I rarely watch television, but last night I put our local PBS station on and watched a funny British comedy, “The Vicar of Dibley.� Although worth a good chuckle if you like British humor, the reason I mention it is because of the public service spot they did at the end of the show. They ran a short film that showed two young children from Africa who had lost their mother and would soon lose their father to HIV/AIDS. They were probably 5 and 8 years old and were so filled with grief it was difficult to watch. The point was that because they were poor, their parents didn’t have access to the kind of treatment that could have helped them, leaving two young children orphans. I immediately thought of our professor, Brook Baker, who has devoted much of his free time to addressing HIV/AIDS in Africa. His work is inspiring, and just an example of what our professors do here – they aren’t just professors, they all do significant work in their lives to make positive change in the world. Here’s a link to Professor Baker's biography which tells you a bit more about his work: http://www.slaw.neu.edu/faculty/f_baker.htm and here's a profile about him: http://www.slaw.neu.edu/faculty/p_baker.htm
There are many professors working on international human rights issues. If this is an area that interests you, check out our Program for Human Rights in the Global Economy: http://www.slaw.neu.edu/clinics/phrge.html