Programs examining human rights and child labor issues around the world are open to the public.
Zafaryab Ahmed, Colby's first Oak Human Rights Fellow and a crusader against child labor and human rights violations in South Asia, helped to organize the Child Labor Week events and will participate in discussions and other activities. Additional events will take place on campus during the week. Senator Harkin will address the inaugural Oak Convocation at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 23, in Lorimer Chapel and will receive an honorary Colby degree. Besides his work on behalf of human rights and against child labor, Harkin sponsored a letter from Congress in 1995 to protest the Pakistani government's arrest and detention of Zafaryab Ahmed on sedition charges. Last December he personally intervened with Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, to help end Ahmed's detention in Pakistan so Ahmed could accept the first fellowship of the Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights at Colby.