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| Kerry Kennedy speaking at the New York State United Teachers, which has adopted the Speak Truth to Power human rights curriculum. (New York State United Teachers) |
By Alice Truong
The Wall Street Journal
Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is aiming to promote human-rights education in Asia—and she is starting with Hong Kong.
The 51-year-old president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and chairwoman of the Amnesty International Leadership Council launched an education campaign in Asia on Monday. Called Speak Truth to Power, the program comprises a traveling play, photo exhibit and human-rights cirriculum that evolved from her book of the same name, published in 2000.
As part of her tour of 17 countries, Ms. Kennedy and the Speak Truth to Power campaign have teamed up with the University of Hong Kong, which will support her human-rights curriculum. The course will explore issues from trafficking to domestic violence.
Ms. Kennedy will travel to Cambodia, her only other stop in Asia, on Tuesday to continue her campaign.
Ms. Kennedy’s foray into human-rights activism stems from her work as an intern with Amnesty International. In the summer of 1981, Ms. Kennedy, then a college sophomore, documented the abuses of U.S. immigration officials against refugees from El Salvador.
Today, Ms. Kennedy is fighting to bring similar injustices to light. For her book, she spent two and a half years traveling the globe to interview “the Martin Luther Kings of the world,” she says, including South African activist Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
Ms. Kennedy spoke to The Wall Street Journal about human rights in Asia.
Why did you decide to work with the University of Hong Kong?
Hong Kong is the gateway to Asia. We feel if we are able to have this successfully launched in Hong Kong, it will be easier for us to launch in China and other regions.
Do you plan to ever bring your campaign to China?
I would like to see that, but we’re not at that point right now. We have to have some assurance by authorities that there would be no retaliation against people teaching this material. There needs to be acceptance by the government.
Are there particular human-rights issues in Hong Kong that you’re trying to shine light on?
Last night, I went to dinner with a group of people in Hong Kong, and they were talking about income disparity, difficulty of housing for so many people who live there, institutionalized racism faced by Filipino workers and the difficulties of refugees in Hong Kong. Those are some of the issues that the city is facing and that people here need to grapple with.
There are human-rights issues in Hong Kong like every country on earth. The efforts we are embarking on today are not an expose-shame-and-blame mission. We are talking about the importance of human-rights education and showing college students there is a regime of international law and there is a way of creating change.
What do you hope students gain from the curriculum?
Our message is one person can make a difference. The aim is at that at the end of the course, students will self-identify as human-rights defenders. They won’t be perpetrators. They won’t be bystanders. They will be defenders – anything from stopping bullying in the classroom to putting an end to particular abuses like domestic violence.
What did you learn from writing “Speak Truth to Power”?
Elie Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust, said to me: “My hope for the future is your future won’t have my past.” To me, I think the quest of all human beings is to determine why am I on this earth and how do I make my life meaningful? And giving back, serving one’s community, sacrificing for the greater good gives meaning to life.
Part of the tour involves students reading monologues from your play. What is it like when you watch them perform?
I often teach in classrooms, and of course when I walk in, they know they won’t be tested by what I’m teaching. They can be slouched over on their seats, looking at their BlackBerries. I start talking to them about these extraordinary heroes, and I ask them to stand in front of the class and read aloud the monologues from human-rights defenders. You literally see a physical change within the students. In order to read the part of Archbishop Tutu, they have to muster some sense of courage inside themselves. You see them touching on that, standing stridently, having a deeper voice and throwing voices across the room in an increasingly assured way.
How has your upbringing shaped your passion for human-rights activism?
From my personal perspective, I had in so many ways an idyllic childhood. But there were a whole series of things that happened to me that were violent and horrific and for which I just didn’t have a way to handle them. My uncle, President [John] Kennedy was assassinated for his political beliefs. My father was assassinated, and of course Martin Luther King Jr. in between.
When I was in the fifth grade, a close friend of the family—one of the kids told me her father was beating up her mother, and I didn’t know what to do with that. When I was in high school, one of my close friends was gay, and he was one of the first people in the U.S. who died of AIDS. He was in the closet, repressed and oppressed about something very fundamental in his life. When I was in college, two friends went on double dates with these men, and they brought them back to their apartment and raped them.
Working with Amnesty International, I learned they were violations of human rights. There are ways of organizing around them, around stopping them.
The last leg of this tour is in Cambodia, where you’ll be Tuesday to launch the cirriculum. How do you feel about bringing Speak Truth to Power there?
I’m thrilled about that. Cambodia has suffered a genocide. It’s a place that has a tremendous universal pain to grapple with. I am very, very pleased that we’ve been able to work with people of a wide range of political perspectives to bring the play there and the education packet that will be taught in schools.
3 comments:
Com on White woman, would you help solve problem with Khmer and Thai and Cambodia instead of Thailand?
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, what a hoax.
Look here:
http://www.eliewieseltattoo.com/
Elie Wiesel never saw a concenration camp from inside.
ROFL, this Kennedy-daughter should open there eyes instead of travelling around the globe wasting millions of dollars. But she can afford this, for this is sure.
Why do Kos Trol, sea and lands proximately over 10 000 km2 have been lost to Vietnam by who treaty? Why don’t Cambodia goverment transparencies explain to Cambodia army at front line and the whole nation about this? Why don't they include this into education system? Why?
Cambodian armies are fighting at front line for 4.6 km2 and what's about over 10 000km2 of Cambodia to Vietnam. Nobody dare to talk about it! Why? Cambodian armies you are decide the fate of your nation, Cambodian army as well as Cambodian people must rethink about this again and again. Is it fair?
Kos Trol, Sea and lands over 10 000km2 have been lost to Vietnam by who treaty at 1979 to 1985 treaty! Treaty! Cambodian army at front line as well as all Cambodian people must rethink again about these issues. Are Cambodian army fighting to protect the Cambodia Nation or protect a very small group that own big lands, big properties or only protecting a small group rather in the real name of protecting Khmer nation?
Cambodian army at front line suffer under rain, wind, bullets, bombs, lack of foods, lack of nutrition, their families have no health care help, no securities after they die but a very small group eat well, sleep well, sleep in first class hotel with air conditioning with young girls message, have super health care from oversea medical treatment, they are billionaires, millionaires who sell out the country to be rich and make Cambodian people suffer everyday as Cambodian people know already.
Who signed the treaty 1979-1985 that result lost over 10 000 km2 of Cambodia??? Why don't they transparency inform all Cambodian and Cambodian army at front line about these issues? Why don't include Kos Trol (Kos Trol size is bigger than the whole Phom Phen and bigger than Singapoor with heap of great natural resources) in education system in Cambodia.
Look at Hun Sen families, relatives; friends are billionaires, millionaires where do they get the money from if we all just get out of war with empty hands? Hun Sen always say in his speech Cambodia just get up from war, just get up from Zero with empty hands and how come they are billionaires, millionaires but 90% innocent Cambodian people are so poor struggling with living every day.
Smart Khmer girl Ms. Rattana Keo,
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