News
Representative from Human Rights Watch in courtesy call to University President
Tokyo office opens in Academy Common ( 2009.6.1 )
The world’s largest international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch (HRW), opened its Tokyo office in Meiji University’s Academy campus on the Surugadai Campus in April 2009. The Tokyo office will serve as a focal point for the organization in the Asia region.
Mr. Kenneth Roth, the executive director of HRW, came to Japan on April 9th to visit the new office and to hold a press conference at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents Club. Mr. Roth also paid a courtesy call to University President Hiromi Naya, along with Mr. Toshiro Ueyanagi, the chairman of the board of trustees of HRW Japan, and Ms. Kanae Doi, the director of the HRW Tokyo office. The group from HRW were welcomed by University Vice President Toshio Harigaya, who is responsible for general policy planning, Assistant Prof. Takamine KAWASHIMA of the School of Information and Communication, as well as University President Naya.
Mr. Roth said he was grateful for the cooperation shown by Meiji University, and said the tradition of human rights education as well as the founding principals of ‘rights and liberty’ and ‘independence and self-government’ of the University struck a deep chord with him. Mr. Roth also said he wanted to foster a sense among the students that they carry the responsibility for upholding human rights in the next generation, and that he hoped to forge links which would open the way for systems such as internships and campaign movements.
University President Naya mentioned how Tatsuji Fuse who was a champion of human rights had been a graduate of Meiji University. The president also said he was delighted to have HRW, which fights for such an important cause, present on Meiji’s Academy Common. He also said it was an organization which was treasured by the current crop of students and that an organization which made students at the University think about human rights was most welcome indeed.
HRW is an NGO which was set up in New York in 1978. In 1997 the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize for the part it played in having a treaty against anti-personnel land mines implemented. In 2008 HRW won the United Nations Prize for human rights. Currently HRW is active in 80 countries world wide and has 17 international bases. HRW is also set to open an office at New York University, and has a track record of building close relationships with universities and other institutions of research and education.
At Meiji University too, links are already being built up with students translating HRW news and enrolling as interns.
