Learn from international struggles for justice that have held Truth Commissions in order to bring poverty and other human rights abuses onto the world stage.

This course will explore how and why religious leaders and other people of conscience use Truth Commissions in the US and globally to document the stories of those whose lives are in jeopardy due to poverty including the lack of health care, housing, adequate food, education or living wage jobs.

This course will help prepare students for holding such commissions and community forums in their local congregations and denominations and will be part of the preparation for a Poverty Truth Commission held at Union Theological Seminary in the Spring of 2007.

Guest speakers will include those who have planned or participated in Truth Commissions in Peru, South Africa and the US. 

We will also watch the award-winning documentary “State of Fear”.