Last week, ILAC co-founders Jonathan Kolber and Ilan Cohen were invited to New York to honour Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, who received the first annual Human Rights Award.
The award was presented by The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI), which is a new global human rights organization dedicated to advancing human rights, peace, and democracy and combating racism and intolerance. In attendance were UN ambassadors and dignitaries from Canada, US, Australia, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Panama, Nigeria, Israel, UAE, Morocco and Bahrain.
“I’m honoured to have received this award,” said Ambassador Bob Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations. “This is a time to rededicate ourselves to the cause of peace and to the cause of human rights, which is the cause of the United Nations. To be successful at the United Nations, you need to know how to listen, how to engage with other people and to be open to learning.”
Promoting peace through education has always been a core value for ILAC. Over the years, ILAC has donated over five hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to support and empower young women from Turkey, Latin America, Ukraine and the Middle East.
“ILAC International College is planning to launch a diploma in Human Rights that will give us a chance to export Canadian values,” says Jonathan Kolber, ILAC CEO. “Canada is seen as a leader when it comes to human rights, tolerance and respect for all religions and cultures, and that is consistent with the ILAC brand.”
The Abraham Global Peace Initiative is a Canada-based global non-profit that encourages and promotes the advancement of human knowledge and understanding through the study of and research into international human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy, global peace and civil society in Canada and around the world.
“It is important to defend human rights, to recognize that human rights are the underpinning of prosperity, and to never take for granted and always defend political freedom, economic freedom, religious freedom, the rule of law, and racial and gender equality, “ said Ambassador Mitch Fifield, Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations. “That is something that we, in Australia, stand hand in hand with Canada on.”
