News release announces that Juan Méndez will be at the University of Dayton to accept the school\u27s inaugural Monsignor Romero Award for Leadership in Service to Human Rights

Rustad, Nichole M

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University of Dayton

University of DaytoneCommonsNews Releases Marketing and Communications3-29-2000University of Dayton to Honor Human RightsLawyer with Inaugural Monsignor Romero AwardApril 11Nichole M. RustadUniversity of Dayton, nrustad1@udayton.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/news_rlsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Marketing and Communications at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusionin News Releases by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact frice1@udayton.edu,mschlangen1@udayton.edu.Recommended CitationRustad, Nichole M., "University of Dayton to Honor Human Rights Lawyer with Inaugural Monsignor Romero Award April 11"(2000). News Releases. 9006.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/news_rls/9006UNIVERSITY o DAITON 1850.-2000 NEWS RELEASE March 29, 2000 Contact: Jim Pickering pickering@udayton.edu UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON TO HONOR HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER WITH INAUGURAL MONSIGNOR ROMERO AWARD APRIL 11 DAYTON, Ohio- In·the early 1970s, Juan Mendez began his law practice by serving those who wanted to change the edicts imposed by oppressive military dictatorships. Initially, he represented trade unions working for labor reform, but quickly became involved in representing political prisoners. As a result, he was arrested, tortured and placed in administrative detention for one and a half years by the Argentinean government. The ordeal only bolstered his sense of social justice and, more than a quarter-century later, Mendez continues to dedicate his legal career, to human rights. Mendez, a law professor at Notre Dame University and the school's director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, will be at the University of Dayton on Tuesday, April 11, to accept the school's inaugural Monsignor Romero Award for Leadership in Service to Human Rights. UD's Human Rights Committee, which established what will be an annual recognition, will present the award to Mendez at 7:30 p.m. at the Mathias H. Heck Courtroom in Keller Hall. The event is free and open to the public. The award is named after Monsignor Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador who was fatally shot while celebrating Mass in March 1980 for speaking out on behalf of the oppressed in his native El Salvador. In 1979 he visited the pope in Rome to present him with seven dossiers filled with documents describing human rights violations in El Salvador. The Rev. James L. Heft, S.M., University professor of faith and culture at UD, will speak on the life of Romero. The international award was created to honor individuals have made major contributions to human rights, "especially through their leadership and their overwhelming sense of justice," said Mark Ensalaco, UD's director of the international studies program and founder of the human rights committee. -over-OFFICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS 300 College Park Dayton, Ohio 45469-1679 (93 7) 229-3241 (93 7) 229-3063 Fax www. udayton.edu I "If you look over the career of Juan Mendez, you can trace the evolution of the human rights movement in the Americas," Ensalaco said. "For more than 25 years he's distinguished himself as a defender, scholar and educator of human rights." After his release from the Argentinean government, Mendez moved to the U.S. where he worked for the Catholic Church to protect the rights of migrant workers. In 1978 he joined the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law ih Washington, D.C., (now called Human Rights Watch) to help in the group's civil and human tights programs. For the next 15 years, he worked with Human Rights Watch to help build the organization into "one of the most widely respected h~man rights organizations in the world," Ensalaco said. In 1994 he became general counsel of tlh.e organization. Since 1996 Mendez has been executive director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica where he teaches issues of huii?-ail rights to police and military officers, lawyers, journalists, public officials and others throughout the Americas. UD's human rights committee, which was forined in spring 1999, comprises a panel of faculty members who focus their teaching and research toward advocating human rights throughout the world. Among other things, the conunlttee has entered into an agreement with the National Labor Committee- a U.S.-based nongdvernmental organizatkm that tracks labm practices in garment factories in Third World countries -that will allow UD students studying human rights to intern with the NLC and provide the organization with faculty resources, including research. UD became the nation's first university to offer an undergraduate major concentration and a minor in human rights studies in December 1998. -30-For media interviews, contact Mark Ensalaco at (937) 229-2761 or via e-mail at ensalaco@trinity.udayton.edu. and Juan Mendez at (219) 631-7895. 

University of Dayton to Honor Human Rights Lawyer with Inaugural Monsignor Romero Award April 11

https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10012&context=news_rls

University of Dayton to Honor Human Rights Lawyer with Inaugural Monsignor Romero Award April 11

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