"We clearly need to do more on the homelessness front," Heffernan says. "One of my key current interests is the use of a rights-based approach to address homelessness and the lack of adequate housing. This fellowship will allow me to research the right to housing in other countries and to analyze how those strategies might apply in Canada. And I'll work directly with individuals and organizations who may have a role to play."

Tracy Heffernan

Heffernan will study the ways in which the Charter has already been used to advance social and economic rights, and will create a new directed research course for students at Osgoode Hall. Her fellowship will culminate in a symposium next year, at which an international group of experts will consider potential next steps towards establishment of a right to housing in Canada.

Osgoode students participating in the new course will focus on the root causes of homelessness and inadequate housing, and on how the law might be used to address these issues. Heffernan will also provide workshops and guest lectures during her fellowship. Law students will be exposed to issues of poverty and homelessness and will be encouraged to consider what role they can play as lawyers.

Osgoode Hall Dean Lorne Sossin says the law school looks forward to partnering in the advancement of this distinct stream of Charter scholarship. "The Charter has had a profound impact, but its role in developing social rights is in its infancy," he says. "While at Osgoode, Tracy is going to explore the concept of a positive Charter right to adequate housing, one of the most significant social challenges we face."

Heffernan says that improved access-to-justice, which isÌýa central aspect of the LFO's mandate, Ìýis very much among the potential benefits she sees a rights-based approach delivering. "Housing is fundamental to people's ability to work, to raise families, to engage with their communities - as well as to make use of the legal system," she says.

Community Leadership in Justice Fellowships are one of several LFO granting programs, and one or more have been awarded annually since 2006. They harness the potential of community-academia links to advance justice-related and educational objectives. Fellows are typically leading experts and innovators. Joint applications from public interest groups and prospective host academic institutions are invited each spring.

For more University news, photos and videos, visit the homepage.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ÑÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Such competing human rights can play out in many places, from the University classroom to the international stage, where groups actively promote a particular view of rights recognition that may hinder access to rights of others within the community. How do groups, organizations, governments, human rights commissions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academics approach this multi-faceted issue?

That question was at the heart of a two-day policy dialogue held at 91ÑÇÉ« last weekend. "Towards a Framework to Address Competing Rights Claims" is a partnership between the , the and the Centre for Human Rights at 91ÑÇÉ«. It brought academics, activists, representatives from human rights commissions from across Canada, non-governmental organizations, governments and special interest groups to 91ÑÇÉ« where they talked openly about the sometimes thorny issue of competing human rights.

91ÑÇÉ« Professor Lesley Jacobs (left), director of the 91ÑÇÉ« Centre for Public Policy & Law, served as the dialogue's organizer along with Professor Lorne Foster, director of 91ÑÇÉ«'s Graduate Program in Public Policy, Administration & Law Program. Jacobs, a professor of law & society and political science, has long had an active research interest in competing human rights. "In the last 5 to 10 years, increasingly in Canada there has been a perception that rights conflicts and human rights commissions have been struggling with competing human rights," says Jacobs. "There have been trade-offs between free speech and rights, and concerns about hate or defamation or discriminatory speech. Issues that come to mind include the debate over same sex marriage, religious freedom and disability rights."

The surprising thing in Canada is that the country's human rights commissions, many of which have existed for 40 or 50 years, do not have policies on conflicting rights, says Jacobs. "So when the Ontario Human Rights Commission approached us [the 91ÑÇÉ« Centre for Public Policy & Law] to develop a policy dialogue on competing human rights, we saw an opportunity to bring together different stakeholders who could work together to lay the groundwork for the development of future policies on competing human rights."

Human rights are based in the values that societies live by and these values can be different between one society and another, says Jacobs. "A student may need a Seeing Eye dog to assist him with getting around the university. However, what about the student who has a severe allergy to dogs who sits in the same classroom? Both individuals have rights and these rights compete."

How society deals with such competing human rights will be the core of many future conversations, says Jacobs.

The policy dialogue, while closed to the community, was broadcast on a large format LCD screen in the Vari Hall Lecture Hall D on Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6. For Jacobs, the broadcast offered a wonderful opportunity for students, faculty and staff to watch and learn about competing human rights and the power of open dialogue to create policy.

"The vision we had when developing this conference was to bring leading stakeholders from a wide range of affected communities – faith communities, persons with disabilities, minority groups, same sex rights, all sorts of NGOs and civil society organizations – together with academics who work on rights conflicts from a wide range of perspectives, human rights lawyers and people from human rights commissions across the country to talk about competing human rights," says Jacobs.

The dialogue examined a host of different topics. The first day's session began with a discussion of the philosophical approaches to competing rights and participants and then moved on to discuss the legal frameworks of human rights, what a conflict is and how it can be resolved and competing rights in context. They finished the day with a discussion of creed and competing rights.

On Saturday, participants discussed the competing legal perspectives on competing rights, the social policy approach to competing human rights and the different societal perspectives, and the media's role in competing rights policy. The final session brought all of the discussions together to amass a potential framework for policy on competing human rights. The full program and session abstracts are available as an online PDF on the Web site.

Final outcomes of the two-day dialogue include a future publication of the different papers and perspectives presented, and Jacobs hopes the dialogue will also mark the start of a series of events developed with a goal to create future policies on competing human rights.

For more information on the , the Centre for Human Rights and the , visit their Web sites.

Additional support for this two-day dialogue was provided by the 91ÑÇÉ« Centre for Research on Work & Society, the Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, the Office of the Provost and the Law Foundation of Ontario.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91ÑÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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