Renowned international specialists in Human Rights will meet in San Juan from December 7 to 10, 2012, in the Summit on Human Rights, in the Emilio S. Belaval Theater of the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón [Sacred Heart University], in Santurce.

The Summit is aimed at familiarizing the public with the current Human Rights situation in the world and in Puerto Rico, and pointing out the intimate relationship between the topic and the case of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera. This year commemorates the 64th anniversary of the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.

Among the participants in the Summit on Human Rights are Monsignor Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, former senator Piedad Córdova Díaz, of the Movimiento Marcha Patriótica and of Colombians for Peace; sociology professor Ms. Riham Barghouti, co-founder of Adalah-NY (Justice-NY), and attorney Lamis J. Deek of Al-Awda-NY (Return-NY), both involved in defending the human rights of Palestinians and the Arab community. Bishop Federico José Pagura, Bishop Emeritus of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina, founder of that country’s Human Rights Movement and co-president of the World Council of Churches, who will give the keynote address on the Situation of Human Rights in Latin America.

Francis A. Boyle, renowned constitutionalist, professor of international law and expert on human rights, will present at the Summit, as will U.S. attorneys Soffiyah Elijah, director of the Criminal Justice Clinic at the Harvard School of Law, attorney Alexander Abder, and Jan Susler and Michael Deutsch of the People’s Law Office in Chicago.

U.S. Congressional Representative Luis Gutiérrez, the Archbishop of San Juan Roberto González Nieves and maestro Antonio Martorell are some of the Puerto Rican presenters, as well as former political prisoners Alejandrina Torres and Carlos Alberto Torres, mother and son, who will offer testimony about the abusive conditions, isolation and physical and emotional torture in prison.

Other attorneys will participate, including Wilma Reverón Collazo, Olga Sanabria, Josie Pantoja, Linda Backiel, William Ramírez, José Juan Nazario and Fermín Arraiza Navas.

The organizers of the Summit, which will be held at the Emilio S. Belaval Theater at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón [Sacred Heart University], are the Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Bar Association, the Nilita Vientós Gastón Foundation, and the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, in collaboration with other organizations in Puerto Rico, New York and Chicago. The event is dedicated to attorney Juan Santiago Nieves, unconditional defender of Human Rights, who recently passed away; and to Oscar López Rivera, Puerto Rican political prisoner who has been held for more than 31 years in U.S. prisons.

Participants at the Summit will hear a videotaped greeting from Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.

“The Summit on Human Rights is an ambitious effort covering the widest discussion and diffusion of the current state of human rights in the world and in our Country,” said Dr. Luis Nieves Falcón, president of the Nilita Vientós Foundation and activist in the campaign for the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners. “It is conceived in the principle articulated by compañero Oscar that every effort for his release should be framed in a context and process which educates for the freedom of the Homeland and in order to achieve social justice.”

“It is time to once again defeat the violation of human rights which is colonialism, winning the immediate and unconditional release of compañero Oscar,” said attorney Eduardo Villanueva Muñoz, chair of the Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico. “Rights can’t just be on paper. We must fight for rights, but in order to be able to do so, people need to know their rights, handle them, and seize them,” reaffirmed Villanueva.

Attorney Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, stated that, “In the Bar Association we are deeply satisfied and honored to be able to participate in this effort of international reach. It is a substantial contribution by our country to the contemporaneous discussion of human rights, which is always becoming more complex and changing.”

Dr. Lina Torres, coordinator of the Bachelor’s Degree in Justice Systems at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, indicated that, “at this historical moment it is urgent to reaffirm our commitment to education about human rights. The case of the Puerto Rican political prisoners, and in particular the case of Oscar López Rivera, should be included in every agenda or movement defending human rights.”

The panels will be interspersed with musical and cultural activities by artists such as Nydia Caro, Danny Rivera, Chabela Rodríguez, Tony Mapeyé, Zoraida Santiago, Micky Rivera, Tato Santiago and the Cuarteto San Juan, among others.

Everyone is invited to participate in the Summit on Human Rights from December 7 to 10 in the Emilio S. Belaval Theater of the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. The event is free.

Contacts: Evelyn Rosado: 787 503-2564
Madeline Ramírez: 787 225-3466
María Eugenia Madrid: 787 661-1160