What are human rights? Many of us know the word but what they consist of and how to proclaim them is not always within reach.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948, as well as our natural rights are often in a struggle with powers, greed and intolerance.
The United Nations and several global NGO’s are in place to protect us all, and The European Court of Human Rights implement The European Convention on Human Rights in its member states.
Agreements or complying with human right laws may be attempted but are not always employed by states. Finding ways to bring people together around universal laws and within a context of humanity and understanding is a necessity for a world to ensure and implement that human rights are there for everyone. One of those ways is through education.
In 2002 the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation was created as a non-profit association to put forth Master degrees in Human Rights and Democratisation.
Known since 2019 as The Global Campus of Human Rights and based in Venice Italy, the Campus is a global network of universities for education in human rights and democracy, consisting of educational programmes, training and research.
They promote democratisation and human rights, linking with universities across the world. So far 100 universities and 7 regional programmes are in place, alongside online courses. Through education and their work, the centre aims to advance a new generation of human rights defenders.
The arts are an important tool to discuss and bring forth human rights. Projects the Global Campus of Human Rights have generated and supported, have included Art 4 Human Rights Seasonal Crowdfunding Campaign, helping artists/activists and members of their academic network with freedom of art expression, and, The Venice Human Rights Film Festival organised by the students of the European Master Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation of the Global Campus of Human Rights, where film, art and human rights came together to highlight women's rights and freedom of expression.
Human rights are integral to our everyday life, ensuring they are implemented comes down to us all, a collective endeavour.
Learning about human rights and having the opportunity to seek that knowledge can lead to cooperations as well as empathy.
Finding out about The Global Campus of Human Rights, we wanted to mention and talk about it.
With their broad network of member universities, many students and researchers are creating a ripple effect of human rights defenders, citizens, writers, activists, and artists paving the way to bring forth human rights for all in law and in education.
To find out about The Global Campus of Human Rights projects and the universities they have partnered with go to: https://gchumanrights.org