HUMAN RIGHTS TOPIC OF PITT EVENT TO HONOR HEINZ FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

PITTSBURGH, April 6 -- The University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh will honor the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation Fellowship Program by sponsoring an event, "Human Rights in Today's World," beginning at 3 p.m., Thursday, April 13, in Room 2M56 Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet Street in Oakland.

Speakers include William J. Schulz, III, executive director of Amnesty International USA, and Geeta Ramaseshan, a 1991 Heinz Fellow who is now a human rights attorney with the Madras High Court in Chennai, India. Schulz will discuss "Human Rights Around the World and What You Can Do About It," while Ramaseshan will address "Making Women's Rights a Reality in India: A Practitioner's Perspective."

A reception will follow the presentations.

Ramaseshan received bachelor's degrees in law and economics from Madras University in India, and currently specializes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law and family law, with a concentration in human rights and women's rights. She has served as a lawyer for the Tamil Nadu (State) Legal Aid Board, and her report after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and related riots in 1984 led to a landmark judgment awarding compensatory claims for people who lost their property.

A columnist and commentator for two leading national newspapers in India, Ramaseshan has co-authored a book, "Child and Law," published last year by the Indian Council of Child Welfare. She has been a guest lecturer and faculty member in India and Thailand, and she was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship on "Human Rights, Public Interest Litigation and Justice," to visit US institutions involved in similar areas of law. She was a Heinz Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh for comparative law research, and a designated USIA international visitor studying the American legal system in seven cities.

Schulz, an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, has been executive director of Amnesty International USA since 1994. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College who holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and a master's in theology and a Doctor of Ministry from Meadville/Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago.

As president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), Schulz has been involved in a wide variety of social justice causes throughout the world, and is outspoken in his opposition to the death penalty and his support for human rights and racial justice.

Schulz has served on many boards in the United States and currently is a member of the International Advisory committee for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. He has appeared frequently on radio and television, including 60 Minutes, the Today Show, BBC, CNN, and many others. He currently is working on a book, "The Profits of Justice: Why Human Rights are in Americans' Best Interest," to be published next spring.

The Heinz Fellowship Program at the University of Pittsburgh was established in 1982 by an endowment from the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation to Pitt's University Center for International Studies. Each year, the Fellowship provides two young professionals from developing countries with one year of practical and educational experience through the University of Pittsburgh.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call 412-624-4780.

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