Human Rights Activist to deliver Lecture at UCC
30.11.2011
The Centre for Global Development, UCC in collaboration with Front Line Defenders and UCC’s Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights and Institute for Social Sciences 21 (ISS21) will host a lecture by Human Rights Activist, James Kofi Annan on Tuesday, December 6th. The lecture will take place in Boole II Lecture Theatre, 6.15-7.45pm. The talk will focus on James Kofi Annan’s experiences in working on securing the safety and rehabilitation of former child slaves under the auspices of Ghanaian NGO Challenging Heights.

James Kofi Annan was sold into slavery at the age of 6 and forced into dangerous work on fishing boats in Ghana for seven years. He finally escaped, taught himself to read, got a college education, and founded a small school to help child slavery survivors. In 2003, he founded Challenging Heights, a Ghanaian NGO dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and educating child survivors of slavery. The many awards bestowed on James include the Frederick Douglass Freedom Award in 2008 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his continued humanitarian work. James is also the recipient of a Grinnell College Young Innovator for Social Justice. This award is given to people under the age of 40 who “demonstrate leadership in their fields and who show creativity, commitment, and extraordinary accomplishment in effective positive social change.”

Members of the public are invited to attend and admission is free. View http://youtu.be/S4XmbPFG30o

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