05. Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine
Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine
https://reponew.gchumanrights.org/handle/20.500.11825/1874
Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine is a promotional publication with the intent to make the various activities of the Global Campus of Human Rights better known to our partners and the public at large. In order to increase the visibility of our activities in Italy, and in particular in Venice and the Region of Veneto, we publish our Magazine in both English and Italian.
It is structured in the following sections:
Press Office Interviews with donors, partners and speakers of the online Global Campus of Human Rights Conversations;
Updates on News & Events of the Global Campus of Human Rights at local and international level
Fundraising Office main Campaigns to raise awareness of our impact and attract more supporters.
For more information, contact our Press and Fundraising Offices: Elisa Aquino - Giulia Ballarin - Isotta Esposito
pressoffice@gchumanrights.org - fundraising@gchumanrights.org
Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine è una pubblicazione promozionale il cui intento è far conoscere meglio ai nostri partner e al grande pubblico le varie attività del Global Campus of Human Rights. Al fine di aumentare la visibilità delle nostre attività in Italia, ed in particolare a Venezia e nella Regione Veneto, la Rivista viene pubblicata sia in inglese che in italiano.
E' strutturata come segue:
Press Office Interviews con sostenitori, partner e alcuni fra i partecipanti alla Global Campus of Human Rights Conversation;
Aggiornamenti riguardanti News & Eventi del Global Campus of Human Rights, sul piano locale e internazionale
Le principali Campagne dell'ufficio Fundraising per sensibilizzare il pubblico sul nostro impatto e attirare più sostenitori.
Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 8 (December 2022)
(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2022-12) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; Esposito, Isotta ; Lemmens, Paul ; Fiorelli, Jessica ; Afghani, Jamila ; Slivyak, Vladimir ; Longatti, Ambra ; Aquino, Elisa
This year's EMA Graduation and Inauguration Ceremony in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco on 25 September was dedicated to commemorate the 25!" anniversary of the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA). In his keynote speech and interview with this Magazine, one of the founders of EMA, Paul Lemmens, reminded us how Antonio Papisca, the "idealist from the University of Padua", and Daniela Napoli, the "activist from the European Commission's unit for Human Rights and Democratisation", had laid the foundation for this innovative transdisciplinary, pan-European and inter-university Master programme. A#er Antonio had invited his colleagues from other EU based universities to a first meeting in the Palazzo Ducale in the spring of 1997, Massimo Cacciari, then Mayor of Venice, offered to host this programme in Venice. While the first generation of EMA Masterini 1997/98 was taught at a former secondary school on Giudecca, the second generation was already hosted at our Monastery of San Nicolo at the Lido. I vividly remember the day in late spring 1998 when Antonio proudly showed us our new venue and none of us could imagine that the necessary renovation work could be achieved during the few months until the students were in fact taught in the Aula Magna (now named Antonio Papisca Hall) and lodged in the former monks' cells. Sadly, Daniela Napoli was no longer able to celebrate 25 years of EMA with us as she had passed away shortly before. With sincere gratitude and admiration for all her activist human rights work, I presented the Global Campus Medal of Honour for Daniela to her husband during this year's Ceremony, which was also overshadowed by the sudden and tragic death of our longtime and beloved IT and web advertising coordinator, Nicola Tonon. Since its inauguration in 1997, more than 2000 EMA Masterini have graduated in Venice and work as human rights professionals, activists and defenders in governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations, the corporate sector and academia, where they spread the message of human rights as our EMAlumni and EMAmbassadors to all corners of our planet. Jessica Fiorelli, EMA graduate of 2016 and newly elected President of the EMAlumni Association, shares in her interview her belief in the power of the EMA and Global Campus Alumni community to make positive change in our societies. In times of growing economic inequality, climate disaster, disinformation and a brutal war in Europe, such positive visions of young change makers are most encouraging. Next year, we will commemorate 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 30 years of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. It is indeed high time for a radical change in our current world order of insecurity and destabilisation. The Global Campus of Human Rights with its seven regional Master programmes as the world's largest university network of post graduate human rights education is prepared to actively contribute to this urgently needed change towards a new world order based on peace, global justice, democracy, the rule of law, sustainable development and universal human rights, including rights of future generations and rights of nature. In addition to providing human rights education and trainings, including of more than 500 electoral observers (see the interview with Ambra Longatti of the European External Action Service), the Global Campus is increasingly engaged in supporting grassroots human rights defenders, based upon the social responsibility of universities and our global academic human rights community. Thanks to our long-term partnership with Right Livelihood, we are closely cooperating with Right Livelihood Laureates. Vladimir Slivyak, co-founder of Ecodefense, one of the oldest environmental groups in Russia and Right Livelihood Laureate of 2021, in his keynote speech at the EMA Graduation Ceremony, explained his campaigns to stop various nuclear and fossil fuel projects in an increasingly authoritarian environment in the Russian Federation: "In order to protect our environment, which is essential for human survival, you need democracy and the respect for human rights. So both things – human rights and environmental protection – are very well interconnected." On 6 November, during a workshop at the office of Right Livelihood in Geneva, we finalized and signed the contract for our new joint five years' project on providing support to human rights experts and defenders in exile; and on 30 November, we represented the Global Campus during the 2022 Right Livelihood Award Presentation in Stockholm to the new Laureates from Somalia, the Ukraine, Venezuela and Uganda, whose achievements are described in detail in this Magazine. Since the takeover of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Global Campus is directly involved in providing a safe space for threatened Afghan students, scholars and human rights defenders at our universities. In another interview with this Magazine, Aurora Prize 2022 Laureate Jamila Afghani explains the difficulties of helping Afghan women, youth and children in refugee camps and underlines the importance of human rights education: "The only way to change the course of our country is through educating our future leaders. …Only through education we are able to shi# the mindset of future generations to secure a more peaceful and inclusive society." In this context, the Global Campus expressed its outrage about the deliberate attack on the Haj Education Centre in Kabul on 30 September 2022, when more than 50 students were killed and more than 100 injured. Other highlights of Global Campus activities during recent months described in this Magazine were the Summer School on Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy, organized on an annual basis in cooperation with the Venice International Film Festival; the organization of a human rights course for more than 1000 Timorese Students by our Human Rights Centre of the National University of Timor Leste, which will be officially handed over to the University in December in the context of celebrating 20 years of independence of Timor Leste in the presence of President Jose Ramos Horta; the MOOC on Science and Human Rights as an introduction for our International Conference on this topic to be held in Buenos Aires from 27 February to 3 March 2023; a Training on Academic Freedom which we provided to the Human Rights Focal Points of EU Delegations worldwide in Brussels on 15 November; the EU NGO Forum "Stop Impunity – The Road to Accountability and Justice" in Brussels on 14-15 December; the Global Forum on Justice for Children and Deprivation of Liberty in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on 8-9 November, where we took stock of recent developments in the implementation of the recommendations of the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, which I had presented to the UN General Assembly in October 2019. The 8!" Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine once more illustrates the broad variety of impressive activities carried out by the Global Campus in times of dramatic European and global crises and challenges as well as shrinking financial resources. _______________________________________________________________________ This issue includes interviews and special contributions: Prof. Paul Lemmens, Former Judge at the European Court of Human Rights; Jessica Fiorelli, President of of the EMAlumni Association; Jamila Afghani, 2022 Aurora Prize; Vladimir Slivyak, 2021 Right Livelihood Laureate; Ambra Longatti, EEAS Policy Officer
Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 7 (September 2022)
(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2022-09) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; Esposito, Isotta ; Metsola, Roberta ; Gomez, Veronica ; Agaltsova, Marina ; Karimi, Sahraa
The Russian war of aggression against the Ukraine might become a turning point in world history. It not only constitutes one of the most serious crimes under international law, the crime of aggression, it blatantly violates the most fundamental rule of post WW II architecture, the prohibition of the use of military force. Notwithstanding various urgent calls by the overwhelming majority of States in the UN General Assembly to immediately stop the war, despite Russia's exclusion from the Council of Europe and the UN Human Rights Council, and contrary to a legally binding ruling of the International Court of Justice, Mr Putin continues to show a total disrespect for the international rule of law and multilateralism. A!er more than six months of a bloody war with many thousands of soldiers and civilians killed and millions of the most serious human rights violations committed, two possible scenarios seem to emerge. Either Mr Putin realizes that he cannot win this war and will finally engage in international peace negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations, or he will win the war. The second scenario would mean the final breakdown of the post WW II architecture and a return to the rule of the jungle. It will encourage Mr Putin to wage further wars, e.g. in Moldova or Central Asia, possibly followed by other States, such as China against Taiwan. During armed conflicts, most human rights are violated on a massive scale, and the international community can do very little to prevent or stop these violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The only mechanism designed by the international community to stop an aggressor and to protect the civilian population against the most serious crimes under international law, namely the collective security system under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, including the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) mechanism, is paralysed if one of the five permanent members of the Security Council is directly involved. As a global network of universities dedicated to human rights, we need to step up our joint efforts of promoting and protecting human rights, even in such an increasingly hostile environment. In our core activity, providing post-graduate human rights education, we recently decided to start an 8th regional Master in Human Rights and Sustainablity in the Central Asian region (including Afghanistan and Mongolia), coordinated by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. During our recent teaching experience at the Summer School on Human Rights and Human Security in Kyrgyzstan, Imke and I were impressed by the professional standards of the OSCE Academy and the high quality of their students. In addition, we are intensifying the social responsibility, advocacy and practical human rights work of our universities, as exemplified by our program, to provide a safe space for Afghan scholars and students at risk and our new project on "reconceptualising exile", which we are developing in partnership with our donors and friends at Right Livelihood. Our new priority of closely cooperating with and supporting human rights defenders in all world regions, which we started with the Venice School on Human Rights Defenders and our cooperation with Sakharov and Right Livelihood Laureates, is also reflected in various contributions to this Global Campus Human Rights Magazine, above all the interviews with the Afghan film maker Sahraa Karimi and the Russian human rights lawyer of "Memorial" Marina Agaltsova, as well as the admirable activities of Bucharest University in supporting and providing shelter for Ukrainian refugees. The highlights of our recent activities were the Global Classroom on Internally Displaced Persons in June in Pretoria and our 2nd annual Venice Conference on the Global State of Human Rights in July, which we organise in cooperation with the European Parliament and which was this year dedicated to the rights of children as agents of change. As the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, emphasised in her keynote speech, our future depends on the empowerment of children and their active involvement in our political decision making processes. Let's hope that Mr Putin does not win his war of aggression, that he will finally be held accountable for all his crimes, and that the post WW II architecture, based on the three pillars of security, development and human rights, will even be strengthened by these unfortunate events! The Global Campus of Human Rights provides the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to those future change makers who will steer our planet in the right direction once again. _______________________________________________________________________ This issue includes interviews and special contributions: Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament; Veronica Gomez, President of the Global Campus of Human Rights; Marina Agaltsova, Russian Human Rights Lawyer; Sahraa Karimi University of Bucharest, Major Hub for Supporting Ukrainian Refugees
Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 6 (March 2022)
(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2022) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; Esposito, Isotta ; Papaspyropoulou, Penny ; Keogh, Briana ; Owens, Alannah ; Gelders, Beatrijs ; Giordanetti, Carlo ; Ienzi, Alessandro
In the editorial prof. Manfred Nowak, Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights, stresses again about the particular responsibility of universities specialised in human rights to defend academic freedom and the right to stand up for human rights and democracy in their own countries and beyond. In this context prof. Nowak writes about the developements of the GCHR special programme to assist students, scholars, female judges and other human rights defenders, who had to flee Afghanistan afer the Taliban take over in August 2021, by providing them, with the financial assistance of the European Union, Right Livelihood and other donors, with a safe space at universities in our network. In the few weeks since Russian President Vladimir Putin started an unprovoked military aggression against the Ukraine, more than two million Ukrainians, above all women and children, have been forced to flee their country and seek protection in Poland, Romania and other European countries. The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, which is currently under siege by Russian troops, is a member of the Global Campus and its Caucasus Master programme. Many Ukrainian students and graduates of the Caucasus Master are either caught in the middle of this bloody war or have managed to flee their country. Others have been recruited into the Ukrainian army that is desperately defending their country. Professors and students of our member universities in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and many other European countries are actively supporting and assisting Ukrainian refugees, thereby underlining the social responsibility of universities and the academic community. The Global Campus is ready to provide a safe space for Ukrainian students and scholars and at the same time supports those Russian intellectuals who publicly condemn and stand up against Putin's war and international crimes. These unprecedented and severe reactions by the international community provide a glimpse of hope that President Putin's aggression has not only united the European Union but is also strengthening multilateralism and the resilience of the post-World War II architecture, democracy, the rule of law and human rights. In any case, these tragic events prove that educating future human rights defenders is more important than ever before. The Global Campus of Human Rights stands ready to contribute to these noble goals by means of education, training and advocacy work. _____________________________________________________________________ This issue includes interviews with: Penny Papaspyropoulou, Secretary General of the EMAlumni Association Briana Keogh, Alannah Owens & Beatrijs Gelders, EMA Students' Representatives, Carlo Giordanetti, CEO of Swatch Management and Swatch Art Peace Hotel Alessandro Ienzi, Director of "Teatro Raizes"
(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2021-12) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; Esposito, Isotta ; Gilmore, Eamon ; O'Flaherty, Michael ; Quinn, Rob ; Samar, Sima ; Vardanyan, Ruben
The Global Campus of Human Rights is not only an impressive network of 100 universities and more than 6,000 graduates of our seven regional Master programmes, training and e-learning activities, it is also an impressive network of outstanding human rights scholars and practitioners in all regions of the world. On 12 November 2021, our President Veronica Gomez, who coordinates the Latin American Master at the University of San Martin in Buenos Aires, was elected as one of seven judges of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. One of our Vice-Presidents, Frans Viljoen, Director of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Pretoria who heads up the African Master programme, was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on 11 October 2021. I most warmly congratulate my two colleagues and friends to these highly prestigious and well deserved expert functions in the international human rights community! As the world's largest human rights network in human rights education, the Global Campus has a particular responsibility in providing future human rights defenders and change makers with excellent knowledge, skills and attitude that are necessary to make the world a better place to live in. However, our responsibility goes far beyond teaching and training. Thanks to our close cooperation with the Sakharov Laureates and Fellowship Programme of the European Parliament during the annual Venice School for Human Rights Defenders, to our partnership with the Right Livelihood and its prestigious "alternative Nobel Prize" Laureates, to our cooperation with the Aurora Prize for present day heroes and with similar initiatives, we support the courageous activities of those who defend human rights and democratic values on the front lines. Universities specialised in human rights also have a particular responsibility to defend academic freedom and the right to stand up for human rights and democracy in their own countries and beyond. At a time when these values are under attack in a growing number of countries, we feel the duty to assist scholars and students at risk of being expelled from their universities, persecuted for their intellectual activities or even arrested, tortured or killed. With the recent takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of Afghan human rights defenders, journalists, judges, scholars and students, mostly women and girls and those who worked in close collaboration with the international community, had and still have to fear for their lives. Hundreds of thousands were able to leave the country, o!en via chaotic evacuation operations, others are still desperately trying to flee their country. When we launched our initiative of providing a safe space for Afghan scholars and students at our universities around the world, we were overwhelmed by the positive response of an impressive number of professors and rectors, students and alumni, individual activists and relevant organisations, such as "Scholars at Risk", World University Service or the International Association of Women Judges. We are most grateful to the spontaneous reaction of the European Commission (INTPA) of providing us with funds, which were recently doubled by Right Livelihood and supplemented by other donors, such as the Fondazione Venezia and the Kahane Foundation. With these funds and the voluntary work of many members and friends of our network, we are now able to provide Afghan scholars, students and their families with the possibility of finding a safe space for their studies, research or teaching at various universities of our global network. I sincerely hope that our Afghanistan project is only the beginning of a more ambitious programme to support scholars and students at risk in other countries as well.
Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 4 (August 2021)
(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2021-08) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; Esposito, Isotta ; Della Vedova, Benedetto ; Molinari, Luca ; Danziger, Nick ; Vanmechelen, Koen ; Ursich, Emma
We are living in a period of severe global crises, but also at a time of transformation. Scientists have been telling us for decades - and politicians slowly seem to be starting to grasp the concept that global warming will make our planet uninhabitable if we do not take swift and decisive action to address the root causes of our global environmental crisis, including the deliberate destruction of our rainforests, the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to accelerated climate change, and a rapid loss of biodiversity etc. The COVID-19 Pandemic has contributed to strengthening our belief and opening even the eyes of the most sceptical politicians that we can no longer leave the solution of our global problems simply to market forces, as was the mantra of neoliberal economists and politicians for almost half a century. Most people realise today that we need robust and well-functioning democratic states, regions and cities with accountable politicians willing to take responsibility for protecting our human rights to life, health and a sustainable environment as well as the same rights for our children and future generations, if necessary against powerful business interests. Since the voices of human rights defenders and academics are usually not loud enough and often overheard by politicians and business corporations, human rights need to join forces with the arts in order to reach out to a broader public. I do not know any place which would be better suited to combining the arts with human rights as Venice! For 1,600 years, Venice has established itself as one of the most fascinating cities of arts in the world. Wherever you walk in Venice, you see, feel and breathe the beauty of arts: in architecture, sculptures, paintings, music and many other forms. With the Global Campus of Human Rights, Venice also hosts the Headquarters of the largest institution worldwide in the field of human rights education. As Senator Orietta Vanin and others advocate, the City of Venice should declare itself as an official human rights city, and the Global Campus stands ready to support it on this journey. Koen Vanmechelen and Nick Danziger are two world famous artists with whom we have been cooperating for many years, with the common aim of bringing human rights closer to photography, cinema, the fine arts, architecture and action-related applied arts. The annual Summer School on Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy, which Nick has been organising together with Claudia Modonesi for many years, in cooperation with the Venice Film Festival, is a big success and has empowered generations of participants to express their human rights messages by means of documentaries or feature films. In addition to donating his well-known sculpture of Collective Memory to the Global Campus , a sculpture that catches the eye of every visitor when entering our cloister, Koen Vanmechelen has organised Cosmocafés in many parts of the world, where we discussed human rights-related topics from an artistic perspective. The ultimate aim of all these events is to create a Human Rights Pavilion for the future Art Biennale. I fully agree with Nick and Koen that we need to join forces with like-minded artists and policy makers to use empty spaces and transfer Venice into a city of human rights artists. We recently signed a Partnership Agreement with the Fondazione Venezia and started a close cooperation with the magnificent and innovative M9 Museum in Mestre, directed by Luca Molinari. This is a multi-media museum about the development of the Italian people, life and culture throughout the 20th century, full of human rights related aspects. I am sure that the Global Campus and our students will both benefit from this partnership but also contribute to enriching the human rights approach of this remarkable museum. We also would like to strengthen our cooperation with the Human Safety Net of the Generali Group to assist them in their aim of transforming Venice into a "world capital of sustainability", as Emma Ursich explained. By renovating and opening the magnificent Procuratie Vecchie at St Mark's Square to the public for the first time after almost five centuries, new and vibrant spaces will be made available for debates that could centre around the arts, human rights and the future path of Venice transforming from a UNESCO supported, but fragile World Cultural Heritage threatened by global warming and the rise of the sea level, towards a sustainable human rights city. As the Italian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, Benedetto Della Vedova, so eloquently said: "Venice is the most ancient city of the future"! With the recent decision of the Italian Government to deny cruise ships as from 1 August 2021 any passage through the city, an important first step towards the future has been taken, away from mass tourism towards a city, where native Venetian citizens, artists, students, academics and intellectuals feel home and inspired again. The Global Campus of Human Rights is happy to become one of the drivers for this important transformation.
All the works published on Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.