Chestnut Hill College and GEM, Inc. invite students in grades 9-12 to a day-long conference to commemorate the United Nations.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the signing of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our UN Day 98 program will look at the importance of this document in an effort to establish human equality in our interdependent world. Students will have the opportunity to participate in discussion groups on human rights topics that are specifically connected to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The purpose of the discussion groups is to explore the development of human rights action plans to take back to their school and community. Two selected students from each school will have the opportunity to go to the United Nations in December to present their human rights action plan to UN officials.

This year's keynote speaker will be Shala Sheila Mokgethi. She is currently working with the UN Department of Public Information on Human Rights issues.

Ms. Mokgethi is from Johannesburg, South Africa and has spent many years in the human rights field. She was active working on the issue of Apartheid in South Africa and Namibian de-colonization. She was a media analyst for the Beijing Conference on Women and has worked with African Information Centers on Human Rights Issues.