TORONTO, May 17, 2001 -- Respected Colombian human rights educator and activist Amanda Romero-Medina will deliver the second biennial Michael Baptista Lecture on the internal armed conflict in Colombia and the humanitarian crisis it has provoked, producing the largest forcibly displaced population and number of asylum seekers in the Western Hemisphere. The lecture will be held at York University on Wednesday, May 23 at 6:30 p.m.

Romero-Medina reports that increased attacks by armed parties against Colombia’s civilian population have worsened in the last decade and notes that the forced displacement of populations constitutes a serious human rights violation that continues unpunished.

Romero-Medina has been a human rights advocate in Colombia for more than two decades. She is currently the Quaker International Affairs Representative for the Andean Region, a position that has allowed her to gain first-hand insight into the conditions faced by communities most affected by the military conflict.

"Amanda Romero-Medina has a long trajectory as an advocate for human rights in her country," says Prof. Viviana Patroni, director of York’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC). "Her work has a very special meaning in a country where political violence, indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population, drug-related violence, and impunity are the everyday reality for most Colombians."

The Michael Baptista Lecture series, sponsored by CERLAC and York International, was established to honour the memory and work of Michael Baptista, a Royal Bank Executive and York University Schulich School of Business MBA graduate student who died in 1995. The Lecture will take place in the Senate Chamber, 9th Floor North, Ross Building, York University Campus, 4700 Keele Street.

Romero-Medina is also participating in the conference on "Violence and Peacebuilding in Colombia", at York University, May 24 - 25, 2001.

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For more information on either the Michael Baptista Lecture or the conference on "Violence and Peacebuilding in Colombia", please visit: www.yorku.ca/cerlac/EVENTS.html, or contact:

Marshall Beck
CERLAC
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 88705
mbeck@yorku.ca

Viviana Patroni
Director, CERLAC
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22038
vpatroni@yorku.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/060/01