Students, faculty and organizations lit up the streets with glow sticks as they marched through FAU’s Boca campus Thursday night to support human rights.
The Human Rights March was put on by Be Aware, Share and Act for Peace, an organization dedicated to human rights activism. The event illuminated issues that they felt should be brought to FAU.
“This event is to raise awareness of global issues such as poverty, education and human trafficking,” said Laura Facundo, the founder of Be Aware, Share and Act for Peace.
The march around campus, which was led by Dr. Cunningham and the FAU Brazilian Percussion Ensemble, was full of color, chanting and music. President Karla Armstrong of Be Aware, Share and Act for Peace and other members of the organization passed out glow sticks for marchers. The ensemble played and the marchers chanted, “March for human rights!” as they walked through the campus.
The event kicked off with a speech from Daniel G. Bauer, a public administration professor at FAU. Bauer invited students to “think about not just advocacy, but a vigilant commitment to understanding and advancing all rights for everyone as evenly and justifiably so.”
Bauer’s speech was followed by a short video that addressed different human rights. The right to be free from discrimination was shown by a flash of a boy succeeding in soccer, and the right to be free from slavery was shown by children asking about the presence of slavery today.
Following Bauer, FAU undergraduate student Lee Ann Cherwood told her story about being neglected as a child. Now Cherwood, 53, is an avid supporter of human rights. Cherwood spoke to empower the marchers on their quest for the equality of human rights.
“Its all about equal rights for humans,” Cherwood said.
Multiple groups on campus supported the event, and each group had their own reasons for doing so.
Sophomore sociology major Akilah Somersall, a member of the Sociology Student Association, said the association supported the event because, “Sociology is broad and covers a lot of human rights because they all fall under that umbrella.”
Another organization that supported the event was The F-word, a feminist group on campus.
Senior neuroscience major and a member of the F-word Elaina Gombos said that feminists groups need to participate in events like this because, “human rights are the foundation of feminist issues.”
“We are looking to change the face of feminism. It all about leveling the playing field,” Gombos said.
The event was also put on by the Dream Defenders (an organization devoted to social change), Youth for Human Rights and Students for Justice in Palestine.
Even students that were not in any organizations came to support the cause. Political science major Didier Ortiz gave his input on human rights.
“I’m concerned about human rights. We have rights because we are humans, not because some dead guys made some rules a long time ago,” Ortiz said.
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