November 17, 2010 Law Library to Celebrate Human Rights Day with Program on Cultural Property Rights of Indigenous People

In recognition of Human Rights Day 2010, the Law Library of Congress will host a panel discussion on “Cultural Property Rights of Indigenous People.” The event will be held at the Library of Congress at 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 10 in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building at 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington D.C. 20540.

Sponsored in part by the Friends of the Law Library of Congress, the event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.

Human rights are rights and freedoms inherent to all human beings without discrimination on the basis of nationality, ethnic origin, gender, creed, religion, language or any other distinction. The panel discussion is designed to promote understanding and recognition of the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.

Moderated by Law Librarian of Congress Roberta I. Shaffer, the panel will include Helen Stacy of Stanford Law School; Betsy Kanalley of the U.S. Forest Service; and Kelly Buchanan and Stephen Clarke of the Law Library of Congress.

Stacy is a senior fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where she coordinates the human rights program and is a scholar of international and comparative law, human rights and legal philosophy.

Kanalley is assistant manager for geospatial services at U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, where she coordinates various federal Geographic Data Committee activities within the agency and with external partners.

Buchanan is a foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress covering Australia, New Zealand, independent Pacific Island nations, Indonesia and Malaysia. She is also a member of a team of writers for the Law Library’s blog, “In Custodia Legis” (blogs.loc.gov/law/).

Clarke is a senior foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress covering Canada, Ireland, Commonwealth Caribbean countries and the English-speaking U.S. territories. He has extensive expertise in comparative and international law with an emphasis on the North American Free Trade Agreement, immigration and national security.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drafted between January 1947 and December 1948. It was adopted and proclaimed at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France, on Dec. 10, 1948. The UDHR aimed to provide a global framework for human rights and represented a significant change of direction from the events surrounding World War II and the colonial era. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first global enunciation of human rights, is considered the most translated document in modern history. It is available in more than 360 languages and new translations are still being added.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

Founded in 1832, the mission of the Law Library is to make its resources available to members of Congress, the Supreme Court, other branches of the U.S. Government and the global legal community, and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of law for future generations. With more than 2.6 million volumes, the Law Library contains the world’s largest collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides online databases and guides to legal information worldwide through its website at www.loc.gov/law/.