November 14, 2013 (REVISED December 17, 2013) Refugee Rights Subject of Human Rights Day Celebration Jan. 7

In celebration of Human Rights Day, the Law Library of Congress will host a panel discussion on refugee rights from 1 to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014. The program was rescheduled from an earlier date due to a government-wide closure for inclement weather.

The event will be held in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Friends of the Law Library of Congress and the Law Library, the event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.

Moderated by Peter Roudik, director of Global Legal Research at the Law Library of Congress, the panel will include Olivia Bueno, associate director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI); author Linda Rabben and George Sadek, senior legal information analyst at the Law Library of Congress.

Bueno is responsible for managing the New York office of the International Refugee Rights Initiative, monitoring United Nations policies and diplomatic discussions relevant to IRRI’s programs and coordinating outreach to, and collaboration with, international nongovernmental organizations. She was previously a program associate at the International Refugee Program at Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights). She has also worked on issues of refugee rights and asylum in the United States, as a part-time staff member of Human Rights First’s Asylum Program and as co-producer of “American Purgatory,” a radio documentary on the U.S. asylum process.

Rabben is an author, editor and anthropologist who has been active in social and political movements for more than 25 years. She has focused on human rights, development and environmental issues in the U.S. and other countries as a researcher, analyst, campaigner and adviser for international nongovernmental organizations, magazines and newspapers, public radio programs and academic institutions. She is the author of “Give Refuge to the Stranger: The Past, Present and Future of Sanctuary” (2011).

Sadek is a senior legal analyst for Arab countries at the Law Library of Congress’ Global Legal Research Center. He has worked as a legal analyst in Middle Eastern Laws at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He also served as an analyst for Middle East Affairs at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Sadek’s works on legal issues concerning the Arab world have been published in the U.S. and throughout the European Union.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted and proclaimed in Paris on Dec. 10, 1948. The UDHR was designed to provide a global framework for human rights following World War II and the colonial era. The UDHR, 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.

Each year the Law Library celebrates Human Rights Day with a panel discussion focusing on a different aspect of human rights.

The Law Library was established in 1832 with the mission 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 5 million items in various formats, 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/.

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, publications and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.