Sept. 18, 1998
					Contact: Bob Brickhouse or Carol
Wood
					U.Va. News Services, (804)
924-7116
		
					Press Reservations and
Credentials: Penney Catlett (804) 924-1400             
									         or
pdc@virginia.edu 

NOBEL PEACE LAUREATES TO GATHER AT UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
FOR HISTORIC CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS, CONFLICT AND RECONCILIATION

	If today's headlines are any indication, war and hate have the
upper hand around the world.  Where are the peacemakers? 
	An international group of Nobel Peace Prize recipients will
convene at the University of Virginia Nov. 5-6 for an unprecedented
forum to discuss their current efforts to promote peace and human
rights. An extensive educational program of panels and lectures on
peace-related issues leads up to the historic conference.
	The Nobel Peace Laureates Conference on Human Rights, Conflict
and Reconciliation is presented by the University and the Washington,
D.C.-based Institute for Asian Democracy.  Participants will include His
Holiness the Dalai Lama, spiritual and political leader of Tibet and
worldwide symbol of non-violent advocacy; former President Oscar Arias
Sanchez of Costa Rica, architect of Central American peace initiatives
and promoter of arms control; JosŽ Ramos-Horta of East Timor,
recognized for his efforts to resolve the East Timor-Indonesian
conflict; Rigoberta Menchœ Tum of Guatemala, leading advocate of
indigenous peoples' rights and ethnic reconciliation; Betty Williams,
whose work in Northern Ireland helped forge a "peoples' power" movement;
and Jody Williams of the United States, whose grassroots campaign to ban
landmines raised awareness worldwide. Bishop Desmond Tutu of South
Africa, who has worked for reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa
as head of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, will
attend the first day's sessions.
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	Bobby Muller, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America
Foundation who co founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines,
also will attend. Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, who received the 1991 Nobel
for her work to restore democracy to her country, will be represented by
Harn Yawnghwe, director of the Euro-Burma Office, as she is unable to
leave Burma. Civil rights leader Julian Bond, national chair of the
NAACP and professor in civil rights history at U.Va., will moderate the
discussions.
	"Bringing together these world leaders will be an extraordinary
event," University President John T. Casteen III said in announcing the
conference. "To be able to participate in discussions with those who
have made peace their life's work will be a powerful learning experience
for our students -- as well as for our entire University community. We
are honored that such distinguished laureates have chosen to attend this
historic gathering."
	The Nobel peace laureates will meet in the University's Old
Cabell Hall Auditorium for morning and afternoon discussions both days
before an audience of students, faculty and members of the public, said
P. Jeffrey Hopkins, professor of religious studies and organizer of the
conference.
	"We want to provide a stimulating setting for these persons of
great heart and mind to gather and for others to hear and participate,"
said Hopkins, a Tibetan studies specialist who has long worked with the
Dalai Lama as a translator of his writings. "Each laureate will make a
presentation on his or her concerns and objectives and then discuss that
topic with a panel of the others in an open forum. We are sure to
witness some valuable and interesting discussion."
	In addition to their public forums, the laureates will meet with
students who have been studying their work and will be guests at private
University functions during their stay.  A press conference with the
laureates will conclude the two-day event.
	The idea for the conference originated when Hopkins and Michele
Bohana, director of the Institute for Asian Democracy, discussed ways in
which Nobel laureates could be brought together to advance international
peace initiatives.  Hopkins serves as the institute's president.       
	The pre-conference discussions and lectures are an important
focus of the 1998-99 academic year at the University, said Dean of Arts
and Sciences Melvyn P. Leffler, an historian and authority on the
origins of the cold war.  Leffler, who was a fellow at the Nobel Peace
Institute in Oslo conducting research this past summer, said U.Va.
students have an opportunity to examine such issues as the causes of war
and conflict, international children's rights, social injustice, and the
role of women in peacemaking.
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	All of the conferees continue to pursue the broad themes and
causes for which they have 
been recognized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Conference proceedings
will be published by the University Press of Virginia as a book.
	The Nobel Peace Laureates Conference on Human Rights, Conflict,
and Reconciliation is presented by the University of Virginia and the
Institute for Asian Democracy. University sponsors include the Office of
the President, the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences, and the Page-Barbour and Richard Lecture Series committee.
Corporate and individual sponsors include Dr. Inder and Vera Vaswani
Chawla, Terrence D. Daniels, PMD International, Inc., Wallace
Stettinius, and CFW Intelos.
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