International Seminar on the situation of Iraqi Academics, Ghent University, Belgium

International Seminar on the situation of IRAQI ACADEMICS

Defending education in times of war and occupation

March 9 - 10 - 11 2011

Ghent University

The aim of the seminar is to draw international attention to the ongoing criminal violence against Iraqi academics, to situate this violence within the wider dynamics of the ongoing occupation of Iraq, and to work towards practical remedies. (more information about the seminar: click here)

An organization of Ghent University, Middle East and North Africa Research Group, MENARG & The BRussells Tribunal in cooperation with IACIS, International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, Vrede, 11.11.11 & IAON, International Anti-occupation Network and with the support of ICMES, International Council for Middle East Studies and EURAMES, European Association for Middle East Studies.


Under US occupation, Iraq’s intellectual and technical class has been subject to a systematic and ongoing campaign of intimidation, abduction, extortion, random killings and targeted assassinations. Running parallel with the destruction of Iraq’s educational infrastructure, this repression has led to the mass displacement of the bulk of Iraq’s educated middle class. The consequences for Iraq’s social, economic and political reconstruction are grave.

Now, in the eighth year of a US occupation that shows few signs of ending, the BRussells Tribunal and the Middle East and North Africa Research Group (MENARG) of the Ghent University call for renewed attention to the situation of Iraqi higher education and academic life, stressing its importance to the rebuilding of the country, and the well-being of its people.

THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE OF THE GHENT SEMINAR

RUDDY DOOM, Professor Ghent University

PATRICK DEBOOSERE, Professor Brussels University

SAAD JAWAD, Professor and pas president of Iraq's professors association

FRANCOIS HOUTART, former senior advisor to the President of the United Nations General Assembly

SOUAD AL-AZZAWI, former Professor at Baghdad University

TAREQ ISMAEL, Professor at Calgari University

DENIS HALLIDAY, former humanitarian coordinator in Iraq

ZUHAIR AL SHAROOK, former President of Mosul University

IMAD KHADDURI, former member of the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission

OMAR K.H.AL-KUBAISSI, Head of Postgraduate Department at Ibn Al Bitar Hospital Baghdad

JEAN BRICMONT, Professor at the Université catholique de Louvain

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, former member of the US House of Representatives

MOHAMMED AREF, former advisor to Arab Science & Technology Foundation

HANS-CHRISTOF VON SPONECK, former humanitarian coordinator in Iraq


Please click on the link below:

http://www.brussellstribunal.org/