The Human Rights Institute at Kean University opened the doors to its new gallery located in the Nancy Thompson Library on May 26 with a commencement dedicated to acknowledging universal human rights. As its first displayed exhibition, the gallery featured Kerry Kennedy's almost ten year-long touring exhibition - Speak Truth To Power; Kerry Kennedy is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and was also the night's keynote speaker. Dr. Dawood Farahi, President of Kean University, opened the night's speeches with welcomes and a saddened recalling of past violations in human rights. Farahi, upon discussing the severity of these violations made the comparison: "Acts of hatred are not bacterial infections; you cannot treat them with antibiotics. They are a virus." Following the president's opening remarks was a speech by Janine Rivera, senior psychology major and President of the Human Rights Club at Kean University. Rivera began by saying she is "personally excited by the potential that the institution offers". Rivera remarked on her presidency of the young group and highlighted some of the efforts it is tackling, such as raising awareness of child soldiers in Uganda through the campaign "Invisible Children".
Kean University has been involved in several human rights projects over the years. Several departments and groups throughout the campus, such as the Adjunct Faculty Federation, KUAFF, have contributed funds in order to donate solar-cookers to women in Darfur. These units enable the women to provide food without risk of travel outside safety zones and also allow them to operate the units as a form of business to generate a primary income. More recent human rights efforts include the year-long relief fund for the Haiti earthquake devastation which contributed over $15,000 to the cause. Kean University also houses its Holocaust Resource Center in the Nancy Thompson Library, since 1982.
During the commencement, President Farahi presented the World Humanitarian Award to Sam Halpern, a survivor of the Holocaust and avid defender of the Jewish community. Other awards were distributed to founders of the Holocaust Resource Center.
Kerry Kennedy, author of Speak Truth To Power and co-founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, talked about her early beginnings as an intern for Amnesty International where she was given the opportunity to work with refugees from El Salvador. She described their endeavors by saying, "They had nothing to rely on but their hearts and nerves - it looked like they were up against goliaths." It was in that work, Kennedy says, that she decided to spend the rest of her life with human rights defenders. Today, Kennedy and the RFK Center for Human Rights work with the only medical doctor born in Darfur in efforts to provide aid to the countries' human rights violation victims. Kennedy went on to acknowledge the importance of the gallery's grand opening, in that "huge, sweeping changes" are made by small groups with dedication.
The Speak Truth To Power exhibition is a two year span collection of dramatic portraits, interview, and biographies of human rights defenders from all over the world during. The photography is the work of Eddie Adams, a renowned Pulitzer-prize-winning photojournalist. According to speaktruth.org, the site designated for Kennedy's movement, the exhibition is an "extraordinarily felt and insightful body of work" and "examines issues of human rights around the world covering everything from nuclear disarmament, to children in war, environmental activism, religious self-determination and sex slavery."
One of the ending statements by Kerry Kennedy to close the night was a reflection on the exhibit itself. "When I look at all the people in these photos," says Kennedy, "I see that they teach us not to be saints, but how to be living, breathing human beings.
