President to Articulate Sorority's Human Rights Record at UN Confab

AKA's human rights roots influenced by member Eleanor Roosevelt

International president Barbara A. McKinzie will journey to Paris from September 3-5, 2008, to join other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) affiliated with the United Nations' Department of Public Information. They will meet during their 61st Annual Conference on the theme: "Reaffirming Human Rights for All: The Universal Declaration at 60." She is attending this historic confab at the invitation of the co-hosts: the DPI/NGO Executive Committee, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Office of the High Commission for Human Rights and the Government of France.

More than 2,000 representatives from some 90 countries are expected to participate in the premier international NGO event of the year.

The gathering is being convened at UNESCO's Headquarters on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the adoption and signing in Paris of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration is the first universal statement on the basic principles of the human rights to which peoples of all nations are entitled. Eleanor Roosevelt, an Honorary Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, chaired the United Nations Human Rights Commission that wrote the Universal Declaration in 1948. Her leadership was a major factor in ensuring its passage.

During the confab, McKinzie will trace the Sorority's human rights roots, chronicle its triumphs and pledge to intensify its already-strong commitment to the tenets detailed in the Declaration.

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