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IHREC Seat Moves to Utica College

Utica College to Host Secretariat of International Human Rights Education Consortium

Written By Christine LeoGrande

Contact - cleogrande@utica.edu

Utica, NY (07/20/2005) - Utica College will take its place as an international center for the human rights movement, as it becomes the seat of the International Human Rights Education Consortium (IHREC). Following a unanimous vote of approval at the group's annual meeting in Roehampton, England, last month, the secretariat of IHREC will move to Utica College for the next four years.

The five-year-old Consortium was created by educators in human rights to promote collaboration, develop curriculum, educate and train professionals in the field, and to support and prepare educators at all levels.

Theodore S. Orlin, J.D., who was elected president in June, describes the Consortium as "a group of human rights educators joining together in a concerted effort to bring the human rights message to peoples around the globe." Orlin is a professor of government and politics at Utica College, and is also founder and director of the Human Rights Advocacy Program (HRAP) at Utica College.

Also elected were: Mark Ensalaco, University of Dayton, Ohio, who will serve on the executive board as immediate past president; Allwyn D'Silva, Justice and Peace Commission, India, regional vice president; Liam Gearon, Roehamption University, UK, regional vice president; Mab Huang, Soochow University, Taiwan, regional vice president; Rita Maran, University of California at Berkeley, regional vice president; Michael McGowan, St. Thomas University, Canada, regional vice president; and Reeta Toivanen, Abo Akademi University, Finland, vice president at large.

Todd S. Hutton, Ph.D., president of Utica College, said, "It is an honor to welcome the IHREC to Utica College. Given the magnitude of the work done by the Consortium and its critical importance to global human rights, we are delighted to be able to host this organization.

"Utica College is proud to be one of the founding members of the IHREC," he continued. Through Ted Orlin's leadership, we hope to continue to play a leadership role in human rights training around the world."

As an international human rights lawyer, Orlin has worked extensively as a trainer, consultant and advocate in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has been a Fulbright professor at the Finnish Institute of Human Rights and has been the senior consultant for the Finnish Human Rights Project in Kosovo. He has written, edited, and contributed to a number of human rights books, and lectured on related topics around the world. Through Orlin's leadership, the HRAP was established in 1992 to counsel and train non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in transitional democracies. The program works with human rights advocates in Eastern and Central Europe, including Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, as well as Africa and the Far East.

Consortium membership has representation from: Abo Akademi University, Institute for Human Rights, Turku, Finland; the Finnish Human Rights Centre, Prishtina, Kosovo; Centre for the Study of Human Rights, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Florida State University, Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, Tallahassee, Florida, USA; University of Cincinnati, College of Law, Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, Ohio, USA; University of Dayton, Ohio, USA; University of Essex, Human Rights Centre, UK; University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC, USA; Southern Methodist University, Texas, USA; Judge Guzman Tapia, Santiago, Chile; Fujen University, Taiwan; National Taiwan University, Taiwan; Irish Centre for Human Rights, Galway, Ireland; University of Leeds, UK; University of Prishtina, Human Rights Centre, Kososvo; Roehampton University, UK; Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan; St. Thomas University, Atlantic Human Rights Centre, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; Trinity College, Connecticut, USA; Utica College, Utica, NY, USA.

Non-governmental organization members include: Albanian Human Rights Group; Bajito-Onda Africa; Bajito-Onda, Texas, USA; Bulgarian Helsinki Committee; Human Rights in Democracy Center, Albania; Kosovo Center for Human Rights; Justice and Peace Commission, India; Peoples Movement for Human Rights Learning, NY, USA.

Recently, a number of additional universities, organizations, and individuals have expressed an interest in joining IHREC, Orlin said, including: McGill University, Canada; Centre for the Study of Human Rights, Goteborg University, Sweden; Canterbury Christ Church University College, Kent, UK; Endicott College, Massachusetts, USA; Stockholm Institute of Education, Stockholm, Sweden; and National Chiayi University, Mingshong, Taiwan.

Orlin said that the IHREC's mission is to join together existing organizations, academics, and advocates to further enhance the observance, respect and promotion of human rights via education.

"Education is key to the promotion and universal observance of human rights," Orlin said. "Formalization of a network of human rights educators will serve to strengthen our effectiveness in making the human rights rhetoric a reality."

The Consortium is looking to further expand its membership, Orlin said. Emphasis will be placed upon the republics of the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, Latin America, and Africa.
More information about the Consortium is available at: http://ihrec.utica.edu.