SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program and Meadows School of the Arts hosted Amnesty International’s 50th Birthday Celebration Thursday night.

Amnesty International is a global organization with more than three million members working to provide human rights for everyone.

The night was filled with music, poetry and dance performances that represented different cultures from around the world.

SMU Junior Sudie Abernathy especially enjoyed the music.

“I’m a Spanish minor, so I was really excited that they were singing in Spanish,” she said.

SMU professor and chair of Amnesty International USA Dr. Rick Halperin, Executive Director of AIUSA Larry Cox, and other speakers reminded students that the fight to end abuses of human rights is not over.

“The question is not, ‘What did we do the last 50 years?’,” Cox said. “The real question is, ‘What are we going to do the next 50 years?'”

Halperin, Cox and other human rights activists agree the best thing students can do is get involved.

“We all want a world without violence, without terror, without victims,” Halperin said. “If people want this world they have to get involved. It’s just not going to happen by wanting it to happen.”