Nearly 6,000 people flocked to California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) February 11 -13 for The President’s Forum on International Human Rights: Modern Genocides and Global Responsibility, an initiative aimed at increasing global engagement among students, faculty, staff and the Southern California community.  

“This forum was initiated to broaden our understanding of some of the most difficult challenges facing human advancement,” CSULB President F. King Alexander said. “It provided opportunities to discuss and examine modern genocides and the global responsibilities we all share as world citizens to prevent and eradicate such atrocities from contemporary society.”

The forum brought to campus more than two dozen international human rights experts, genocide survivors, filmmakers, performers and authors, including Francis M. Deng, the United Nations’ special representative of the secretary-general on the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities, who delivered the keynote address at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on February 11.

Other speakers during the three-day forum included Ishmael Beah, who wrote about his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier; Immaculée Ilibagiza, a Rwandan genocide survivor who shares her inspiring story in the award-winning autobiography Left to Tell; and Ervin Staub, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and founding director of the Ph.D. concentration in the psychology of peace and the prevention of violence.

In addition, the forum included film screenings, art performances and displays and a series of panel discussions with experts from throughout the world. Panels focused on a number of issues including the meaning of genocide, redress and reconciliation and the role of governments in preventing genocide. On February 13, a career fair offered students a chance to talk with representatives from organizations that fight for human rights.

Red stakes found throughout campus are recognizable signs of the three-day President's Forum on International Human Rights.

During his closing remarks, Alexander thanked the forum's sponsors as well as everyone who helped put the event together and he commended students on their participation.

“This campus wrapped its arms around this issue,” Alexander said.  "This is the beginning of something great for this university, for the City of Long Beach, for Southern California and for our students."

The forum was sponsored by the CSULB Foundation, the Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education at the University of Southern California, the Port of Long Beach; the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the California Conference for Equity and Justice, Behr Process Corporation; SGI - USA (Soka Gakkai International - USA); City of Long Beach, Human Dignity Program; and Lowe’s of Central Long Beach.

For more information, visit The President’s Forum on International Human Rights.