SMU program to honor human rights defenders with $30,000 in prizes

DALLAS (SMU) — SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program will award the first Triumph of the Spirit Award and $25,000 to a person who has dedicated his or her life to social justice and human rights issues on a local, national or global scale. A related award and $5,000 will go to a human rights defender in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

“The Triumph of the Spirit Award is meant to serve as a symbol of hope in the continued struggle for human rights,” says Embrey Human Rights Program Director Rick Halperin.

Award winners must exemplify the missions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Embrey Human Rights Program, says Halperin, adding, “Often these human rights defenders are working against tremendous odds and at grave personal risk.”

Deadline to submit Triumph of the Spirit nominations is March 3. Details are available online at http://blog.smu.edu/humanrights/triumph-of-the-spirit-nominations/.

Winners will be announced July 1 and honored at a fall reception.

SMU is the first university in the South and the only one west of Ohio to offer a Bachelor of Arts in human rights. Approved in 2011 by the SMU Board of Trustees, the academic degree was offered five years after the creation of the Embrey Human Rights Program in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.

For more details about the Triumph of the Spirit Award, contact Bradley Klein, assistant director of the Embrey Human Rights Program, at 214-768-3241 or kleinb@smu.edu.

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Media Contact:

Denise Gee
214-768-7658
dgee@smu.edu

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