[Mitai-announce] Refugee and Indigenous Rights discussion April 8 at 4:30

[Susan Frick]

Refugee and Indigenous Rights: A Discussion of Human Rights Issues
  Thursday April 8, 2004
4:30-6:00
E38-615, 292 Main Street

Kate Ricke, MIT senior and former intern at the Akha Heritage Foundation

Michael Forhan, Executive Director, Burma Border Projects

Josh Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director, Amnesty International USA

Panelists will discuss the persecution of indigenous ethnic minority groups 
including members of the Akha hill tribe and Burmese refugees and identify 
actions being undertaken by the international community to advocate for 
their rights.

Katharine Ricke, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT
Kate spent the summer of 2003 working with the Akha Heritage Foundation in 
the Chiang Rai province of Northern Thailand.  The mission of the 
organization is to improve the lives and the political status of the ethnic 
hill tribe, the Akha, via public health, agriculture, water quality, 
language preservation, and other community projects, as well as direct 
campaigns to improve treatment of the Akha by Thai authorities and 
dissemination of information about the Akha and their plight through 
electronic and paper publications.


Michael Forhan, Executive Director, Burma Border Projects
    Burma Border Projects (BBP) is dedicated to serving the needs of the
    Burmese refugees (mainly ethnic Karen and Shan) who reside along the
    border between Burma and Thailand. The primary focus is in the
    previously neglected area of mental health training and treatment.

    Mr. Forhan spent much of his life in the international arena, working
    in the field of international educational travel in the 70's, and in
    the field of anti-terrorism aviation security in the 80's.Michael
    lived in Rangoon, Burma from 1994 to 1997 where he successfully
    established two companies.

    In the summer of 1998, Mr. Forhan traveled to the Thai-Burma border
    where he met Dr. Cynthia Maung for the first time and secured her
    permission to feature her in a documentary film. This project
    continues today and involves the work of Emmy and Academy Award
    winning documentary producers. Meeting Dr. Cynthia, coupled with his
    growing awareness of the countless needs of the Burmese refugees and
    migrant workers living along the Thai-Burma border, inspired Mr.
    Forhan along with several Boston-area trauma therapists to establish
    Burma Border Projects, Inc. as a tax-exempt, charitable foundation in
    May, 2000.

Joshua Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International USA
    Josh has been professionally involved with human rights and
    international affairs for 25 years as an activist, scholar and
    journalist with particular expertise in Soviet affairs. Since 1975,
    Mr. Rubenstein has been the Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty
    International USA, overseeing Amnesty's work in New England, New York
    and New Jersey. His responsibilities include:
    acting as an official Amnesty spokesman on radio, television and in
    the print media; maintaining extensive press contacts and initiating
    editorial board meetings on breaking human rights stories; organizing
    public forums and benefits; establishing Amnesty chapters in high
    schools, colleges and the community; directing a staff of five people
    and many volunteers in the Northeast Regional Office located in
    Boston; and participating in numerous human rights activities at the
    national and international level.

Event sponsored by:  MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice and MIT 
Amnesty International


Susan Frick
Program Assistant
Program on Human Rights and Justice
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
E38-277, 292 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Tel: 617 258 7614
Fax: 617 452 3962
Email: fricks at mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/phrj
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