March, 31 2010, 03:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Estuardo V. Rodriguez, 202-631-2892, Estuardo@rabengroup.com
Donald Gatlin, 202-821-7923, dgatlin@rabengroup.com
Amnesty International Convenes International Human Rights Leaders in New Orleans for 2010 Annual Meeting
Three-day conference and community rally will draw international human rights leaders and icons, including Gloria Steinem, Bernice Johnson Reagon and Congressman Joseph Cao
NEW ORLEANS
Today, Amnesty International
USA (AIUSA) announced that All Rights for All People, its 2010
Annual
General Meeting (AGM), will take place in New Orleans, April 9 - 11,
2010.
Human rights advocates and allies from around the world along with
Louisiana
leaders will gather in New Orleans to network, train and hear directly
from leaders who have made a difference on a local, national and global
scale. Among the participants will be Amnesty International advocates
from
Sierra Leone, Peru and Burkina Faso, and national icons such as Gloria
Steinem, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and Dr. Bernice Johnson
Reagon.
"While the challenges facing human
rights
activists are great, the energy and determination to meet them are even
greater," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty
International
USA. "The human rights activists assembling in New Orleans will attack
injustice from Burkino Faso to Biloxi. This meeting will provide
strategic
opportunities to grow and mobilize an even stronger human rights
movement.
These activists will demand - and fight for - all human rights for all
people."
This year's AGM will highlight AIUSA's
recently launched and most ambitious global campaign yet, Demand
Dignity.
It seeks to end the human rights abuses that imprison people in poverty.
The campaign recently released Deadly Delivery: The Crisis of
Maternal Health Care in the USA, which found that the United States
ranks behind 40 other countries in terms of women dying in pregnancy or
childbirth despite spending more than any other country on health care.
At the AGM, a follow-up report to the Deadly Delivery report will
be released examining health care, housing and criminal justice
post-Katrina;
the report will expose the lived experience of poverty in New Orleans
and
throughout the Gulf Coast.
New Orleans in the aftermath of
Hurricane
Katrina has become synonymous with the marginalization of people living
in poverty in the richest country in the world and on Friday, April 9th,
community residents will join AGM participants in the French Quarter for
a public march and rally to fight for the rights of New Orleans
citizens.
Also Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., AGM
participants
will volunteer to rebuild public parks and athletic fields including
refurbishing,
painting, and building baseball fields, public buildings, benches,
basketball
courts, and park signs with Hands on New Orleans.
Additionally AIUSA will recognize the
valuable
contributions made by human rights advocate Rebecca Masika Katsuva at
the
Ginetta Sagan Awards Reception.
WHAT:
AIUSA 2010 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
WHO:
Larry Cox, Executive Director, AIUSA
The Honorable Joseph Cao
(R-2nd), U.S. House of Representatives
Benjamin Jealous, President
and CEO, NAACP
Gloria Steinem, Journalist
and Women's Rights Activist
Dr.Bernice Johnson
Reagon, Musician and Civil Rights Activist
Asia Rainey, Writer, Poet
and Community Activist
WHEN:
April 9 - 11, 2010
WHERE:
New Orleans Marriott
555 Canal Street, New Orleans,
LA 70130
More information or to register please
visit:
https://www.amnestyusa.org/annual-general-meeting/page.do?id=1691009
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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