Ball State University is pairing up with Amnesty International in an effort to bring human rights awareness to students on campus.Amnesty International is a human rights organization that puts pressure on the government to promote human rights throughout the entire world. "Amnesty International's main stance is to fight torture," Mikiel Deguara, co-coordinator of the Ball State chapter of Amnesty International and Landscape Architecture student said. The university is sponsoring a six week film festival in which five films will be shown. The films display a unique take on different human rights issues which are growing problems throughout the world. "It has been really frustrating trying to raise awareness here at Ball State because I feel students are more concerned with football and parties than with relevant social and political issues," Francesca Hernandez, the second co-coordinator of the Ball State chapter of Amnesty International and Landscape Architecture student said. "Human rights and politics are connected and students here tend to hate politics."The first film to be shown was suppose to be "Private," on Monday, October 10 which captures the daily life of a Palestinian family and their fight against Israeli soldiers. However, the movies being presented are sent to Ball State from the organization, Human Rights Watch, and "Private" did not get here on time. In place, they showed the film, "Crash" and "Private" was shown Friday, October 14, Deguara said. Ball State involved themselves with Amnesty International last academic school year because several social work students did a project involving the organization. Deguara decided to take over a Ball State chapter of Amnesty International and recruited Hernandez last spring. Deguara said that Amnesty International does projects such as writing letters to jails and different governments throughout the world protesting the violation of human rights. He described a person being jailed in Peru for his religious beliefs as an example of a situation to protest. Deguara also said every country has some sort of existing Declaration of Human Rights which should remain in tact concerning every human being and his or her situation. The next movie being presented is today at 7:30 pm in Pruis Hall. The film is titled, "Liberace in Baghdad," and tells the story of the famous Iraqui pianist and his current life in a war-torn country Hernandez said. "The most visible way to promote human awareness on campus is by this film festival," Deguara said.
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