Who should speak a my human rights conference?

June 26, 2009 5:37 AM

Human rights luminaries. And/or recent human rights books. Any suggestions for a human rights conference speaker or a recent human rights book to read?

I'm looking for a great keynote speaker at a human rights conference. Any suggestions? No one is too famous - we can always ask! I would like the person to actually be a good speaker, though.

Also looking for a recently written book pertaining to human rights (like written in 2008 or 2009) to give to conference participants. Anything great out there that I'm missing?

posted by semacd to grab bag (13 comments total)

Human Smoke is a rare book about WWII. While not current, at least it was published in the requested years, unlike the other books I thought of.

I think Seymour Hersch should be asked to speak everywhere.
posted by mearls at 6:50 AM on June 26

This may be a little more narrow that you want, but I heard Ismeal Beah speak when his book about being a child soldier in Sierra Leone came out in 2007. He is warm and compelling... and leaves you with a sense of hope, which can often be hard to find when dealing with human rights. You Tube.
posted by kimdog at 7:02 AM on June 26

Kevin Bales is an anti-slavery scholar & activist. His recent book is excellent: The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today

here's a talk he did in Seattle in 2007
posted by jammy at 7:03 AM on June 26

Geoffrey Robertson, QC, does it for me
posted by evil_esto at 7:15 AM on June 26

if you really want to shoot for the moon: Eduardo Galeano - he's been a powerful advocate for human rights for decades now and he's finally getting the attention he deserves - his recent book Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone is eloquent, expansive, & deeply moving on many levels

here's a recent interview with him on Democracy Now
posted by jammy at 7:16 AM on June 26

Paul Farmer? His work is chronicled in Tracy Kidder's Mountains beyond Mountains. Usually a great speaker; funny and moving at the same time.
posted by AwkwardPause at 7:18 AM on June 26

I saw Romeo Dallaire & Brent Beardsley speak in 2004. They are superb speakers, with (unsurprisingly) a profound knowledge of both the difficulties of safeguarding human rights, and the necessity of doing so.

Stephen Lewis is a phenomenal speaker.
posted by Lemurrhea at 7:19 AM on June 26

The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Nam is excellent.
posted by handabear at 7:20 AM on June 26

I enjoyed reading The Case for Democracy by Natan Sharansky, in spite of the fact that the book was sort of co-opted by the Bush administration.
posted by jquinby at 7:23 AM on June 26

Seconding Kevin Bales.
posted by thekiltedwonder at 10:21 AM on June 26

The recently-held Oslo Freedom Forum had an inspiring list of speakers like Elie Wiesel, Palden Gyatso, Václav Havel, and Armando Valladares. My impression of human rights activists, especially those who were prisoners of conscience, is that many of them are very receptive to speaking at conferences, because the more people who are aware of evil, the more people who might stand up against it.

Also, I second Human Smoke.
posted by J-Train at 11:27 AM on June 26

As background reading for the current translation I'm working on, I read Stephen Angle's Human Rights and Chinese Thought: A Cross-Cultural Inquiry - a brilliantly lucid treatment of a complex topic. I've not heard him speak but I see he has addressed seminars and his speciality in the meeting of Chinese and Western traditions might be of interest.
posted by Abiezer at 1:52 PM on June 26

Possibly more narrow than you're looking for, but Samantha Power is a good speaker (see here for one of her lectures. She won a Pulitzer in 2003 for A Problem from Hell (about genocide).
posted by aka burlap at 4:18 PM on June 26