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| From left, back row: David Ives, Brendan Rimetz, Darren Pruslow, Renee Tursi, Barbara Ives; middle row: Jennifer Swift, Jenna Uliano, Kelsey Ives, Peter Gallay; front row: David Fitzgerald, Brian Walach and Christina Ruperto |
Ives, who was invited to represent the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Albert Schweitzer, spoke on the poverty in the world and walls between cultures at an annual summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates sponsored by the Gorbachev Foundation.
The students saw the leaders of all 27 European Union heads of state and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the celebration on Nov. 9.
The students were observers at the summit on Nov. 10-11, where they were able to ask questions. "It's a historic event of monumental proportions," Ives said. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity."
In addition to Ives, the University delegation included:
- Kelsey Ives '10
- Darren Pruslow, second-year law student
- Christina Ruperto '12
- Brendan Rimetz '10
- Jennifer Swift '11
- Renee Tursi, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
- Jenna Uliano '11
- Brian Walach '10
- David Fitzgerald '11
- Peter Gallay, a staff member in media services
Read the declaration from the summit (Adobe PDF)
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| Theodore Marmor |
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Volunteer professional photographers gave their time and talent in capturing each child's and youth's personality in a photograph portrait for the exhibit. It travels across Connecticut in bringing these inspiring photograph portraits to theaters, children's museums, galleries, local hospitals, area malls, libraries, town halls and other public exhibit space and gathering places.
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A professor in international development and women's studies at Clark University, Enloe focused on how feminist questioning can reveal a new understanding of the Iraq War in this era of globalization. Enloe's feminist teaching and research has focused on the interplay of women's politics in the national and international arenas, with special attention to how women's labor is made cheap in globalized factories.
Enloe has been awarded Clark's "Outstanding Teacher of the Year" three times and has been named the University Senior Faculty Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. In recent years, she has been invited to lecture and give special seminars on feminism, militarization, and globalization in Japan, Korea, Turkey, Canada, Britain and numerous colleges across the United States.
View a video from the event on the University's YouTube Channel
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| Dr. Christiane Engel |
Engel, who grew up in Switzerland, attended the University of Zurich and earned an M.D. degree and a Ph.D. in medicine. She shares her grandfather's love for music and has played the piano around the world, including the United States, for charitable causes. She is also on the board of The Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which her grandfather founded, in Lambaréné, Gabon.
"She has been dedicated to working on the memory of her grandfather since she was a young girl," said David Ives, executive director institute. "We are greatly honored to have her as chair."
Engel, who has served on the honorary board since 2002, spent time with her grandfather as a youth in Europe and Africa. "President John Lahey and I felt she was the appropriate person to become the chair," Ives said. "The fact the granddaughter of Dr. Schweitzer--who provided the motivation for all that we do--agreed to be chair says we are doing a good job promoting his values and ideas."
Engel succeeds her mother, Rhena Schweitzer Miller, who chaired the honorary board from 2002 until her death at age 90 in February.
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The institute hosted a screening of the film, "Under Our Skin," April 6. A dramatic tale of microbes, medicine and money, the film investigates the untold story of Lyme disease, an emerging epidemic.
The film, directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson, follows the stories of patients and physicians as they battle for their lives and livelihoods. It brings into focus a haunting picture of the health care system and its inability to cope with a silent terror. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in April 2008.
The Institute sponsored a screening of the film, "The Rescue of Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers," on March 23. The film is about the plight of child soldiers and night commuters in northern Uganda. It was filmed by three men from Southern California-Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole- who traveled to Sudan. In northern Uganda they discovered thousands of people affected by the brutality and attacks of a rebel group known as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, infamous for abducting children and forcing them to fight as child soldiers. The documentary focuses on the peace process in the region and efforts to save children from the LRA.
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The paintings depict rural life in Haiti and reflect the present lives of the artists and their imaginations. "Lions, tigers, elephants and other animals, which never existed in Haiti are featured in the art," said show curator Jenifer Grant. "Neither many of the colorful birds nor the jungle where they are often portrayed appear in Haiti, but live in the spirits and souls of the artists. Some artists paint animals as humans, engaged in human activities. Artists also paint scenes of the rural lives of the Haitian people - their markets, their harvests and their homes. They also paint scenes of post colonial Haiti, with elegant homes and families."
The institute also hosted a reception to highlight the exhibit Feb. 27. It included a presentation about the work of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in rural Deschapelles, Haiti, focusing on the challenges from four hurricanes in fall 2008.
Watch a short video about the exhibit
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Percy Mark |
The institute hosted a reception March 4 to dedicate the seminar room at the Albert Schweitzer Institute to Rhena Schweitzer, Dr. Albert Schweitzer's daughter, who died on Feb. 22 at the age of 90.
Percy Mark, who heads the English Albert Schweitzer Association and worked with Albert Schweitzer in Africa in 1963, and David Ives, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute, made remarks.
"She was 90 years old and lived a very wonderful life," Ives said. "She happened to live almost as long as her father and was instrumental in keeping the hospital in Africa going after her father's death."
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F.W. de Klerk |
"I am very happy to have such a courageous person on our honorary board," said David Ives, executive director of the institute. "It was impressive that he covered [Nelson] Mandela after being president--that speaks to his character, in my opinion. De Klerk was president of South Africa when Mandela was in prison. He released Mandela, and together they had a great role in the ending of apartheid."
F.W. de Klerk served as president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994, and as one of the deputy presidents of the country during the presidency of Nelson Mandela until 1996. In 1993, de Klerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Mandela for his role in the ending of apartheid. The two were also awarded Spain's annual Prince of Asturias Award in 1992 for international cooperation. In 2000, de Klerk established the F. W. de Klerk Foundation to work for peace in societies that are divided on cultural, ethnic, religious or linguistic lines.
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From left: David Ives, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute, and musician and activist Bono, at the ninth World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Paris. |
"Nothing has happened in the Security Council on disarmament issues for over 60 years and it is about time something happened," Ives said. "Neglect of this issue borders on criminal, in my view."
The summit offered an opportunity for Nobel Laureates to elaborate strategies of international policies to ensure a real observance of the principles reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The world event was held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the European Heads of State to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the declaration, which was signed on Dec. 10, 1948.
View more photos from the summit
Read the declaration from the summit
Read Ives' remarks from the summit
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John Conyers Jr. |
U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan delivered the keynote address at the conference "Fulfilling the Promise of Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 60" on Dec. 6, 2008. The institute and the City of New Haven Peace Commission co-sponsored the event.
Conyers, a Democrat, was re-elected to the 14th Congressional District in 2006 to his 21st term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was first elected in 1964 and is the House's second most senior member. After serving as chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations (now renamed Government Reform) from 1989 to 1994, Conyers was elected chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary and was a member of its 1974 hearings on the Watergate impeachment scandal.
He is one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus. His major accomplishments include the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the Motor Voter Bill of 1993, the Martin Luther King Holiday Act of 1983, the Alcohol Warning Label Act of 1988, the Jazz Preservation Act of 1987 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
Adopted by the U.N. General Assembly Dec. 10, 1948, the Declaration of Human Rights represents the first comprehensive agreement among nations as to the specific rights and freedoms of all human beings. Among others, these include the right to not be tortured, to equality before the law, to a fair trial, to freedom of movement, to asylum and to freedom of conscience, religion and opinion. The rights outlined also include economic, social and cultural rights such as the right to food, clothing, housing, medical care, social security, work, equal pay for equal work, form trade unions and education.
The conference also included lectures on the following topics:
- "Connecting Human Rights to a Living Wage"
- "The Peace Economy: Key to Sustainability"
- "We Won't Go Back! Dismantling the Landmines of Political Injustice"
- "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor: The Universal Rights to Cross Borders"
- "Bold Connecticut Experiments: Using the Declaration of Human Rights in Social and Economic Struggles"
- "Humanizing the U.S. Justice systems Using the Declaration of Human Rights"
On December 5-6, 2008, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val Kill and the Albert Schweitzer Institute convened a special conference at the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, N.Y., to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The conference, "Bringing Human Rights Home," brought together a diverse group of individuals and organizations to examine how the declaration might apply to the United States in six key areas: international law, counter-terrorism, criminal justice, health care, employment, and education with the goal of establishing a human rights action agenda for the incoming Obama administration in each of these six areas. The group produced an Open Memo to President-Elect Obama, which outlines the group's suggestions for policies in the new administration.
Read the memo
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Sean Duffy |
The debate focused on the connection between military spending and the lack of money available to eliminate poverty and improve health and education programs. This was the first debate since 1946 that discussed disarmament and the role of the Security Council in coordinating disarmament in the name of global security.
"Among the more important ideas under consideration were the proliferation and easy availability of small arms and light weaponry, and the tradeoff between investments in military/armament versus investment in development," said Sean Duffy, a political science professor who accompanied the four political science majors. "Also highlighted were the next steps being taken in nuclear proliferation, ballistic missile treaties, and chemical and biological weapons conventions. The debate revealed where certain countries stand in terms of international efforts to limit or curtail independent military actions of member nations."
Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, presided over the debate. Costa Rica also held the chair of the Security Council for the month of November. Other countries with high-level representation were Panama and Chile. The Albert Schweitzer Institute made it possible for Duffy and the four students attend the debate.
"What made this experience especially impressive is that we were admitted to the floor of the Security Council as special guests of President Arias," said David Ives, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute. "We had the same access to the Security Council as the ambassadors to the UN. This is unheard of and made the visit really special."
Read Arias' remarks from the event
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The exhibit featured photographs with 20 families who have bridged the racial divide through interracial relationships and adoption. In a world where race is considered a barrier between people, the families in this traveling exhibit have discovered richness in diversity. The exhibit teaches about racial identity and racism.
The photos were taken by photographer Gigi Kaeser, an early childhood educator and photographer. She is co-founder and co-director of Family Diversity Projects and photographer for all of its projects.
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Menchú, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has dedicated her life to organizing resistance to oppression in Guatemala and advocating for the rights of Indian peasants.
Menchú was born to a poor Indian peasant family and raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture in Guatemala. Reform work by her and her family aroused opposition leading to the arrest, torture and death of her parents and brother.
View a photo gallery from the event.
Watch a video recording of the lecture. 
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The lecture was part of the daylong conference, "The Declaration of Human Rights 60 Years Later: A Look at Indigenous and Gender Issues." Other speakers included:
- Anat Biletzki, Albert Schweitzer Institute visiting professor of philosophy from the University of Tel Aviv, who discussed international human rights
- Sean Duffy, chair of the political science department, who discussed human rights in the United States
- Sandy Korrejian, executive director of Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven; Anna Sandoval, assistant professor of sociology at Simmons College in Boston and a native of Guatemala; and Lori Sudderth, chair of the sociology department, who discussed gender issues and violence against women
- Lourdes Portillo, who presented scenes and discussed her documentary, "Senorita Extraviada," which examines murdered young women along the U.S.-Mexican border
- Ronald Beckett, chairman of cardiopulmonary sciences and diagnostic imaging, who discussed his experience in Papua New Guinea and the clash between the modern idealism and indigenous rights and beliefs
- Tonya Frichner, North American representative of the U.N. Secretariat of the Permanent Forum, who spoke about indigenous issues
- Ellen L. Lutz, executive director of Cultural Survival
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From left: David Ives, Rebecca Abbott and Liam O'Brien |
Rebecca Abbott, professor of communications, was videographer and editor. David Ives, executive director of the institute, produced the documentary. Liam O'Brien, professor of media production, directed and wrote it.
Watch a video of Ives' acceptance speech
Read more news from the Albert Schweitzer Institute in our News Archive