19 October 2023

The United Nations was born in the aftermath of World War II in 1945. An essential component of the Organization’s work from the start was the promotion and protection of human rights, as enshrined in its Charter. Three years later, in 1948 this element was further strengthened with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Now, as we mark the , this groundbreaking Declaration is not only a set of rights, but also a guiding instrument that serves as the basis of International Human Rights Law and of all the mechanisms at the global, regional, national, and local levels created to protect those rights. It is also a document that inspires generations and people worldwide. The role of higher education is critical to advance the ideals embedded in the Declaration now and in the future. Academics have engaged in significant teaching and research on the UDHR and its impact, with many contributing as experts in treaty bodies and commissions of inquiry. Students too, have been activists promoting human rights with many volunteering to help the most vulnerable. 

 

Topic: MAKING THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS A REALITY: THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Date: Monday, 4 December 2023

Time: 3pm - 5:30pm (EDT/New York time)

Format: In-person at UN Headquarters (Conference Room 6), with broadcast via

RSVP/Registration form: REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED * If you already have a UN badge or ground pass, you do not need to register

For those wishing to attend in person, please note UNAI does and will not provide that stipends or any other kind of financial assistance or support. Moreover, due to limited capacity, space for attending in person might be restricted, and persons signaling their wish to participate in person might not be able to do so. We will send a confirmation e-mail accordingly. Also, as per established practice, UNAI does not issue certificates or letters of attendance or participation for those joining either in person or online.

Guiding question: In the face of new challenges in an ever-changing world, how can the Universal Declaration continue to protect peoples’ human rights?

Objective: This event aims to underline the critical imperative of human rights in the work of the United Nations, and to highlight what universities and colleges worldwide are doing to promote and implement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, via their teaching, research and community engagement activities; through the commitment and involvement of their faculty, staff and students;  while addressing ongoing crises and pressing challenges, and connecting the spirit of the Declaration with the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Welcome remarks:

    • Ilze Brands Kehris, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights
    • Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division, United Nations Department of Global Communications

    First panel:
    The Universal Declaration at 75 from the perspective of universities: How the Declaration still resonates today in the face of new global challenges?

    • Jackie Dugard, Senior Lecturer at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, and Visiting Professor in the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. She works for the project Pluriland about the impact on human security of enacting plural land rights, co-edited the Research Handbook on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as Human Rights (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020) and co-founded the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa.
    • Penny M. Venetis, Director of the International Human Rights Clinic and Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law at Rutgers University. Expert in International Human Rights law pioneering efforts to integrate International Law into U.S. law. She was the Executive Vice President and Legal Director of Legal Momentum, and worked for the United Nations Special Rapporteur Investigating War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia, focused on the use of rape as a war crime.
    • Susan Kang, Associate Professor of Political Science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Her research and teaching interests include International Relations, Labor and Human Rights, and International Law. She authored Human Rights and Labor Solidarity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) and co-edited Human Rights: Institutions and Practices (University of Toronto Press, 2019). She is also the Editor of Global Constitutionalism.
    • Zo? Burkholder, Professor of Educational Foundations and Founding Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Project in the College for Education and Engaged Learning at Montclair State University. She is an historian of education with expertise in antiracist education, school integration, the social construction of race in schools, and educational activism among Black, Native American, Latinx, and Asian American communities.

    Second panel:
    Aligning student actions and teaching and research methodologies, outputs and strategies with pressing human rights challenges

    • Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Professor of Law, Director of the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Her scholarship focuses on human rights, public health, and atrocity prevention. She is the Co-Editor of Public Health, Mental Health, and Mass Atrocity Prevention (Routledge, 2021).
    • Kathryn Libal, Director of the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and Associate Professor of Social Work and Human Rights at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in refugee resettlement and social welfare, serves on the Executive Committee of the Consortium of Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies, and co-edited Human Rights in the United States: Beyond Exceptionalism (Cambridge University Press 2011).
    • Rita Verma, Director of Critical 国产AV, Justice and Human Rights Studies, and Full Professor in the Ruth S. Ammon College of Education and Health Sciences at Adelphi University. She is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Critical Debates in Humanities, Science and Global Justice, and worked as the Director of the UN Conference on Teaching for 国产AV and Human Rights. She is also the Co-Editor of Disrupting Hate in Education (Routledge, 2021).
    • Abigail Kerensky, Student at Long Island University.
    • Anneliese Preske, Student at Seton Hall University.
    • Mateo Mortellaro, Student at the State University of New York – New Paltz.
    • Rhema Hooper, Student at Lehigh University.

    Moderator:

    • Omar Hernández, Program Manager and Public Information Officer, United Nations Academic Impact