05. Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine

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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 1 (Dec 2020)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2020-12) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; D'Este, Alice ; Urpilainen, Jutta ; Sassoli, David ; Zaia, Luca ; Mar, Paola ; Lippiello, Tiziana
    With our new Magazine, we intend 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. In this first issue of our Magazine, we are happy to present interviews with some of our most important partners: Jutta Urpilainen, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships (formerly DEVCO); David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament; Luca Zaia, President of the Veneto Region; Paola Mar, Councillor for the Universities of the City of Venice; and Tiziana Lippiello, Rector of Ca’Foscari University in Venice. While Venice with its magnificent cultural heritage is well known as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, the Global Campus of Human Rights, as one of the world’s leading institutions of human rights education, wishes to strengthen the profile of “La Serenissima” as a centre of academic excellence. We would also be proud if we could contribute to formally establish Venice as a true Human Rights City!
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 2 (March 2021)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2021-03) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; D'Este, Alice ; Corazzari, Cristiano ; Mascia, Marco ; Da Mosto, Jane ; Giordani, Carlotta
    In 1982, Antonio Papisca and Marco Mascia founded the Human Rights Centre at the University of Padua. It was one of the first university-based human rights teaching and re-search centres in the world. In 1988, Veneto was the first region in Italy to adopt a regional bill to promote a culture of human rights, peace and development. Since that time, the Veneto Region has employed a councillor with a special mandate to implement the bill. This important role is cur-rently entrusted to Cristiano Corazzari. In 1998, the Vene-to Region adopted another bill aimed at providing regular support to the European Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA), which had just been founded by the University of Padua on the initiative of the European Union, and in cooperation with other universi-ties in EU member States. The EMA also received financial support from the Veneto Region and soon found its home at the beautiful Monastery of San Nicolò thanks to the City of Venice’s generous offer. It also became the first of sev-en regional inter-disciplinary Master’s Programmes and the flagship site for the Global Campus of Human Rights. Even under the difficult circumstances resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, the EMA team made sure its students could complete their first semester in person at the Mon-astery of San Nicolò in January 2021. The interviews with Councillor Corazzari and Professor Mascia shed a light on the long, successful and close cooperation between the Veneto Region, the University of Padua, the EMA pro-gramme and the Global Campus of Human Rights. We are delighted to participate in the Veneto Region’s Human Rights Defenders programme by providing shelter to human rights defenders belonging to the academic commu-nity who are under attack in their home countries. The interviews with Jane da Mosto (We are here Venice) and Carlotta Giordani (EMA Ambassador in Venice) un-derline the need for Venice to resist over-tourism and large cruise ships and to change its image from a mass-tourism destination to a sustainable human rights city that is at-tractive to students, professors, artists, scientists, and the wider global academic community. This requires the City of Venice to make fundamental changes to its environmen-tal, housing and tourism policies, inspired by UN Sustain-able Development Goal 4 (global citizenship education), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 13 (climate ac-tion), and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). The Global Campus of Human Rights – a network of 100 pres-tigious universities in regions all over the world – is ready to advise and support the City of Venice in its aspirations to become a successful and sustainable human rights city of the twenty-first century.
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 3 (May 2021)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2021-05) Nowak, Manfred ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; D'Este, Alice ; Borrell Fontelles, Josep ; Brunetta, Renato ; Vattani, Umberto ; Rosa Salva, Piero ; Broeck, Naomi : Van den ; Leboeuf, Charles-Antoine ; Tomaello, Andrea
    From 10 to 12 May 2021, the Global Campus of Human Rights organized its annual International Conference at Yerevan State University, the hub of our Caucasus Master Programme. Although it was primarily held online due to COVID-19 related restrictions, I was able to participate together with a few of my colleagues from the Venice Headquarters. The topic of the Conference was “Climate Change and Children: Impact, Rights and Participation”. I was highly impressed by the enthusiasm of many participating school children and young people, including organizers of the Fridays for Future strikes, who conveyed the message that children have not only a right to actively participate in all matters that directly affect them, but that they are already taking the lead in pushing political and economic leaders to take the current global climate crisis seriously by radically changing the global economic and political system with the aim of saving our planet from collapsing. Together we discussed the need for a legally enforceable human right of future generations to a clean and healthy environment, strategic climate-related litigation initiated by children, the idea of a trusteeship for future generations and even rights of animals, nature and Mother Earth. As a city built in the Lagoon, Venice is particularly threatened by the rise in sea level caused by climate change. The Global Campus of Human Rights is fully dedicated to supporting the various movements of children and young people aimed at changing European and global climate policies and mitigating the effects of climate change. At next year’s Festa della Sensa, which is dedicated to the traditional relationship between Venice and the Sea, we may organize a symposium on the effects of climate change on the future of Venice in our Monastery of San Nicolò, with the active participation of children and young people. We are grateful to President Piero Rosa Salva for his interview and his interest in cooperating with the Global Campus on this and other ideas, how our human rights-related activities could be linked to some of the traditional cultural events taking place in this beautiful city with its magnificent 1600-year history. For example, together with the European Parliament, we are planning to organize a high-level annual Venice Conference on the State of Human Rights around the time of the Redentore Festival. We sincerely hope that EU Vice-President and High Representative Josep Borrell Fontelles, who expressed his full support for the Global Campus in his excellent interview, will participate in our Venice Conference. We are equally grateful to Ambassador Umberto Vattani for his very kind interview and his offer to strengthen the cooperation between Venice International University and the Global Campus in relation to our partnership with countries and universities in the North African and Middle Eastern region. Since the Arab Master of Democracy and Human Rights is the youngest of our seven regional Master programmes, we may jointly organize a conference on issues of democracy and human rights in the Mediterranean region. These and similar events aimed at putting students and young people at the centre of developing Venice into a Human Rights City, also through drawing on the necessary lessons learnt from the COVID-19 Pandemic, could also be supported by the Government of Italy and the City of Venice, as the interviews with the Italian Minister for Public Administration, Renato Brunetta, and the Deputy Mayor of Venice Andrea Tomaello underlined. Finally, I wish to thank our EMA student representatives Naomi van den Broeck and Charles-Antoine Leboeuf for their suggestion of using the COVID-19 Pandemic as a window of opportunity aimed at transforming Venice from a city of mass tourism to a more sustainable city welcoming higher numbers of international students rather than hit-and-run tourism. The Global Campus stands ready to assist the City of Venice in implementing such human rights-based reform policies.
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    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.
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 5 (December 2021)
    (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.
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    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”