FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 9, 2009
CONTACT: Nancy Heingartner, 608-265-6298, outreach@creeca.wisc.edu
UW-Madison Russia Experts Make Civil Society Recommendations to President Obama and Others in Moscow Summit
University of Wisconsin-Madison professors Theodore P. Gerber, Sociology, and Mark S. Johnson, Educational Policy Studies (beginning fall 2009) , along with colleagues from the Eurasia Foundation, the New Eurasia Foundation, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Human Rights and Security Initiative, participated in a meeting between President Barack Obama and civil society leaders from the United States and Russia in Moscow on July 7. View the President’s remarks here.
During the civil society summit, held in Moscow’s Metropol Hotel on July 6-7, scholars and practitioners discussed ways to strengthen engagement with various civil society issues and to increase public attention to these matters in both the United States and Russia. The experts also addressed how to build a stronger civil society relationship between the two countries. The participants, including experts in public health, community development, human rights and rule of law, youth and education, press and new media, and the environment, shared their findings with President Obama at the conclusion of the summit.