Dr. Mark Gibney

Mark Gibney, UNC Asheville Belk Professor of Humanities, was recently named the 2006 winner of the International Human Rights Award by the Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina. The award will be presented in Raleigh on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

Gibney is a widely respected international human rights expert. Each year he produces the Political Terror Scale, which ranks 175 countries according to their levels of human rights violations. The scale has received wide acclaim and is featured prominently in the new book “Human Security Report” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). Gibney is also the author of numerous journal articles and books, including “Five Uneasy Pieces: American Ethics in a Globalized World" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). He is the immediate past president of the American Political Science Association’s Human Rights Section. Gibney holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan and has taught previously at Purdue University and served as a guest professor at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Bergen.

The Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina has presented the International Human Rights Award since 1996 to North Carolinians who have made a significant contribution to international human rights. The Coalition is made up of human rights groups throughout the state. Gibney was nominated by the Western North Carolina Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

For more information, call the Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina at 919/876-0501.