About the Center

The Center builds on Lehman College’s unique history: the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights began at Lehman College when the United Nations met at the College. Lehman College students, often immigrants and the first in their families to access higher education, engender a broad understanding of human rights. The Center unites student and faculty engagement on local and global rights issues in New York and the greater world community.

The Center emphasizes intrinsic linkages between human rights and peace. Not merely the absence of war or conflict, human security necessitates community building, safety, promotion of tolerance, environmental sustainability, expanded life chances, freedom of expression, movement and association, and equal access to resources across gender, ethnic, class, national, and other socio-economic divides.

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Events

The Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies hosts a rich program of human rights events for both the Lehman community and the broader public throughout the year.

This year’s spring conference, The State and Gender Violence, will be held on Wednesday, April 2^nd, from 10am to 3pm at Lehman College. Presenters from a range of disciplines will analyze the role of the state, its mechanisms and structures in perpetuating, legitimizing and facilitating gender violence worldwide in the first decade and a half of the 21^st century.