News Release Archive
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION--HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE
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The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission will host a United
Nations and Human Rights conference Saturday, Dec. 9, to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. The
conference will be held at room 105, Dalhousie Law Building.
Topics will include: United Nations Charter and
International Conventions and Covenants; Charter of Rights
and Freedoms, and the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act; famine
relief in Ethiopia; the works of UNICEF; the peacekeepers
and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
In addition there will be a panel on the fourth United
Nations World Conference on Women which took place in
September in Beijing, China.
Participants will also discuss the United Nations' impact on
aboriginal self-government, and possible assistance to the
grievance lodged by Chinese Canadians for recognition and
redress of past racist legislation.
Presenters include Peter Dalglish, who led the famine relief
in Ethiopia in 1985; Major-General Raymond R. Crabbe, who
was posted to the former Republic of Yugoslavia in 1994 as
the deputy commander of the United Nations Protection Force
and commander of the Canadian contingent; Mary Clancy, MP,
Katherine McDonald and Dr. Meredith Ralston who attended the
fourth World Conference on Women; Dwight Dorey, chief and
president of the Native Council of Nova Scotia; William
Dere, vice-chair of the National Redress Committee of the
Chinese Canadian National Council; Nanda na Champassak of
the United Nations High Commission for Refugees; Michael
Noonan of UNICEF, Prof. Anne LaForest and Wayne MacKay,
executive director of the Nova Scotia Human Rights
Commission.
Mr. MacKay said: "It is always timely to speak of human
rights, but it is particularly so in the context of the
United Nations' 50th anniversary...the United Nations was
born out of a desire for peace and concern about the
degradation of people's basic human rights in the Jewish
holocaust and the Second World War. True peace can only be
built on a foundation of respect for human rights."
Justice Minister William Gillis, minister responsible for
human rights, and Dr. Kenneth Ozmon, chair of the Nova
Scotia Human Rights Commission, will open the conference.
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Contact : Wayne MacKay 902-434-3130
May Lui 902-424-7282
trp Dec. 05, 1995
