Dartmouth Events

Rabbi Marshall Meyer Great Issues Lecturer on Social Justice

Elisa Massimino

President and Chief Executive Officer, Human Rights First

Is the Age of Human Rights Over?   |   Monday, May 11  |  4:30pm  |   041 Haldeman Center

In the aftermath of WWII, nations joined together to declare that respect for human rights was the foundation of peace and security in the world. Yet every day we are bombarded with images of brutality that fly in the face that ideal. With the worst refugee crisis since WWII unfolding in the Middle East, a belligerent Russia threatening its neighbors, the rise of neo-Fascist parties in Europe, a backlash against LGBT people in Africa and the Caribbean, the ascendance of a monstrous new terrorist group, and a crackdown against civil society that is stifling activism and dissent, is the concept of inherent human dignity still viable? How should we address current human rights crises? And with the United States weakened by its own failures to respect rights, where is the source of power today to make human rights real?

Bio:

Elisa Massimino was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Human Rights First in September 2008.  Human Rights First is one of the nation’s leading human rights advocacy organizations. Established in 1978, Human Rights First works in the United States and abroad to promote respect for human rights and the rule of law. Massimino joined Human Rights First as a staff attorney in 1991 to help establish the Washington office.  From 1997 to 2008 she served as the organization’s Washington Director. Previously, Massimino was a litigator in private practice at the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where she was pro bono counsel in many human rights cases. Before joining the legal profession, she taught philosophy at several universities in Michigan.

Co-Sponsored by the Dickey Center for International Understanding, the Tucker Foundation, and made possible by a gift from Marina and Andrew Lewin ’81