Putting Children First: Childhood Under Siege With Joel Bakan, Jo Becker and Mary Branley

A Republic of Childhood Event

In Person Big Ideas Science

Admission

Free

Monday

Nov , 2017

7:30pm

Eastern

Ottawa Public Library Auditorium

120 Metcalfe st. • Ottawa

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Putting Children First: Childhood Under Siege With Joel Bakan, Jo Becker and Mary Branley

Becker’s book is a vital resource in our collective effort to create a world fit for children.

Benyam Dawit Mezmur, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

Join us on International Children’s Day and the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Let us put children first!

Stress, anxiety, depression, and suicide, are just some of the alarming symptoms that are plaguing our children and young people today. What can we do to to address this growing epidemic?

Joel Bakan, is the author of the bestselling Corporation which was published in more than twenty languages, and became an acclaimed documentary. Childhood Under Siege is a powerful manifesto to end corporate predation of our kids.

Jo Becker’s latest book, Campaigning for Children focuses on contemporary children's rights, identifying the range of abuses that affect children today, including early marriage, female genital mutilation, child labor, child sex tourism, corporal punishment, the impact of armed conflict, and access to education.

Mary Branley is an award winning poet, writer of non-fiction and lives in North Sligo, Ireland. Currently she is writer in residence at the Glens Theatre in Manorhamilton, County leitrim, and facilitator with Kids Own Publishing on 25 titles. Kids Own publishes books written and illustrated by children.

Republic of Childhood:

We are grateful to the support of the Community Foundation of Ottawa and Canada, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, RBC, the Ottawa Public Library and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.

Our advisors, the National Research Council of Canada and the Conference Board of Canada, have generously provided expert insight and guidance.

The Authors

Jo Becker

Jo Becker is a human rights activist and author of Campaigning for Justice: Human Rights Advocacy in Practice. As the Children’s Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, she has led successful international campaigns to prevent the use of child soldiers, and protect child domestic workers and other vulnerable children. She is the founding chairperson of the international Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which campaigned successfully for an international treaty banning the use of children under age eighteen in armed conflict. She has conducted field investigations to document human rights abuses in Uganda, Thailand, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Her opinion pieces have been published inthe Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Toronto Star, the Miami Herald, the New York Daily News, the Huffington Postand Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @jobeckerhrw.

Joel Bakan

Joel Bakan is a professor of law at the University of British Columbia. A former Rhodes Scholar and law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, Bakan has law degrees from Oxford, Dalhousie, and Harvard. His critically acclaimed book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, was published in over twenty languages and became a bestseller in several countries. The book inspired a feature documentary film, The Corporation, written and co-created by Bakan, which won numerous awards, including best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film festival, and was a critical and box office success. Bakan’s other work includes Just Words: Constitutional Rights and Social Wrongs (1997), and Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children (2012) (chosen by the American Library Association as one of the top 10 business books of 2012), as well as textbooks, edited collections, and numerous articles in legal and social science journals. Recognised with awards for both his writing and teaching, Bakan has worked on landmark legal cases and government policy, serves regularly as a media commentator, and is a frequent public speaker for a wide range of audiences.

Mary Branley

Mary Branley is an award winning poet, writer of non-fiction and lives in North Sligo. She taught in Boston London and Sligo for 25 years. Currently she is writer in residence at the Glens Theatre in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, and facilitator with Kids Own Publishing Partnership on 25 titles. Kids Own publishes books written and illustrated by children