Northeast Regional Conference
November 14
Boston University
George Sherman Union
775 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA
We are pleased to announce the following plans for the
2009 Northeast Regional Conference
to be held on the campus of Boston University on Saturday, November 14th. As in previous years, we have a full day of speakers, panels, and workshops. We will be filling out the program over the next few weeks, so please continue to check the AIUSA website for details. Here are some initial program highlights:
The opening plenary will feature a panel discussion about our new Demand Dignity campaign which will focus on the human rights dimensions to poverty, health care, and maternal mortality. This campaign will mark the first substantial set of AI reports and actions to connect political and economic rights.
We are pleased to let you know that we will be joined by Dr. Alicia Yamin of the Harvard School of Public Health. She has been working with AI as we develop our reporting on maternal mortality, both here and abroad. She participated in an AI mission to Sierra Leone as part of the research for our report on maternal mortality there.
The afternoon panels will focus on Immigrants’ Rights; Counter Terror With Justice; and the Dignity Campaign. Speakers include:
Eva Millona, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Coalition
Steven Brown, the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Rhode Island, where an immigrant detainee died in August 2008
Robert Restuccia, Executive Director of Community Catalyst, which promotes universal health care coverage
Eleanor Broh, a recent Harvard graduate who carried out research on the status of abortion-related laws in Colombia and Nicaragua
In the afternoon, we will be joined by Mohamed el-Jahmi as we pay tribute to his brother, Fathi el-Jahmi, who died in Libyan custody this May after being sent to Amman, Jordan.
We will also be joined by Brian MacQuarrie of The Boston Globe and Bob Curley of Cambridge, MA. Mr. MacQuarrie’s new book, The Ride, discusses the 1997 abduction and murder of Jeffrey Curley and how his family led a wave of outrage that came close to reinstating the death penalty in Massachusetts. Today, Bob Curley is an outspoken critic of capital punishment. They will participate in an afternoon workshop on the death penalty and will speak during our afternoon plenary as well. Copies of The Ride will be available for purchase.
By the time of the conference, we will also have begun working on behalf of our newly assigned Special Focus Case, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, theimprisoned leader of Burma’s democracy movement. She has spent almost 14 years out of the last 20 years in detention.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Northeast Regional Conference Agenda
9:00–9:15 a.m. Welcome
9:15–10:15 a.m. Panel: Freedom From
Want, Freedom From Fear
AI’s Dignity Campaign
10:30–Noon Workshops I
Noon–1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00–2:00 p.m. Priority Panels
Dignity Campaign
Detention of Immigrants/Immigrants’ Rights
Counter Terror With Justice
2:00–2:15 p.m. Break
2:15–3:45 p.m. Workshops II
4:00–4:30 p.m. Plenary
Tribute to our late Special Focus Case Mr. Fathi el-Jahmi of Libya
Introduction of new Special Focus Case for the Northeast Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma
Brian MacQuarrie and Bob Curley will discuss their new book, The Ride
Volunteer Activist Recognition
4:30–6:00 p.m. Resolutions Plenary
