Dear fellow human rights and environmental activists:My name is Mike Hudema I am part of an organizing committee for a world wide human rights conference to be held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on May 5-7 2000. The following message will tell you a little more about the conference and its goals. We are looking to contact as many grassroots organizations, NGO.s and activists as we can in an attempt to document these abuses and bring the voices of activists from around the world together in Edmonton of 2000. If you would like to participate or speak at the conference please, or wish to send information which can be distributed to the over 550 participants in the conference e-mail me at hudema@ualberta.ca and I can tell you how you can aid in our cause. You can also get more information at our website located at www.ualberta.ca/~hudema/people.htm (If you could also provide a link to our site on your web page it would help us tremendously) The People's Human Rights ConferenceIntroductionWe wish to hold a People'

s Human Rights Conference that will be a voice for the voiceless. Our conference will enable victims of human rights abuses from all over the world to come together in Edmonton, Alberta on May 5-7 2000, >to share their pain, their challenges and their successes, to make connections with others who share their values and to form a new, international network of grassroots human rights workers. Activities to date, our activities have included forming an overall Planning Committee that currently consists of a core group of 30 people, 13 geographic sub-committees consisting of about 50 people (some of them are the same as the Planning Committee, some not), 3) fund-raising, publicity and logistics sub-committees. We have contacted many international organizations via e-mail and have been thrilled with responses from over 115 different organizations. Currently have only contacted organizations in English, French and Spanish but are looking to expanding to different languages as well. Our geographic sub-committees a

re preparing human rights reports on almost every country in the world using sources such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the internet, newspaper clippings, personal contacts etc. We are also fund-raising by such events as dances, concerts, films soliciting environmentally friendly businesses, locating foundations and other provincial and federal government sources. The University of Alberta is providing us with free meeting space and will likely also provide free conference facilities. We are attempting to locate a high profile person to be our keynote speaker, but this person must abide by our principles of serving without remuneration (expenses only). The Conference itself will consist of a Plenary Session on Friday evening. Saturday will consist of workshops on the following 3 broad themes: Women and Children, Aboriginal People and the Environment, and a third to be named that will include other topics such as torture, prisoners of conscience, freedom of expression etc.Sunday will focus on

The Future, organizing to stay in contact, discussing how we can help each other and setting up whatever organization the participants think will be the most beneficial. We will have Country Profiles on each country that will include a brief history of the country and its political situation, a summary of its human rights record, contact people both inside and outside that country (eg East Timor Action Network is worldwide).

GoalsWe have 2 goals for our project. The first is to educate the participants on human rights issues throughout the world via the Country Profiles and our international guests. The second goal is to obtain the commitment of the participants to engage in concrete action to attempt to alleviate these abuses. To facilitate this, we are hoping to establish an International Network of grassroots human rights workers for the purpose of mutual education, support and action.

Target Audience

We expect 550 people to attend the conference. At least 100 will be from outside Canada, all grassroots human rights workers. The other 450 will be primarily Canadians, mostly youth 18-25 and primarily from Alberta. The benefits will be the contact with each other, the learning that comes from intense interaction and the ongoing network that we hope to establish. For the Canadian young people, this conference will provide what will likely be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to interact with people who have dedicated their lives, often at the risk of their lives, to attaining the basic dignities of life that Canadians take for granted. As a result of this experience, it is hoped that these young people will commit to working to achieve peace, justice and human rights throughout the world. The Purposes of our organization and our conference are; To raise the voice of the victims of human rights abuses around the world. To reveal the systematic destruction of the environment by various governments and internat

ional corporations. To create a global awareness of the situation in which many people of the world live today. To seek possible ways in which we can improve the standards of life for humankind and preserve the environment.

How the Project is Intended to Provide Lasting Benefits to the CommunityWhile no concrete symbols such as statues will be left in the community, some 400 young Canadians will have had an experience that may well be unique in their lifetime. They will have met people from other countries who are dedicating their lives, often at the risk of those lives, to the cause of creating a peaceful, just and humane world. In inviting Canadian young people to attend, we are demanding a commitment first to learn and then to act. There will be very clear expectations that all participants leave with a commitment to take some kind of action in some part of the world, to make a contribution to being part of the solution, not part of the problem. Specifically, we hope to establish the previously mentioned International Network of grassroots human rights workers, including Canadians. It should be noted that 2 of our members will be leaving us soon (temporarily) for assignments in El Salvador and India, so some of these commitm

ents already exist. Finally, our Country Profiles will be a lasting contribution to human rights information banks and we have plans to make them available to high schools in Alberta.How Results of the Project Will be MeasuredThe main concrete result will be the establishment of the International Network. It will be based in Edmonton, and will operate primarily via e-mail. Although many organizations in less developed countries do not have internet, we were pleasantly surprised at how many do. We hope to establish regional centres that will be able to communicate with organizations in their areas that do not have internet. An organization in Bangladesh has already offered to do this and several others in various parts of the world have also offered their assistance.It is hoped that our international guests will leave feeling re-vitalized and supported in ways that did not exist before, having made new and positive contacts with Canadian youth who have so much to give. For the Canadian youth, at the very lea

st, their horizons will have been vastlyexpanded. In the longer term, it is reasonable to expect that at least some of them will develop or intensify a passion for human rights, peace and justice and that they will turn this passion into constructive actions that will improve the world in which we live. Although, this will not bemeasurable in the time span of the conference, we will have a formal evaluation process of the perceptions of all participants in the conference as to its value for them. Please Help us in this emmense task. For information or to find out how tohelp please contact me at hudema@ualberta.ca or visit our web site atwww.ualberta.ca/~hudema/people.htm.Thank you for your time

In solidarity

Mike Hudema