Town Meeting to Mark Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Makau Mutua, an associate professor of law at the University at Buffalo and co-director of the university's Human Rights Center, will be one of the guest speakers at a town meeting marking the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be held at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 8 in the Center for Tomorrow on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The meeting is free and open to the public.

Adopted by the United Nations, the declaration for the first time in history created a standard of human-rights respect for the world's nations to uphold. More than 100 national organizations and 50 town meetings in the U.S. have planned to mark the anniversary through education and advocacy programming in an effort to engage all Americans in the on-going struggle to protect human rights at home and abroad.

In addition to Mutua, Rabbi Andrew Baker, the Washington-based director of European Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, will speak.

Issues to be addressed at the town meeting will include torture, damages for human-rights violations, religious and racial persecution, discrimination against women and exploitation of children.

The program will be presented by the advocacy committee of the American Jewish Committee of Western New York, in cooperation with the Center for Middle East Studies at Lafayette Presbyterian Church, the Holocaust Resource Center of Western New York, The League of Women Voters of Greater Buffalo, UB Law School, the Western New York Peace Center and VIVE, an organization for refugees.

For additional information, contact the American Jewish Committee's office at 877-6234.