A national conference against torture, "Theology, International Law, and Torture: A Conference on Human Rights and Religious Commitment," will take place Jan. 13-15 at Princeton Theological Seminary.
The conference will feature voices from across the religious spectrum, law experts and human-rights advocates.
Confirmed speakers include Mark Danner, staff writer at The New Yorker and professor of journalism at University of California at Berkeley and Bard College and author of "Torture and Truth"; James Yee, former Muslim chaplain at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Sister Dianna Ortiz, a torture survivor and executive director of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International; Rabbi Edward Feld of the Jewish Theological Seminary; and Admiral John Hutson Dean, president of Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire and former chief judge advocate general of the Navy.
"The goal of the conference is to launch a National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and to educate and empower religious communities across the U.S. to become involved in this critical moral and spiritual issue," said the Rev. Dr. George Hunsinger, convener of the conference and a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Resources to educate and empower local religious communities are being developed and will be available and discussed at the conference.
The conference is co-sponsored by Church Folks for a Better America and the Peace Action Education Fund of the Coalition for Peace Action, both based in Princeton; The Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy, based in Washington; and by Human Rights First based in New York City.
There is a Jan. 6 registration deadline. The registration fee is $25 per person.
To register or for more information, contact Dan Thompson at the Coalition for Peace Action (609) 924-5022 or register at www.peacecoalition.org.
"This event is an effort to unify and mobilize religious communities on a fundamental issue of faith and morality torture," said the Rev. Robert Moore, executive director of the Coalition for Peace Action.
