Power to the People: Citizen Engagement and Social Transformation
Video Description
Panel called Power to the People: Citizen Engagement and Social Transformation at the Skoll World Forum 2009. The moderator is Ray Suarez of The NewsHour on PBS and panelists are Kailash Satyarthi, chairman, global March Against Child Labour; Daniel Lubetzky, founder and president, PeaceWorks Group; The Honourable Mary Robinson, president, Realizing Rights
Speakers
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Freelance Journalist, Individual
Ray Suarez is a host of the radio and podcast series WorldAffairs, heard on KQED San Francisco and public radio stations around the country, and a Washington reporter for Euronews. He recently completed an appointment as the McCloy Visiting Professor of American Studies at Amherst College. Suarez hosted Inside Story, a daily news program on Al Jazeera America, until the network ceased operation in 2016.
Suarez joined American public television’s nightly newscast, The PBS NewsHour in 1999 and was a senior correspondent until 2013. During his years at the NewsHour he was assigned to cover global health. His reporting from Africa, Asia, and Latin America won many awards. He hosted NPR’s Talk of the Nation from 1993-1999. In more than 40 years in the news business, he has worked as a reporter in London and Rome, as a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, and for the NBC-owned station WMAQ-TV in Chicago.
Suarez is the author of three books: Latino Americans: The 500 Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation (Penguin, 2013), The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration: 1966-1999, reporting on the causes of the destitution found in American cities after the Second World War, andThe Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, examining how organized religion and politics intersect in America. His next work, on immigration, political, demographic, and cultural change, will appear in 2023.
He is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to American Politics (June 2012), and many other books, including How I Learned English, Brooklyn: A State of Mind, Saving America's Treasures, and About Men. He’s been published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Britain's Independent, Harvard University's Nieman Reports, and the Chicago Tribune.
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Founder, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation
The life and work of Kailash Satyarthi is synonymous with the crusade against child slavery. Kailash was born in 1954 in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, India. He has a degree in electrical engineering and a post-graduate diploma in high-voltage engineering. After a few years of teaching engineering in a college in Bhopal, Kailash founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) in 1980. BBA symbolises the struggle against child labour and child servitude and initiated the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS). Kailash started “Rugmark” in 1994, a social labeling program in which rugs are labelled and certified to be childlabour-free. Recently, he has promoted the empowerment of children through a nationwide crusade for the formation of Child Friendly Villages. Kailash is the founder of GoodWeave, a 2005 Skoll Awardee.
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Daniel Lubetzky is CEO of KIND Healthy Snacks, makers of award-winning healthy foods, and Chairman of PeaceWorks, pursuing both peace and profit through neighbors striving to coexist in conflict regions. He is also the Founder of the PeaceWorks Foundation's OneVoice Movement, empowering moderate Israelis and Palestinians to achieve peace, and Co-Founder of Maiyet, forging partnerships with artisans in developing economies to create a new luxury fashion venture. Lubetzky received a BA in Economics and International Relations (magna cum laude) from Trinity University, and a JD from Stanford Law School. He has received many awards, including the Peace Security and Reconciliation Award, the Peace Makers Award and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. He was also selected as Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine. Lubetzky was selected by the World Economic Forum as one of 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow in 1997 and later as a Young Global Leader.
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Chair of The Elders, The Elders
Mary Robinson is a founding member and Chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, who work together for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet. She has served as Chair since 2018, and is a passionate advocate for gender equality, human rights and climate justice. She has addressed the UN Security Council on multiple occasions and has met with world leaders including President Ramaphosa in South Africa, Pope Francis in the Vatican, President Macron in Paris and President Xi Jinping in Beijing. She was the first woman President of Ireland (1990–1997) and is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2002). From 2013- 2016, she served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change and then on El Niño and Climate. She was appointed Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice at Trinity College Dublin in 2019.
