The Kean University Human Rights Institute, located on the main campus of

Kean University Kean University () is a public university in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey, Union and Hillside, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Kean University was founded in 1855 in Newark, New Jersey, as th ...

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, is an educational, advocacy, and research institute whose mission is to raise awareness of human rights violations across the globe and to create initiatives to battle human rights abuses and produce curricula, material, and seminars that promote tolerance. In May 2010 the Human Rights Institute was formally opened by

Kerry Kennedy Mary Kerry Kennedy (born September 8, 1959) is an American lawyer, author and human rights activist. She is the seventh child and third daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. During her 15-year marriage to former New York Gove ...

, co-founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, though the institute's work preceded the formal opening. The institute has hosted annual high-profile conferences on human rights since 2008. The institute's work is recognized as a major regional and national resource for developing curricula, seminars, and other materials designed to promote tolerance and understanding, break barriers, and inspire people to take action on behalf of human rights.

Founding and mission

The Human Rights Institute at Kean University was designed to broaden the university's longstanding efforts to promote awareness of human rights issues and violations worldwide and to develop initiatives designed to help eradicate these abuses and their root causes. Billed as a "call to action", the institute aims to teach, to educate, and to act on behalf of human rights. In 2008 the institute began hosting its annual international conference on human rights and in 2010 the Human Rights Institute formally opened in a new building adjacent to the Nancy Thompson Library. The new institute's gallery highlights issues, publications, and artwork related to human rights worldwide. The facility’s architects received the Design Honor Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

for their work on the institute. The institute dedication ceremony featured Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

and

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

and

Ethel Kennedy Ethel Kennedy (' Skakel; born April 11, 1928) is an American human rights advocate. She is the widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, and the sixth child of George Skakel and Ann Brannack. Shortly a ...

and niece of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

and Senator

Edward Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

. Kerry Kennedy had co-founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, one of the world's leading advocacy centers for ongoing education related to human rights issues and individual empowerment. The gallery's first exhibit, "Speak Truth to Power", was Kerry Kennedy's and featured photographs of individual human rights champions from around the globe whom Kennedy personally interviewed for her publication "Speak Truth to Power". Kean's Holocaust Resource Center, established in 1982, and Liberty Hall, founded in the eighteenth century at the dawn of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

William Livingston William Livingston (November 30, 1723July 25, 1790) was an American politician who served as the first governor of New Jersey (1776–1790) during the American Revolutionary War. As a New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress, he sig ...

, predate the institute in the fight for human rights at Kean and the institute has stated an intent to build on the Kean tradition of promoting human rights.

Events and activities

The Human Rights Institute pursues its goals through seminars, workshops, training, curricular offerings, and the development of major symposia and conferences on peace and human rights.http://www.kean.edu/KU/Human-Rights-Institute

Annual Human Rights Conference

The Human Rights Institute's most prominent signature event is the annual international conference on human rights, the first of which was held in 2008. The first conference, Darfur: the First Genocide of the 21st Century, was headlined by two-time

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' columnist

Nicholas Kristof Nicholas Donabet Kristof (born April 27, 1959) is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times''. Born in Chicago, Kristof was ...

and former Sudanese slave

Simon Deng Simon Aban Deng is a Sudanese human rights activist living in the United States. He is a victim of child slavery. A native of the Shilluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, Deng spent several years as a domestic slave in southern Sudan. Biography A Suda ...

and examined ongoing atrocities in

Darfur Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...

through eyewitness accounts. The 2009 conference, Slavery in the 21st Century, focused on the more than 27 million people enslaved in the modern world and addressed the horrors of the issue and steps to combating slavery. International founder of

Free the Slaves Free the Slaves is an international non-governmental organization and lobby group, established to campaign against the modern practice of slavery around the world. It was formed as the sister organization of Anti-Slavery International but has si ...

, Dr.

Kevin Bales Kevin Brian Bales, (born 1952), is Professor of Contemporary Slavery at the University of Nottingham, co-author of the Global Slavery Index, and was a co-founder and previously president of Free the Slaves. Free the Slaves is the US sister orga ...

, and former child soldier

Ishmael Beah Ishmael Beah (born 23 November 1980)UNICEF''Youth leadership profiles'' unicef.org; retrieved 15 February 2007. is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, ''A Long Way Gone''. His novel ''Radi ...

. The 2010 conference, Combating Hatred, examined the issue and effect of hate speech and featured

Morris Dees Morris Seligman Dees Jr. (born December 16, 1936) is an American attorney known as the co-founder and former chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), based in Montgomery, Alabama. He ran a direct marketing firm before fou ...

, founder of, and chief trial counsel for, the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...

. The 2011 conference, Immigration: A Melting Pot No More? focused on the changing nature and divisive issue of immigration in modern America and featured a diverse panel of immigration experts, including former

United States Ambassador to the United Nations The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is formally known as the permanent representative of the United States of America to the United Nations ...

John Bolton John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United Stat ...

and New York Times columnist

Lawrence Downes Lawrence Downes is an American journalist and member of the editorial board of ''The New York Times'' since 2004. Education Downes obtained his B.A. degree in English from Fordham University in 1986. From 1987 to 1989, he attended the University ...

and was moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim McQueeny.

Student involvement

Kean University students have organized a Human Rights Club, based in the institute, which has participated in and organized in fundraisers, lectures, and conferences on and off campus. The club has advocated and raised funds for, among others, women in Darfur refugee camps and the Congo, child slaves and the victims of human trafficking, and the

Haiti earthquake Some of the earthquakes in Haiti have been very destructive to the country. The widespread damage and high-number of casualties of events in 2010 and 2021 can be partially blamed on the fact that most of the population in Haiti resides in struct ...

victims.

References

{{Kean University Kean University Human rights organizations based in the United States Union Township, Union County, New Jersey

Founding and mission

Events and activities

Annual Human Rights Conference

Student involvement

See also

References