Harvard Law School – where he obtained a master of laws degree and did doctoral studies, Professor Atuguba has also worked in the public sector (he was one time the Executive Secretary to the President of Ghana); the private sector (he was the Team Leader of Law and Development Associates (LADA) and Managing Partner of Atuguba and Associates); and the non-profit sector (he is co-founder and former Executive Director and former Board Chair of the Legal Resources Centre).

He has consulted for many African governments (The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zimbabwe, etc.) and major international development agencies and NGOs (The UN, UNDP, UN-OHCR, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNODC, UNMIL, The World Bank, ILO, IOM, EU, AU, ECOWAS, USAID, DFID, GIZ, DANIDA, FES, KAF, ICHRP, OXFAM, IBIS, IIED, ActionAid International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, CARE International, Plan International, OSI, OSIWA, etc.) and led or co-led over 50 training programmes and workshops. He has also chaired or sat on over 75 boards and committees, national and international.

Moderator

Fernando Chang-Muy is a lawyer, activist, and strategic business and leadership adviser. He is the Thomas O’Boyle Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law. He also teaches courses at the Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice on topics such as US Immigration Law, International Human Rights and Refugee Law, and Nonprofit Leadership.

He has expansive, parallel careers in immigration and refugee law, higher education, philanthropy, and leadership development: he served as Legal Officer with both the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO), AIDS Program. He also served as the first director of Swarthmore College’s Intercultural Center, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, advisor to the Provost on Equal Opportunity, and lecturer on International Human Rights in the Peace and Conflict Studies.

In addition to teaching, he combines his experience in academia and operations, as principal and founder of Solutions International, providing independent management consulting, facilitation and training to philanthropic institutions, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. His areas of expertise include designing and facilitating large group, action-focused strategic planning processes, board governance retreats, staff internal communications systems, and resource development plans and individual donor campaigns.

He currently serves on the Board of The Philadelphia Foundation. He is co-editor of Social Work with Immigrants and Refugees (2nd ed. NY: Springer Publication, 2016) and contributing author to diverse publications. He is a graduate of Loyola, Georgetown, Antioch, and Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. He is a recipient of both the 2011 and 2018 Penn Law Public Interest Supervisor/Advisor of the Year Award honoring outstanding project supervisors. and advisors; and the 2016 recipient of the Law School Beacon Award, recognizing exemplary commitment to pro bono work by a Penn Law faculty member.

Find full bios and event details at the Energy Week at Penn website.

Please note this is an in-person event. We look forward to welcoming guests to the Kleinman Center’s Energy Forum.

Please join us for a reception following the event!