And a Canadian gets the award!

Yesterday I found myself at the Central European University’s Commencement Ceremony.

There, I sat in a four person box seat, in one of the most renowned concerts halls watching students from literally all over the world (with central and eastern Europe heavily represented), receive their degrees. It was very exciting. Well I was excited for them, and well, seeing the master’s students get their degrees (including my roommate!), gave be the intense desire and motivation to actually get my MRP in to motion so to speak.

As a short backgrounder, CEU is a young university. Founded in 1991, by a man called George Soros, (who was at the ceremony shock every graduate’s hand!), it is an English language university in Budapest that offers programs in liberal arts in central Europe, focusing on research, scholarship and offering teaching facilities for students from transitional European states and western democratic states, to nurture, ‘…respect for diverse cultures and opinions, human rights, constitutional government, and the rule of law. Building local leaders so to speak.

It is also one of the only English universities in the area that offers this. The mantra of the University is diversity, openness and dialogue. Catering to such an international crowd, the debates about NATO or the UN or Torture must surely get heated when students in the class room hail from Georgia, Russia, the United States of America, Ukraine, Nigeria, Kenya, Poland, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Canada, Hungary, Austria, Germany, the UK, Israel and Palestine (to list a few). Man, I would love to get in on these debates!

While the ceremony itself was a lot like any other university graduation (students crossed the stage, shook hands with several people, those requiring hoods were hooded, tassels were moved from the right to the left, talk of ‘now you are an alumni, please give back’ was mentioned), but I could really feel the young, vibrant, energetic and ‘openness’ that CEU is known to be about.

The ceremony also gives CEU’s highest prize, the Open Society Prize. The Open Society Prize has been given to several distinguished people in the world including Vaclav Havel and Kofi Annan and is given to people who have worked towards creating, well, literally, a more open society. (The award was created, and first given to Karl Popper, a British philosopher who coined the concept a sort of ‘challenge the known, think outside the box’ kind of man… and someone I studied in one of my undergrad psych classes…it kind of freaks me out sometimes when I realize a) how much I learned in Uni and b) how it keeps smacking me in the face).

This year, the prize went to Louise Arbour, a Canadian quite famous on the international stage, or at least the international legal stage. She has been a Judge on the Supreme Court of Canada, The High Court of Justice of Ontario, and was the commissioner head of a task force for the treatment of female prisoners in Canada- a report that brought monumental changes in the way that females are treated in the Canadian criminal system. This is just her local CV. On the International stage, she was the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda in charge of indicting and providing evidence to support the prosecution of war criminals from the genocide and mass atrocities that occurred in both these regions. She now heads the International Crisis Group, a huge international NGO. She is quite a lady.

She was actually the speaker at uOttawa’s GSPIA Gala last year, so I was familiar with her and her bio when I arrived at the ceremony. (it’s a small world after all!). Her commencement address, however, was very different from the speech she gave at last years gala.

Perhaps because she was speaking to an international crowd, or perhaps because it was geared towards graduating students airing a sort of ‘you have your wings, not fly’ theme, I thought is was really inspirational. Or perhaps I just felt proud that a Canadian was given this honor, and chose to speak about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, about the freedom and human rights afforded to all Canadians, and well, about the opportunities she was given to explore her interests, and pursue her passion for human rights that Canada gave her. What was also nice and refreshing is that, well, instead of pointing out the problems or issues currently facing international legal recourse, she decided to focus on the positive aspects of the ICC (at least), and well, the great strides that the world has gone to support the right, well, to be human. She also talked about tenacity, about setting a goal and just doing it, ignoring those who stand in your way, and well, follow you head and your heart.

She concluded her speech with three things (two of which I remember, and will present a paraphrased portion to you).

Every human is born free and equal, most will spend their lives fighting for this freedom
didn’t catch this one
Always remember that you are always as free as the rest of us.

Have a great weekend! (and Happy Father’s day!)….stay tuned…..special D-Day (dad’s day) post awaits.

Jess