Helen Mack Chang Event Media Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2010
Contact: Rick Craig                                                                                                                      
604.660.3191; 604.612.7585; Rick.Craig(at)JusticeEducation.ca

Award-Winning Human Rights Activist Speaks Monday
Helen Mack Chang to Describe Her Work in Guatemala at Free Event

Vancouver, BC – On Monday, May 10, an award-winning Guatemalan human rights activist will speak in Vancouver about her efforts to reform her country’s justice system.

Helen Mack Chang founded the Myrna Mack Foundation after her sister, a social anthropologist and human rights activist, was brutally assassinated by Guatemalan military officers in 1990. She has since battled state structures that conceal human rights violations and revealed corruption between state officials and organized crime and drug trafficking.

The free event Human Rights in Guatemala: A Challenging Reality is organized by the Justice Education Society and takes place at 7pm in room 7000 at SFU Harbour Centre.

Helen will be available for interviews from 3:45pm-6pm as well as after the event.

“Helen’s battle to make Guatemala’s justice system more accountable and transparent is very inspirational,” said Rick Craig, the Justice Education Society’s executive director. “I’m sure everyone attending the event will leave with a much better understanding of how some countries don’t have the same human rights that many Canadians take for granted.”

The event is part of Helen’s cross-Canada tour. While in Vancouver, she will also meet with the Vancouver Police Department, Crown prosecutors and Victim Services to discuss best practices on key policing issues and victims’ rights. Later she will meet senior government officials in Ottawa.

Helen has received many awards in recognition of her pursuit of justice, including the Right Livelihood Award and, last week, the Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award from the Centre for Justice & Accountability in San Francisco.

Like Helen and the Myrna Mack Foundation, the Justice Education Society is working to build Guatemala’s justice system. The Society’s Strengthening Effective Justice Systems Project trains justice system partners including police, prosecutors, judges and other technical experts involved in crime scene examination and investigation as well as oral trials.

About the Justice Education Society
Established in 1989 as the Law Courts Education Society, the Justice Education Society is dedicated to improving access to the justice system through hands-on, targeted, two-way education between the public and those working in the system.

About the Justice Education Society’s International Program
While most of the Society's work is in Canada, it is also a leader in justice reform programs abroad. In the span of 20 years, the Society has been involved in projects related to good governance and institution-building in Guatemala, Mexico, Montenegro, Ethiopia, South Africa, Somalia, Vietnam and China.

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For more information please contact Rick Craig at 604.660.3191, 604.612.7585 or Rick.Craig(at)JusticeEducation.ca.