Speaker to address overpopulation, women's rights Nov. 15

Werner Fornos, expert in the field of population stabilization, will speak on "Human Rights, Women's Empowerment, and Global Population" Nov. 15 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

His lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. (room posted). The talk is free and open to the public.

Fornos has been president of the Population Institute in Washington, D.C., since 1982 and won the 2003 United Nations Population Award. For more than 20 years, he has been in the forefront of the struggle to balance the world's population with the world's resources.

As head of the Population Institute, Fornos devotes his time both to convincing leaders of developing countries that they must balance their populations with their resources and to encouraging leaders of industrialized countries to help poorer countries achieve their demographic objectives. Fornos joined the institute in 1978 and became its president in 1982. Previously, he taught at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Fornos has also served as a management consultant on family planning programs for Tunisia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka and Kenya. He has also worked for the U.S. Department of Labor.

His dedication to the issue of population stabilization has made him an internationally recognized leader in that field. He is among the 50 people named to the Earth Times hall of fame for his distinguished contributions to the environment and development in the last decade. He was also named a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International and Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. The UNL Human Rights and Human Diversity Initiative is the primary sponsor of Fornos' talk. Co-sponsors are the Women's Studies Program, the Office of International Affairs, UNL Amnesty International, and the UNL chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha.

CONTACT: David Forsythe, Professor, Political Science, (402) 472-1690