Candlelight Vigil to Commemorate the Life and One-Year Anniversary of the Murder of Sister Dorothy Stang

(PRLEAP.COM) WASHINGTON, DC, – The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (RFK) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) are organizing a special event at 4:30 p.m. on 12 February 2006 to commemorate the life and one-year anniversary of the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang. The candlelight vigil will be hosted by Trinity University and take place at the Notre Dame Chapel at Trinity University in Washington, DC (125 Michigan Ave., NE – one block east of N. Capitol Street, near Brookland/CUA Red Line Metro Stop; shuttles run every 20 minutes between Metro and campus; parking available behind Library and next to Main Hall on campus). This is the first event of 2006 undertaken as a part of the International Campaign Against Rural Violence in Brazil co-founded by RFK and WOLA in 2005.

Confirmed speakers include: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (former Lt.-Governor of Maryland); Patricia McGuire (Trinity University President); Sister Maura Browne (International Coordinator of Peace and Justice, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur); Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH); Brazilian Ambassador Roberto Abdenur; Dr. Thomas Lovejoy (President of The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment); Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH); Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA); Pedro Christoffoli (official representative of the Brazilian Landless Peoples Movement, MST); Rev. Carlos Quintana Puente (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops); and Emily S. Goldman (Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights). Members of the Stang family will also be present.

Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Ohio Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, was murdered on 12 February 2005 in Anapu, Pará, Brazil, in the Amazon forest. She was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1931 and entered the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1948. She professed final vows in 1956 and moved to Brazil in 1966. She was a dual citizen of the US and Brazil and lived for 39 years in Brazil working with the Pastoral Land Commission (the social justice arm of the Brazilian Catholic Church), fighting for the rights of landless workers and for the broad implementation of a human rights-based land reform that encourages wise environmental stewardship. She helped landless workers combat the illegal appropriation of public lands common in the state of Pará and the impunity surrounding land-access cases that impedes more than a small handful from ever being brought to justice.

Her death came just a little over a week after she met with Brazil’s top human rights officials in which she detailed the credible death threats she had receiving and the threats to local small farmers and landless from wealthy ranchers and loggers in the region. After receiving the threats, Sister Dorothy commented, “I don’t want to flee, nor do I want to abandon the struggle of these farmers who live without any protection in the forest. They have the sacrosanct right to aspire to a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity while respecting the environment.”

For more information about Sister Dorothy, please click on following links:
http://www.wola.org/brazil/remembering_sister_dorothy.pdf
http://www.rfkmemorial.org/human_rights/2001_Frigo/RememberingSisterDorothy.pdf


For more information on the human rights situation in Brazil, please contact:
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights at (202) 463-7575 x 235
&
The Washington Office on Latin America at (202) 797-2171 x 212

RFK is a non-profit non-governmental organization that engages in long-term partnerships with activists who win the RFK Human Rights Award, advocating for the social justice goals they champion. RFK has 36 laureates in 21 countries and employs litigation; advocacy before policy-makers; consumer awareness campaigns to foster corporate responsibility; media coverage; high-level delegations; and briefings for government and the international human rights community. RFK’s Brazil laureate is Darci Frigo, who presses for equitable land reform, promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture, and fighting forced labor and impunity in land-access cases.


WOLA is a non-profit policy, research and advocacy organization working to advance democracy, human rights, and social justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. WOLA plays a leading role in Washington policy debates about Latin America. WOLA facilitates dialogue between governmental and non-governmental actors, monitors the impact of policies and programs of government and international organizations, and promotes alternatives through reporting, education, training, and advocacy.