For Immediate Release: March 22, 2012

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MARCH 27: Anti-Torture Leader Rev. Richard Killmer Comes to F&M

LANCASTER, Penn.—Human Rights Week at Franklin & Marshall College continues Tuesday, March 27 with an appearance by the Rev. Richard Killmer, a 1964 alumnus of F&M and executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (www.nrcat.org), an interfaith organization of 313 religious groups committed to ending torture in the U.S. and worldwide.

His talk, “A Challenge for Human Rights: Confronting the Culture of Torture–2012,” will be held at F&M’s Wohlsen Center for the Sustainable Environment. It begins at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday and is free and open to the public.

Killmer will discuss his organization’s goals of ending torture in U.S. prisons, especially prolonged solitary confinement, developing U.S. policies that will help end torture by other countries, and ending anti-Muslim bigotry.    

“The National Religious Campaign Against Torture believes that torture is a violation of human rights and is never acceptable. I commend F&M for hosting an annual Human Rights Week and continuing its commitment to examine the threats to human rights around the world,” Killmer said. “I welcome the opportunity to discuss with the F&M community the importance of confronting the culture of torture.”

From 1996 through May 2002, Rev. Killmer was director of Environmental Justice and director of the Economic Justice and Domestic Hunger Program Ministry of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. He received the Climate Protection award from the Environmental Protection Agency for his work while at the National Council of Churches.

Rev. Killmer previously worked at the national headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA), where he directed the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program for 15 years. During that time, he also directed the Special Ministries/Vietnam Generation and Domestic Hunger and Poverty programs and co-directed the Child and Family Justice Project. He has two degrees from the Princeton Theological Seminary.

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