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Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 
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Song as Crime
Mar 31 2009 12:00 am
Song as Crime: The Prosecution of a Pop Star, and Other New Cases on Incitement to Genocide
A lunch discussion with Susan Benesch
Can speech be an international crime? Can it contribute to genocide? What about speech that is sung to music?
After World War II, Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher was found guilty and hanged at Nuremberg for publishing hatred of Jews in a newspaper. Sixty years later, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted executives of a radio station of incitement to genocide, and went on to try Rwanda’s most popular singer with the same crime for his hate-filled songs. But the courts still haven’t really answered a key question: where should the line be drawn in distinguishing “mere” hateful speech from incitement to heinous crimes?
When:
Tuesday, March 31
12-1:30 PM
Lunch will be served beginning at noon. The discussion will begin at 12:30.
Where:
Demos
220 Fifth Avenue (between 26th and 27th streets)
5th Floor Conference room
Cost and RSVP:
The cost of this event is $15. $10 for non-profit professionals and academics; $5 for full-time students with ID.
Advance registration is required to ensure we order appropriately and minimize waste. Please RSVP by noon on Monday, March 30.
You can also register by emailing events@worldpolicy.org or calling 212-481-5005 Option 2.
About the Speaker
Susan Benesch is Dean¹s Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University law school and senior legal advisor to the Center for Justice and Accountability in San Francisco. She has taught human rights and refugee law at Georgetown and American University among others, and has lectured at universities including Virginia, Duke, Princeton, and Yale. She has also worked at Amnesty International, at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First), and at the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Her recent publications include "Vile Crime or Inalienable Right: A Model to Distinguish Hate Speech from Incitement to Genocide," 48 Virginia Journal of International Law 485 (2008) and "Inciting Genocide, Pleading Free Speech" World Policy Journal, Summer 2004.
Professor Benesch¹s interest in the power of speech began during her first career as a journalist. Before attending law school at Yale, she was chief staff writer for the Miami Herald in Haiti. She also covered wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, and reported from many countries for the New Republic, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the Crimes of War website, among other publications.
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