Kean University Human Rights Institute

The Kean University Human Rights Institute, located on the main campus of Kean University in Union, New Jersey, is an educational, advocacy, and research institute whose mission is to raise awareness of human rights violations across the globe and to create initiatives to battle human rights abuses and produce curricula, material, and seminars that promote tolerance. In May 2010 the Human Rights Institute was formally opened by Kerry Kennedy, co-founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, thought the institute's work preceded the formal opening. The institute has hosted annual high-profile conferences on human rights since 2008. The institute's work is recognized as a major regional and national resource for developing curricula, seminars, and other materials designed to promote tolerance and understanding, break barriers, and inspire people to take action on behalf of human rights.

The Human Rights Institute at Kean University was designed to broaden the university's longstanding efforts to promote awareness of human rights issues and violations worldwide and to develop initiatives designed to help eradicate these abuses and their root causes. Billed as a "call to action", the institute aims to teach, to educate, and to act on behalf of human rights. In 2008 the institute began hosting its annual international conference on human rights and in 2010 the Human Rights Institute formally opened in a new building adjacent to the Nancy Thompson Library. The new institute's gallery highlights issues, publications, and artwork related to human rights worldwide. The facility’s architects received the Design Honor Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for their work on the institute.

The institute dedication ceremony featured Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy and niece of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy. Kerry Kennedy had co-founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, one of the world's leading advocacy centers for ongoing education related to human rights issues and individual empowerment. The gallery's first exhibit, "Speak Truth to Power", was Kerry Kennedy's and featured photographs of individual human rights champions from around the globe whom Kennedy personally interviewed for her publication "Speak Truth to Power".

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