Oct. 16 (UPI) — President Joe Biden decried the state of human rights across the globe Friday while attending a rededication ceremony honoring former Sen. Chris Dodd at the University of Connecticut.
The school renamed the former Thomas J. Dodd Research Center as the Dodd Center to honor both the father and son senators. Biden, a longtime friend of Chris Dodd, spoke on the issue of human rights during the ceremony in Storrs, Conn.
Chris Dodd was the longest-serving senator in Connecticut history and represented the state from 1981 to 2011. He previously was a House representative from 1975 to 1981.
“As we look around the world today, we see human rights and democratic principles increasingly under assault. We feel the same charge of history upon our own shoulders to act,” Biden said.
He said that there are fewer democracies in the world now than there were 15 years ago, a situation that “cannot be sustained.”
“That’s why from day one of my administration I’ve taken concrete steps to put human rights back at the center of our foreign policy and reassert our moral leadership on the global stage, with the power of our example, not the example of our power.”
The Dodd Center will serve as an umbrella home for the university’s Human Rights Institute and Dodd Impact, also known as the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
“UConn is honoring over a half-century of public service of Connecticut’s father and son U.S. senators, Thomas J. Dodd and Christopher J. Dodd, as well as the commitment of the Dodd family to supporting the growth and development of UConn’s widely recognized human rights academic, research, and engagement programs,” University of Connecticut Interim President Andrew Agwunobi said in a statement.
