WarCriminalsWatch Events

Connecting Peace-Making Witness and Human Rights Protection
Event will be in Suite 7G.

On this 64th Anniversary of the Signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, human and civil rights remain
contested, ignored, denied, and under siege in many nations across the world.

Recognizing the threat of “Injustice Anywhere,” the Metro New York Religious Campaign Against Torture (MNYRCAT),
along with Pax Christi Metro New York & the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations, presents a program hosted by
Voices for Creative Nonviolence’s (VCNV)well-known Co-Coordinator Kathy Kelly.

Kathy will have just returned from Gaza. She will make brief reference to this listening tour and then talk about her
experiences with the Afghan people, especially the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (AYPV). Her talk will include short
videos of AYPV activities: "Abdulai Speaks with a Daily Wage Laborer," "Samia on Sweeping the Streets of Afghanistan," "Y
Not Dance," "If You Should Kill Me Unawares," ""Be Two Million Friends," & Chance Conversation with an Afghan Girl." On
December 18, Kathy will be returning to Kabul as a guest of the AYPV.

Believing that "where you stand determines what you see," VCNV members live alongside ordinary people in Afghanistan,
Iraq and other war zones. Through presentations, interviews and writing, they try to help U.S. audiences understand the cost of war as experienced by people who bear the brunt of wars.

Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture is the local chapter of National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and
is promoting discussions during Human Rights Weekend; see: www.nrcat.org/human_rights_day.

Along with efforts to end rights restrictions such as Indefinite Detention, the use of military tribunals and continued detention at Guantanamo, and the increasing and abusive use of Solitary Confinement, NRCAT urges the US to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), and join the 63 nations that have already ratified it, including Great Britain, Sweden and Tunisia. MNYRCAT will be gathering signatures for petitions at today’s event on these and other issues, to make connections through action as well as dialogue.