Veteran human rights advocate to give talk at Wright State

Veteran United Nations official Tom McCarthy will give a talk on “Reflections on a Career in Human Rights” on Friday, Sept. 20, 12:30 p.m., in 286 Millett Hall.

A veteran United Nations official will give a talk on “Reflections on a Career in Human Rights” during a special program Friday, Sept. 20, 12:30–2 p.m., in 286 Millett Hall on the Wright State campus.

The talk by Tom McCarthy is sponsored by Wright State’s M.A. Program in International and Comparative Politics and the Department of Political Science.

McCarthy is currently working on a film about Theo van Boven, former director of the U.N. Division for Human Rights. McCarthy considers van Boven a mentor.

Previously, McCarthy was director of studies at the international Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg and a staff member of the U.N. Secretariat (Human Rights), where he was senior advisor to the U.N. high commissioner for human rights for six years.

At the U.N., he was responsible for investigating human rights violations, assisting victims of torture, drafting the Convention on the Rights of the Child, democratic transitions in Romania and Southern Africa, and post-conflict situation in East Timor. He also carried out consultancies for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

After leaving the U.N., he worked with the World Organisation Against Torture.

McCarthy received a J.D. from the School of Law of the University of California at Berkeley.

For more information, contact Donna Schlagheck, chair of political science, at (937) 775-2942 or d.schlagheck@wright.edu; or Laura M. Luehrmann, director of the M.A. Program in International and Comparative Politics, at (937) 775-2942 or laura.luehrmann@wright.edu.