Event: WCAR Human Rights Round Table

Tuesday, November 20, 2008, 6.30 pm

Location: The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial,

Educational and Cultural Center

3940 Broadway, 2nd Floor

New York, NY 10032

The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center (The Shabazz Center) will host a premiere WCAR Human Rights Round Table beginning at 6:30pm on November 20, 2008. The Round Table will provide an opportunity for community leaders from the African Diaspora of Haiti and the Caribbean to revisit the implementation of the United Nations Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. According to Dowoti Désir, Executive Director of The Shabazz Center, " Least we forget, in spite of the historic changes that have occurred with the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency, xenophobia and racism have not magically disappeared neither from the American landscape nor the world community. The magnitude of the global economic watershed we are awash in will only further the grip of those elements unwilling to relinquish exploitative or predatory economic practices on societies they have historically preyed upon. Already challenged by natural disaster, Haiti cannot further collapse under the weight of those forces that have advanced its development crises. A reversal of this trend must be demanded to make meaningfully history in the 21st Century. Haitian civil society, accompanied by its Caribbean neighbors should mobilize itself and serve pro-actively in the World Conference Against Racism - se nou mem sel ki ap chanje sytiasyon nou!?

The Round Table will host a wide variety of opinions, ideas, and perspectives from politicians, journalists and civil rights activists. Elected officials who are expected to attend include Rosemonde Pierre-Louis, Deputy Borough President of New York City. Featured speakers of the evening include journalists: Annan Boodram, Editor at the Caribbean Voice, Felicia Persaud, from Hard Beat Communications and Marguerite ?Ezili Danto? Laurent. Attending activists and community organizers include: Wagner Dutra, and Ramona Ortega, Executive Director from Cidadao Global. The rendezvous will launch and generate further discourse of the United Nations Durban Review Conference, which will be hosted in April 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. Issues of racism, contemporary forms of discrimination and classicism will be addressed with vigorous discussion and proposed solutions.

The Shabazz Center is located at 3940 Broadway in Harlem, New York.The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center honors the lives and legacies of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz by promoting human and civil rights through the knowledge of the history and culture of the African Diaspora; education and self-empowerment; family values; and facilitates racial and religious reconciliation.