Tag: Human Rights

From Boy Soldier to New York Times Bestselling Author: Ishmael Beah to Speak at Pace

Ishmael Beah, author of the New York Times best seller, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” will be giving a lecture at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts theater on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 5:30p.m. The lecture will be followed by a book signing in the Schimmel Lobby.

MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact
Cara Halstead Cea, 914-906-9680, chalstead@pace.edu

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR ISHMAEL BEAH TO APPEAR AT PACE UNIVERSITY

Lecture will be followed by a signing of Beah’s best-seller, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”

NEW YORK, NY – Ishmael Beah, author of the New York Times best seller, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” will be giving a lecture at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts theater on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 5:30p.m. The lecture will be followed by a book signing in the Schimmel Lobby.

In A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah documents his story of devastation and redemption, his struggle to heal, forgive himself, and regain his humanity.

Born in Sierra Leone, West Africa in 1980, Beah was recruited by the government army during a bloody civil war to fight at the tender age of 13. He was rescued by UNICEF and by 1998, moved to the United States where he subsequently finished his last two years of high school at the United National International School in New York. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2004.

He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children affected by war. He has also spoken before the United Nations on several occasions. His work has appeared in Vespertine Press and LIT magazine. He currently lives in New York City.

The Schimmel Center for the Arts is part of Pace University’s downtown Manhattan campus East of City Hall, entrance on Spruce Street. The event is free and open to the public. Media admission by press pass. Seating is limited. Contact Patricia Balachich at pb93712n@pace.edu if you plan to attend.

This event is cosponsored by Pace University’s Office of the Provost, School of Education and Phi Delta Kappa, an international professional education association.

“Legendary” UN Pioneer and Colleague of Eleanor Roosevelt to Speak at Pace’s Pleasantville Campus

Margaret Bruce, OBE, a “legendary” international diplomat who helped found the United Nations, started much of its work for human rights, and organized the first World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975, will speak at Pace University’s Pleasantville campus Tuesday, April 5.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Cara Halstead, Public Information Officer,
Pace University (914) 773-3312, chalstead@pace.edu

“LEGENDARY” WORLD CRUSADER
FOR WOMEN’S AND HUMAN RIGHTS
TO SPEAK AT PACE PLEASANTVILLE CAMPUS APRIL 5

Margaret Bruce, United Nations pioneer said to leave students “awestruck,”
will discuss “Peace for a Healthy World” during Earth Month activities

PLEASANTVILLE, NY, March 23, 2005 – Margaret Bruce, OBE, a “legendary” international diplomat who helped found the United Nations, started much of its work for human rights, and organized the first World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975, will speak at Pace University’s Pleasantville campus Tuesday, April 5.

Her free talk on “Peace for a Healthy World” is part of the university’s Earth Month activities and is co-sponsored by its Women’s Studies department. It will take place at 7:15 PM in the Butcher Suite upstairs in the Kessel Student Center of the Pleasantville campus of Pace, 861 Bedford Rd., entrance three.

Bruce, who now is working with the United Nations Association on a resolution on the Middle East, was a participant in decades of historic activity. An Englishwoman by birth (and now a U.S. citizen), she was a student in Germany when the Nazis came to power. Although a Christian with no family members affected by the Holocaust, she quickly realized her life’s work would be in human rights.

“Awestruck” students. She joined the United Nations Secretariat staff in London in 1945 during the meetings that led to the first session of the General Assembly there in 1946. Highlights of her later career include serving as Secretary of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and on the drafting committees, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Margaret Bruce is one of the most phenomenal women I have ever met,” said Pace Professor of Public Administration Joan Katen. “She spoke in my Comparative European Politics class and my students were awestruck. Students can learn from textbooks, but to understand from a humanistic point of view as a result of hearing direct experience is invaluable. The students were riveted.”

– more –

After coming to the United States in 1946 with one of the first UN secretariat teams, Bruce was a member of the staff for 32 years. In 1962, she was appointed head of the office responsible for women’s rights. She directed UN programs on the advancement of women for more than 15 years, and helped expand these to focus on women in development as well as human rights. She became Assistant Director of the Human Rights Division in 1969.

Bruce was responsible for the organization of International Women’s Year in 1975 and the first World Conference on Women held in Mexico City in 1975. She retired from the UN in 1977. In 1978, the government of the United Kingdom awarded her the Order of the British Empire (OBE) – a knighthood.

Media admission is by press card. A private university in the New York Metropolitan area, Pace has a growing national reputation for offering students opportunity, teaching and learning based on research, civic involvement, international perspectives, and measurable outcomes. Pace has seven campuses, including downtown and midtown New York City, Pleasantville, Briarcliff, White Plains (a graduate center and law school), and a Hudson Valley Center at Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, N.Y. Approximately 14,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lubin School of Business, School of Computer Science and Information Systems, School of Education, Lienhard School of Nursing and Pace Law School. www.pace.edu

Iranian Nobelist to Speak at Pace University, Wednesday, June 9

The Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, will speak at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts on Wednesday, June 9, 3 Spruce Street, between Park Row and Gold Street, New York City, 7:15 p.m.

Contact
Christopher T. Cory, Director of Public Information, Pace University
212-346-1117, cell 917-608-8164, ccory@pace.edu
Bill Caldwell, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu

IRANIAN NOBELIST TO SPEAK AT PACE UNIVERSITY,
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9

First Muslim woman to win honor is likely to call for human rights,
question US policies in Middle East

New York, NY – June 1, 2004 — The Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, will speak at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts on Wednesday, June 9, 3 Spruce Street, between Park Row and Gold Street, New York City, 7:15 p.m.

Tickets can be reserved by calling 212-346-1571 Monday through Friday, noon – 4 p.m. Tickets are $30, with a student price of $10.

Ebadi is expected to interest a broad range of audiences. Explains the journalist Amitabh Pal, Managing Editor of The Progressive magazine, who will be interviewing her: “Here’s a person who is courageously fighting the religious fanatics while living in Iran and on their theological turf, since she argues that it is not Islam that is the problem. Rather, she says, the real issue is the narrow, patriarchal interpretation of the religion by some Muslim clerics. At a time when the United States (and indeed much of the world) is grappling with the essence of Islam, Ebadi’s views on the subject should be very interesting. Incidentally, she has been jailed, stripped of her judgeship, received death threats and had her lawyer license temporarily revoked by the Iranian government.”

Pace is a comprehensive, independent university committed to opportunity, teaching and learning, civic involvement and measurable outcomes. It has seven campuses, including downtown and midtown New York City, Pleasantville, Briarcliff, White Plains (a graduate center and law school), and a Hudson Valley Center at Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, N.Y. More than 14,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lubin School of Business, School of Computer Science and Information Systems, School of Education, Lienhard School of Nursing and Pace Law School. www.pace.edu .

Pace Law School to Host Program on International Human Rights, Oct. 5

Kathie Davidson, Assistant County Attorney for Westchester
County, will be the keynote speaker in a program at Pace University School of Law
on Monday, October 5, marking the national observance of “First Monday 1998.”
Davidson, who was recently appointed by County Executive Andrew Spano to be the
County’s first commissioner for human rights, will speak on the topic, “International
Human Rights of Children.” The Pace event will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Moot Court
Room of the Gerber Glass Building, 78 North Broadway on the School’s White Plains campus.
It is free and open to the public. For more information, call (914) 422-4205.

Contact: Public Affairs
(212) 346-1637
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Kathie Davidson, Assistant County Attorney for Westchester
County, will be the keynote speaker in a program at Pace University School of Law
on Monday, October 5, marking the national observance of “First Monday 1998.”
Davidson, who was recently appointed by County Executive Andrew Spano to be the
County’s first commissioner for human rights, will speak on the topic, “International
Human Rights of Children.” The Pace event will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Moot Court
Room of the Gerber Glass Building, 78 North Broadway on the School’s White Plains campus.
It is free and open to the public. For more information, call (914) 422-4205.

The program will include the showing of a film, “Human Rights, American Wrongs,”
produced by two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple. The film explores
the issues of due process safeguards threatening the rights of both immigrants and death
row prisoners in the United States. Also on the program will be the presentation of
certificates of recognition to Pace law students who worked in the public interest during
the summer.

“First Monday,” held every year to coincide with the opening of the U.S. Supreme Court term,
is a national event sponsored by the Alliance for Justice. It brings together students from
law schools, colleges, universities and the public interest community in an annual call to
action to advance social justice. This year’s program commemorates the 50th Anniversary of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and explores the observance of internationally
recognized human rights standards in our own country. For more information about the Alliance
for Justice or “First Monday,” visit the organization’s Website at http://www.afj.org.