Weaver to address human rights banquet

COEUR d'ALENE - An international human rights and education expert will be this year's keynote speaker at the 13th annual Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations Human Rights Banquet on April 12.

Dr. Reginald Weaver is currently vice-president of Education International, Inc., which has 401 organizations representing 30 million teachers and educators in 172 countries.

In recent years, he has been listed in Ebony magazine's "100 Most Influential Black Americans" for his national and international influence on public policy issues including human rights and is one of America's "History Makers."

Weaver will address the topic "The Current Status of Human Rights in the United States and Around the Globe".

This year's banquet will also include the annual civil rights awards and the introduction of the 2009-2010 Human Rights Education Institute and North Idaho College Foundation minority student scholarship winners. Forty-five minority students have been the recipients of these full-ride scholarships since 1999.

Several paintings of 19-year-old Liberian Wilson Fallah will be on display at the banquet, said KCTFHR Board member Tony Stewart.

"Fallah, a child soldier during the two civil wars in Liberia, has traded in his AK-47 for paint brushes, a spoon and a canvas," Stewart said.

Wilson Fallah works in a small room of a group house near the Port of Monrovia. The room, with a mattress on the floor and art covering the walls, doubles as a bedroom and studio.

Banquet tickets are $40 or a table for 8 persons can be purchased for either $600 or $1,000. The public reception begins at 5:30 p.m. with the banquet starting at 6:30 at The Best Western Coeur d'Alene Inn, 506 Appleway.

Proceeds go to the Human Rights Education Institute to support the Institute's work including the year's minority student scholarships at North Idaho College.

Information: 765-3932 or 292-2359