ITHACA, N.Y. -- India's attorney general, the Hon. Soli Sorabjee, will give two talks at Cornell this week that are free and open to the public. Combating international terrorism in East Asia while protecting human rights is his overall subject.

Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 12:15 p.m., he will give a talk titled "Tackling Terror and Other Human Rights Issues" as part of the South Asia Seminar at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, G08 Uris Hall. He also will speak Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m. on "Judicial Protection of Human Rights" at Cornell Law School, in G90 Myron Taylor Hall.

India's Prevention of Terrorism Act was enacted in 2002 in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It is similar to the Patriot Act in the United States and an antiterrorism law enacted in the United Kingdom in 2001 following the attacks. The statutes in all three countries have been criticized by some for their draconian restrictions of civil liberties and human rights, and lauded by others as necessary in the new, more dangerous climate of global terrorism. Sorabjee has been outspoken about his belief that the courts can "strike a balance between the demands of the general interest of the community and the protection of the individual's fundamental rights."

Sorabjee was appointed a member of the permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, the Netherlands, in 1990 for a six-year term. He also argued on behalf of India before the International Court of Justice at the Hague in 2000 on a case involving an aerial incident in a dispute between India and Pakistan. He was a special reporter to the U.N. General Assembly on the human rights situation in Nigeria in 1997 and a personal envoy to the U.N. high commissioner for human rights for East Timor, reporting on the human rights situation in that country in 1999. He was solicitor general of India from 1977 to 1980 before becoming attorney general, first in 1989 and 1990 and then from 1998 to the present. Sorabjee has extensively on civil and human rights, censorship and the press. He publishes a biweekly column in The Times of India. He was a recipient in 2002 of India's second highest civilian honor, Padma Vibhushan.

Sorabjee's visit is sponsored by the Einaudi Center, Cornell Law School's Berger International Legal Studies Program and the South Asia Program. For information, contact Gil Levine, (607) 255-8927, or Larry Bush, (607) 255-3014.