On February 9th, 2008, The University of North Carolina School of Law's Conference on Race, Class, Gender and Ethnicity is hosting its twelfth annual conference entitled, " Bringing Human Rights Home: Thinking and Acting Both Globally and Locally.? This year's conference will bringing a critical perspective and approach to the examination of various ways lawyers and advocacy groups are using international human rights treaties and conventions in the domestic courts, as well as looking at how domestic courts are being used to seek justice for international human rights violations.

This theme will be explored through four separate panels. The first session will be an overview of the human rights treaties and conventions that the US is a party to, as well as looking at efforts to get the US to ratify treaties that we have not yet ratified. The second panel will examine the shadow reporting mechanisms of UN conventions and how grassroots groups in the US are using them to call attention to domestic human rights violations. The third panel will focus on complaints that have been filed before international tribunals and commissions seeking justice for domestic human rights violations. The fourth panel will look at various cases in the courts connected to the war in Iraq with a special focus on the Alien Torts Claims Act.