New York, NY – August 29, 2005 – On Friday, September 9th, Virtue Foundation, in collaboration with International Rescue Committee, Refugees International, United Nations Foundation, and the United Nations NGO Section/DESA, will present its 4th Annual Multidisciplinary Symposium commemorating the anniversary of September 11 at the United Nations’ ECOSOC Council Chamber in New York.

Keeping the Peace: Lasting Solutions to Ethnic and Religious Conflict will explore the root causes and catalysts of prominent conflicts that plague so many regions of the world, as well as the compelling lessons the international community can collectively draw from these episodes to diffuse and possibly prevent the extreme suffering and loss of life that characterize such cultural, ethnic, and religious disputes. The daylong symposium commences at 10:00 a.m. and will feature keynote speeches and panel discussions moderated by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and NBC Dateline’s Keith Morrison, in addition to the screening of select clips from two highly acclaimed documentary films, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, and A Duty to Protect: Justice for Child Soldiers in the PRC. Special musical performances by the brilliant MIT composer Tod Machover, the award-winning Young People’s Chorus of New York City, and international superstar David Broza will conclude the program.

Among the distinguished speakers and panelists at this year’s symposium will be UN Under-Secretary-Generals Shashi Tharoor and Jose Antonio Ocampo; International Rescue Committee’s Director of Health Programs, Dr. Richard Brennan; The World Bank’s CEO of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, Elizabeth Littlefield; Senior Program Officer for Peace, Security, and human right, Johanna Mendelson Forman; International Crisis Group’s John Prendergast; Former Director General of the United Nations at Vienna, Dame Margaret Anstee; CEO of Global Options, Inc., Neil C. Livingstone; Council on Foreign Relations’ Senior Fellow on Africa Policy Studies, Princeton N. Lyman, and Deputy Director of the Center for Preventive Action, David L. Phillips; Past President and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Médecins sans Frontières, Dr. James Orbinski; Director of “Cry Freetown” and acclaimed journalist, Sorious Samura; and Executive Director of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, Ivan Vejvoda.

Conceived in the wake of 9/11, Virtue Foundation is a public charitable organization with affiliates throughout the United States and abroad. Through its multidisciplinary events, the Foundation seeks to raise public awareness of prevalent global issues while initiating an open dialogue about our rights and responsibilities within the global community, particularly from an ethical, moral, and humanitarian perspective. Virtue Foundation is also involved in various humanitarian endeavors such as the education and training of physicians and nurses, as well as the organization of medical and surgical expeditions to underdeveloped regions of the world.