Emmanuel Jal: From Child Soldier to Peace Activist
KRCL, Utah International Charter School, UCCD, University of Utah
September 23 & 24, 2019
Write up is courtesy of U of U student Timothy White
Recruited as a child soldier in war-torn Southern Sudan, Mr. Jal escaped his situation
and unbelievable challenges to become a successful and acclaimed recording artist
and peace ambassador. Join us in hearing this extremely resilient man draw on his
personal experiences and background.
Photo: Lara Jones from KRCL, Emmanuel Jal, Pari Kemmick from UCCD, and Tania Campbell
Golding, manager for Jal. Photo courtesy of Brigitte Klement, community outreach coordinator,
Barbara and Norman Tanner Center for Human Rights.
The Tanner Center and UCCD also set up a visit for Jal to the Utah International Charter
School, a local public charter school that provides education to English-learning
students, especially refugees and immigrants.
Brigitte Klement, community outreach and development manager at the Tanner Center,
also spoke of the Center’s collaboration with UCCD and the Hinckley Institute. When
UCCD invited the Center to partner for hosting Emmanuel Jal, the Center immediately
jumped at the chance. Brigitte mentioned the perfect opportunity that Jal’s story
can inspire the work for human rights. “Story telling is so powerful when it comes
to social change,” she said.
In 2008 a full-length documentary on his life was released. The film, Warchild, won prestigious film festival awards worldwide. In the same year, his autobiography,
also called Warchild, was published by Little Brown.
Mr. Jal has released six award nominated studio albums. He has collaborated and performed
alongside artists such as Lauryn Hill, Xavier Rudd, Peter Gabriel, Nelly Furtado,
Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Joss Stone, Ed Sheeran, Nile Rodgers and Alicia Keys.
Jal travels around the world to spread his message of reconciliation and peace through
music and inspirational talks.
Director Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements is a personal documentary on deafness in her family. Her story brings awareness to the experience of living with “superhero powers” such as the “ability
to quite the world”. The film includes open captions to increase accessibility for
audiences. Listen to the Through the Lens interview.
Director Irene Taylor Brodsky, Barbara Tanner and Utah Film Center Founder, Geralyn
Dreyfous at the screening.
Through The Lens screenings funded in part by:
KUER 90.1, RadioWest, the Tanner Film Series and the Utah Film Center hosted at the
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
In recognition of her outstanding contribution to advancing the global mission of
the University of Utah.
June 2019
Award nominators emphasized her deep commitment to bringing human rights advocacy opportunities
to students and the greater community. She has spearheaded collaborative efforts
with organizations such as Amnesty International, International Red Cross, Utah Coalition
for Citizen Diplomacy, United Nations, Utah State Department of Education and more.
She developed a K-12 human rights advocacy outreach program with curriculum designed
to empower teachers with interactive human rights advocacy lessons in the K-12 classroom
settings. She has been instrumental in bringing leading human rights activists focused
on a wide range of issues such as sex trafficking, water rights, globalization, migration
and the experiences of refugees in the US, religion, and conflict resolution and peacemaking
to our campus.
Connecting classroom lessons to current events, teaching humanitarian law and its
principles, promoting respect for the life and dignity of people affected by conflict
and violence, John Mejía, Legal Director at the ACLU and TCHR board member, along with Brigitte Klement, TCHR
Marketing and Development Manager, equipped Utah teachers with tools to help young
people increase: • Understanding of the aspects of International Humanitarian Law and its complex
application to human rights issues; • Knowledge in international current events and humanitarian actions; • Capacity to view conflict situations at home and abroad from a humanitarian perspective;
• Desire to become involved in community service in favor of the most vulnerable
members of society.
Participant Feedback
Very effective. Excellent sessions in educating us about how people have behavior's
that seem to make sense to them yet could be hurting others.
Understanding Humanitarian Law from this framework will help me teach peace!
I feel confident implementing these new skills immediately and will be including these
lessons in my upcoming content. I appreciate these learning opportunities for my students.
This workshop started me thinking about ways I can implement human rights lessons
in my classroom. Very powerful.
The workshop greatly challenged and expanded the ways in which I think about human
rights in our daily lives.
Adding these activities to my World Geography teaching plan. Thank you.
World Civilization students participated in discussions designed to deepen their understanding
of human rights around the world, locally and personally. Each student was presented
with a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). East High School sophomores and juniors were introduced to the 2019 Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign—the biggest letter-writing campaign in the world.
Students wrote over 40 letters to government officials around the world on behalf
of these human rights defenders who are in desperate need of support. In their letters,
students made connections to values articulated in the declaration—open society, democracy,
inclusivity, equality, tolerance, diversity, respect and safety—putting its principles
to good use. Discussions around human rights and the seven Urgent Action Amnesty
International cases were lively and inspiring.
Napoleon Dynamite, movie screening presented as a Utah Film Center fundraiser.
Utah Film Center hosted at East High School
May 3, 2019
Celebrating the 15th anniversary of Napoleon Dynamite with this special screening, the fan-favorite members of the cast and crew* reunited
for a lively moderated conversation following the film: Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Efren
Ramirez (Pedro), Emily Dunn (Trisha), Shondrella Avery (Lafawnduh), and Aaron Ruell (Kip)
with Jared Hess (Director/Writer), Jerusha Hess (Writer), and Jeremy Coon (Producer/Editor).
The Infiltrators, movie screening presented as part of the documentary film series Through the Lens
KUER 90.1, RadioWest, the Tanner Film Series and the Utah Film Center hosted at the
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
April 17, 2019
Post-film Q&A with director Alex Rivera (Sleep Dealer, screened in 2010 & 2015) and
moderated by KUER’s RadioWest host Doug Fabrizio.
Directors Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera design a hybrid cinematic language, combining
familiar documentary form and scripted narrative to map an uncharted domain: inside
an Obama-era immigration detention system. Based on true events, The Infiltrators
is both a suspenseful account of a high-stakes mission and an emotionally charged
portrait of visionary youth fighting for their community. It’s about what happens
to detained migrants, and what it takes to free them.
Without warning, Claudio Rojas is detained by ICE officials outside his Florida home.
He is transferred to the Broward Transitional Center, a detention facility used as
a holding space for imminent deportations. Terrified of never seeing him again, Claudio’s
family contacts the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA), a group of activist
Dreamers known for stopping deportations. Believing that no one is free as long as
one is in detention, NIYA enlists Marco Saavedra to self-deport with the hopes of gaining
access to the detention center and impeding Claudio’s expulsion. Once inside, Marco
discovers a complex for-profit institution housing hundreds of multinational immigrants,
all imprisoned without trial.
Winner: Next Audience Award & Next Innovator Award–2019 Sundance Film Festival
Noble Ambitions, Nobel Prize a discussion with Susi Snyder.
April 3, 2019
Susi Snyder, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Those efforts include producing the report Don’t Bank on the Bomb, the only global report profiling the companies that produce that produce nuclear
weapons, and the institutions that finance them.
Human Rights and Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen: Scott Paul, Humanitarian Policy Lead,
Oxfam and Andrea Prasow, Deputy Washington Director, Human Rights Watch
Human Trafficking Symposium, Migrants and Trafficking: The Vulnerability of Movement
with Kathleen Kim, Phd.
S.J. Quinney College of Law in collaboration with the Tanner Center for Human Rights
February 1, 2019
igrants have taken a prominent place on the public stage in recent years, from divided
political rhetoric on status of migrants in the United States, to news of migrant
caravans traveling to the U.S. from South America, to the changing landscape of immigration
law in the country, such as the upheaval of asylum availability or family separation
at the border. These individuals are at significant risk for trafficking. Many are
lured into migration by promise of employment, safety, or legitimate status in the
country of immigration. Others are victims of crime such as kidnapping or sex crimes.
The result is often enslavement, violence, torture and even threats of death.
Kathleen Kim, professor of law at Loyola Law School, is an expert on immigration and
human trafficking who studies and writes about immigration law, workplace rights,
civil rights and the 13th Amendment. She is a co-author of the first casebook on human
trafficking, “Human Trafficking Law and Policy,” and was appointed to the Los Angeles
Police Commission in 2013. The effort to battle trafficking is a major priority of
two religious women’s communities that sponsor Loyola Marymount University: the Religious
of the Sacred Heart of Mary and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange. Kim speaks here
about the United States as a destination for those who are trafficked. This event
was co-sponsored by the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the Tanner Center for Human Rights.
If you or anyone you know is a victim of trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking
Hotline 1 (888) 373-7888.
In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, students in world
civilization classes at East High School learned about the importance of human rights
this month thanks to the Tanner Center for Human Rights. Teacher Ms. Lynette Yorgasen
invited Aleta Tew, TCHR center associate director, and Brigitte Klement, development
and marketing manager, to bring the program 'An Introduction to Human Rights in Action'
to her students. Talk about engaged learning!
Students learned about the history of human rights and of the United Nations. They
participated in discussions designed to deepen their understanding of human rights
around the world, locally and personally. Each student was presented with a copy of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). These sophomores, juniors and seniors were introduced to the 2019 Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign—the biggest letter-writing campaign in the world.
Discussions around human rights, the 11 Amnesty International cases, which focus on
women human rights defenders who are under threat, and their relation to the UDHR's
30 human rights articles were ongoing and lively. Students wrote over 78 letters
to government officials around the world on behalf of these women, who are in desperate
need of support. In their letters, students made connections to values articulated
in the declaration—open society, democracy, inclusivity, equality, tolerance, diversity,
respect and safety—putting its principles to good use.
“It is nice watching the positive change come over the students,” Yorgasen said. “This
class has never been so engaged, ever!”
Photo: Lara Jones from KRCL, Emmanuel Jal, Pari Kemmick from UCCD, and Tania Campbell
Golding, manager for Jal. Photo courtesy of Brigitte Klement, community outreach coordinator,
Barbara and Norman Tanner Center for Human Rights.
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