College Of Law To Host State Department Visitors
For Human Rights Program

Twenty-one government officials, non-governmental activists and journalists from the world's most conflict-ridden regions will be coming to the University of Cincinnati College of Law for a special U.S. Department of State-sponsored discussion from 1-5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 15.

The University of Cincinnati College of Law's Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights and the UC political science department will host "Evil and U.S. Foreign Policy: Genocide, Terrorism and Gross Violations of Human Rights."

The program will feature government officials from Armenia, Poland, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Jamaica, Swaziland and Tanzania, human rights activists from Cambodia, Haiti, India, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Northern Ireland and Israel, a United Nations refugee official from Gaza, law professors from China and Croatia, and journalists from Estonia and the Czech Republic. Also participating will be Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the former U.S. Representative to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, and Judge Nathaniel Jones of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Click here for a full list of participants and their home nations).

The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Program, with a goal of strengthening understanding of human rights issues in U.S. foreign policy. Participants will discuss the U.S. practice of identifying adversaries as 'evil,' America's unilateral military interventions, and internal U.S. disputes that jeopardize a coherent and consistent foreign policy.

"It is an honor for UC to host the State Department's most important human rights delegation in 2002," said Howard Tolley, UC professor of political science and one of the program's organizers.

Participation is limited to invited guests, but the discussion will be recorded for the public and made available for online video streaming. For more information, contact Nancy Ent at (513) 556-0068 or nancy.ent@uc.edu, or view information about the program on the web at www.law.uc.edu/morgan/newsdir/evil020215/index.html.

The Cincinnati portion of the delegation's visit is being hosted by the International Visitors Council of Greater Cincinnati. For more than 35 years, the International Visitors Council has sought to create lasting linkages between Greater Cincinnati and the world. By developing and implementing short and long-term professional exchange opportunities for over 10,000 visitors from every continent in the world, the IVC is a leader in promoting exchange and understanding between Greater Cincinnatians and the world.