We had our first guest speaker of the year, Dr. Cheyney Ryan, on the importance of understanding and protecting human rights. Dr. Ryan studied philosophy and law at Harvard University, and now teaches 1 term every year at UO, spending the rest of his time as the Human Rights Program Director at Oxford University. He has worked on various issues, but focuses mostly on international conflict. Dr. Ryan emphasized the importance of knowing about human rights and about the world we live in; while the US may be far away from many of today's conflicts, in today's globalized world, they affect us all, and we should be interested also as fellow human beings. Rotary, among many other organizations worldwide, provides us with opportunities to enact changes and have real impact. We are considering having an unofficial focus as a club on a certain issue, such as the treatment and conditions of refugees, or providing fresh water to places that need it. This would simply mean that we would try to plan some of our projects with this focus in mind, not that we would decline any projects that did not fall within it. There are many, many focuses we could choose! If anyone has suggestions, feel free to comment here or contact the club. Here are some sources to start learning about human rights: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948); a lecture on how the nature of war has changed by Mary Kaldor; UM's Human Rights Resource Center; and the book Inventing Human Rights, by Lynn Hunt. There are of course many other places to learn more--just look for them! "Human rights are for all of us, all the time: whoever we are and wherever we are from; no matter our class, our opinions, [or] our sexual orientation." – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
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