International Studies Program Events 2007

Acclaimed Author Ishmael Beah to Discuss Issue of Child Soldiers at UIC

Panel Discussion on the Recruitment of Child Soldiers Worldwide

Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Jo Becker, Human Rights Watch;
Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University;
Lynette Jackson, University of Illinois-Chicago

Thursday, May 3rd, 6:00 pm

University of Illinois at Chicago, Student Center East Room 302
750 South Halsted

COST: FREE

Hundreds of thousands of children are recruited and used for armed warfare every year under fear of death. Raising public awareness of the human rights atrocities associated with this issue and urging officials to withdraw support from countries that knowingly recruit children, acclaimed author and former child soldier Ishmael Beah will join a panel discussion to call for immediate action to end the recruitment of children for combat across the globe.

The panel will discuss the use of children as soldiers worldwide at the University of Illinois-Chicago, in Room 302 of the Student Center East on Thursday, May 3rd at 6:00pm. The East Student Center is located at 750 S. Halsted Street.

Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980 and before he moved to the United States in 1998 was used for warfare. Beah’s book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a memoir of his personal experiences as a child solider in the Sierra Leonean Army and is currently number four on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

Beah will join panelists: Jo Becker, Children’s Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch; Bernardine Dohrn Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Director and founder of the Children and Family Justice Center. The panel will be moderated by Lynette Jackson, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and African American Studies and Director of the International Studies Program at UIC.

The panel is being co-sponsored by UIC International Studies Program, Human Rights Watch, Project Focus, UIC African American Studies and Political Science Departments and the Honors College