A panel on human rights in Africa will address "The Challenge of Defending Human Rights During War: Experiences from the Congo and Elsewhere in Africa" on Tuesday, October 26, at Colby College in Waterville. The event, sponsored by the Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights, will take place at 7 p.m. in the Lovejoy building, room 100. It is free of charge and open to the public. Panelist are Jo Wells of Amnesty International and Suliman Baldo and Scott Campbell both of Human Rights Watch-Africa.

Wells, Baldo and Campbell will discuss their experiences assisting 1999 Oak Fellow Didier Kamundu Batundi, who founded a rural development and human-rights organization based in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Campbell and Baldo also will provide contrasts with their experiences in Ethiopia, the Sudan, Eritrea and West Africa.

Wells is the campaigner for central Arica for the international secretariat of Amnesty International in London. She initiates, plans, implements and evaluates human rights campaign strategies in eight central African countries. Baldo is a senior researcher on Africa for Human Rights Watch in New York. He monitors human rights developments and works to publicize and curtail human rights abuses through report writing and advocacy. Campbell is a consultant for Human Rights Watch and researches and writes reports on human rights issues in Africa and Asia.

The one-semester Oak Human Rights Fellowship was established to allow a front-line human-rights worker to take a sabbatical for research, writing and teaching as a scholar-in-residence at Colby. In addition to the fellowship, the institute supports human rights programs on campus.