[GP-Eldorado-n] Community Forum on Torture" on Friday night, March 24th.

[Diana Stauffer]

SAVE THE DATE - - - LET OTHERS KNOW

Amnesty International Sacramento and the student Amnesty International chapter at CSU Sacramento are co-sponsoring a "Community Forum on Torture" on Friday night, March 24th.   The event will take place from 7:00pm until 9:30pm in the Student Union Bldg. on the CSUS campus (Forest Suite). The event is free. Three excellent speakers are scheduled and there will be information about getting involved in local efforts for human rights.

For more information, contact Henry Gordon at librarian at yahoo.com

 

Recent reports of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and secret prisons in Eastern Europe lend a particular urgency to the campaign to stop torture.  Amnesty International's goal is to raise community consciousness about this severe human rights crisis and spread the word that torture is illegal, immoral and ineffective.  

 

The community forum will include three outstanding speakers with particular expertise related to the issues surrounding the use of torture.

  a.. Chip Pitts is a former Board Chairman of Amnesty International USA.  He is an international attorney, and law educator.  Formerly Chief Legal Officer of Nokia, Inc. and partner at a major global law firm, he is a Lecturer in Law at Stanford University, has taught at other law schools and universities, and is a frequent speaker, writer, and commentator on ethical globalization, human rights, and foreign affairs.  His testimony last year before congressional committees concerning torture and the Patriot Act drew international attention. 
  b.. Nestor Fantini is an Argentine educator and journalist who resides in California. In the 1970's, Fantini was arrested, tortured and held by the military over the course of four years. Those were the days of the infamous Argentinean Dirty War when about 30,000 men, women and children "disappeared". Adopted as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International, Fantini was finally released on July 14, 1979. A key factor in Fantini's release was the hard work of the members of an Amnesty International group from Austin, Texas. 
  c.. Dr. Maimul Ahsan Khan has taught law at U. C. Davis and U.C. Berkeley on a temporary fellowship for foreign scholars who risk persecution in their home countries. He was forced to leave Bangladesh as a result of his outspoken criticism of government policy . He is a constitutional scholar with expertise ranging from human rights to Muslim legal issues and the law and politics of the Middle East. Khan is author of Human Rights in the Muslim World - Fundamentalism, Constitutionalism, and International Politics. 
 

Other Background on this campaign: Amnesty International USA is attempting to mobilize support for legislation that establishes an independent commission to conduct public investigations into the reports of abuse in U.S. detention centers around the world; establish whether such acts violate relevant federal statutes and international law; and to recommend safeguards to prevent further torture and ill-treatment.

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