Article
The Belfer Center''s fledgling Human Rights Initiative is emerging! Thanks to the generosity of telecommunications wizard and Kennedy School graduate Gregory C. Carr, the Initiative will be dramatically expanded to become the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
The Carr Center will focus on research, teaching, and training, examining the effect on human rights around the world of governmental policies and actions, international organizations, and independent actors. The new Center will remain a close sibling of the Belfer Center and will concentrate on work important to BCSIA''s broader agenda.
Carr, who co-founded Boston Technology and then became chairman of the Internet service provider Prodigy, recently formed the Gregory C. Carr Foundation. Carr''s interest in human rights was galvanized in 1996, when he met Chinese dissident Harry Wu. Since that time he has been a leading contributor to the cause. The Carr Foundation''s gift of $18 million for the new Center is the largest ever from an alumnus or alumna of the Kennedy School.
As a student at the Kennedy School, Carr developed a close relationship with then-Dean Graham T. Allison (now Director of the Belfer Center), who has been a friend and advisor to Carr since. Carr said that his choice of the Kennedy School as a home for the new center is due in large part to his relationship with Allison. As a special tribute to Allison, Carr will be naming a room in Allison''s honor in the new Carr Center.
"Greg''s entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and intellectual curiosity have distinguished him throughout his studies and his career," said Allison. "His great generosity in establishing the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy demonstrates both his ideals and his willingness to invest financial resources earned in his private ventures for the larger public good."
Allison noted that during its year-long transition phase, the new Center will continue under the auspices of the Belfer Center, with Frederick Schauer, KSG Academic Dean, as faculty chair and Samantha Power continuing as Executive Director.
The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy sponsors a number of events throughout the year including a brown-bag lunch series, a film series, workshops and human rights gatherings, and several major policy conferences.
Please refer to the Carr Center''s website, http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/cchrp/, for weekly updates and information.