Ben Peterson is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights(jhr), Canada’s largest international media development non-governmental organization.
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Peterson is the son of former Liberal Premier of Ontario, David Peterson and Canadian actress Shelley Peterson. He is the nephew of Jim Peterson, former Canadian Minister of International Trade, and Tim Peterson, former Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament, and Deb Matthews, a current Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament and Minister of Health and Long Term Care.
Peterson graduated high school from North Toronto Collegiate Institute. He holds a BA in Economics and a BAH in Political Studies from Queen’s University (Kingston), and a MSc in Political Theory at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he played Varsity Basketball and studied under David Held.
While completing University Peterson worked for Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy and for David Bonior, the Democratic Whip in the United States House of Representatives.
From 2001 to 2002 Peterson worked at the Ghanaian Ministry of Justice on an intership funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Under the direction of Betty Mould-Iddrisu (now Ghana’s Minister of Justice), Peterson helped write Ghana’s report to the UN on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
While in Ghana, Peterson met Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque, employed with a similar internship in Côte d'Ivoire, and created the idea behind jhr over MSN Messenger.
Peterson Co-Founded jhr with Sicotte-Levesque in 2002. jhr was founded with the mission of building the capacity of the African media to report more effectively on human rights issues.
Peterson and Sicotte-Levesque both lived in their respective parents house, taking no salary. jhr received start up funding from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada in 2003 to start a small project in Ghana.
Sicotte-Leveque left jhr in 2005, making Ben the sole Executive Director. Sicotte-Levesque has since remained on jhr's Advisory Board and Board of Trustees[1]
jhr has since grown into Canada's largest media development organization, working in over 15 countries is Sub-Saharan Africa. As of Spring 2009, jhr has offices in Toronto, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the DR Congo.
Ben writes a daily blog at www.BenPeterson.ca and is a contributing writer for The Mark News[2] and Our Neighbourhood Magazine.[3]
In 2007 Peterson contributed a Chapter to Notes From Canada's Young Activists, published by Greystone Books.[4]
Peterson has been awarded the Action Canada Fellowship,[5] Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award,[6] and the Queen’s University Alumni Humanitarian Award for his work with jhr. Ben also sits on the Emerging Leaders Network of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance. He is a former member of the Youth Advisory Committee for CC UNESCO.