The Kagedan Lecture of Social Work and Human Rights. “Advancing social justice through rights based practice in the Middle East: ICAN McGill”
“Advancing social justice through rights based practice in the Middle East: ICAN McGill”
ICAN
The International Community Action Network (ICAN), formerly known as the McGill Middle East Program (MMEP), is committed to creating a world in which all people share the same rights. We believe that social justice is the most reliable foundation for strong, healthy, and tolerant communities. Since 1997, ICAN hasestablished 11 community centres in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Palestine, Jordan and Israel. These ICAN centres provides basic human rights such as legal aid, education, housing, and much, much more to over 120,000 people each year, implementing programs that engage, educate and empower the citizens most affected by conflict, economic hardship, and instability.
Amal Elsana Alhjooj is one of the key shapers of public opinion regarding the status of the Arab minority and the status of women in Israel. In 2010, she was chosen by The Marker (Israeli business publication) as 1 of the 101 most influential people in Israel; was one of the women leaders recognized in 2005 by the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises for her contributions to economic empowerment programs for Bedouin Arab women. She has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the founding director of AJEEC - Arab Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation and co-director of NISPED - Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development. As a former graduate of the ICAN Fellowship Program, Amal has returned to McGill to pursue a Ph.D and become the new Executive Director here at the International Community Action Network (ICAN) in McGill's School of Social Work.
Sami Al Kilani began his career as a physicist and poet, and was an Amnesty prisoner of conscience in the 1980s. He was a delegate to the Madrid Conference and has been a strong advocate for non-violence since the 1980’s. Sami is one of the founding members of the Arab non‐violence movement, which meets for one month each summer in Beirut and has evolved into the first Arab University for Non Violence (AUNV). It aims to institutionalize the culture of non‐violence in Lebanon and all the Middle East. Sami is the founder of the first RBCP centre in the West Bank and his doctoral thesis explored the implementation of the RBCP model in Palestine. Today he is Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at An Najah National University.
Dr. Jim Torczyner joined McGill University in 1973 after obtaining his D.S.W. from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1975, he founded Project Genesis, a community-based grassroots organization that empowers people from diverse backgrounds to advocate for entitlements, to change social policy, and to develop alternative community organizations. In 1990, Professor Torczyner founded the Montreal Consortium for Human Rights Advocacy Training (MCHRAT) which extends multi-disciplinary expertise to groups that have traditionally lacked access and power such as the disabled, members of minority groups, and homeless youth. In 1994, Professor Torczyner refocused his attention primarily on the Middle East and founded The McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building (MMEP), now ICAN, with a belief that the reduction of inequality and the promotion of civil society are intricately related to peace building.
You are invited to Homecoming 2016. Mark your calendars and join us on Thursday, October 27, 2016 in the Wendy Patrick Room in Wilson Hall, School of Social Work.
This is your chance to:
Reconnect with friends, relive your student days, find out what's new in Social Work and discover how alumni like you are making a huge difference.