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”
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    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
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    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
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 9 (March 2023)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2023-03) Nowak, Manfred ; Bumma, Domenica ; De Dilectis, Laura ; Damiano, Ermelinda ; Kayyal, Mahsa ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; Esposito, Isotta
    This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 30th anniversary of the 2nd World Conference of Human Rights, which took place in Vienna in June 1993. The two most memorable slogans from Vienna were “All Human Rights for All”, the motto of the NGO Forum underlining the universality, equality, interdependence and indivisibility of all human rights, as well as “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”, one of the most influential demands of NGOs. In retrospective, this might seem surprising, as the equality of women had been strongly rooted from the outset in the legal UN human rights framework, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 and having entered into force in 1981, had become a milestone in the advancement of women’s rights and the fight against gender-based discrimination. However, while discrimination against women had been gradually eliminated from domestic laws and women had increasingly gained access to all human rights, including the rights to vote, to education, to marry and to justice, the most egregious violations of women’s rights continued to be practiced in the “private” sphere, be it in the family, the work place or in society at large. In the UN system, rights of women were dealt with in the Commission on the Status of Women rather than in the Human Rights Commission, and the monitoring of CEDAW by the CEDAW Committee was strictly separated from the activities of other UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies. The Vienna World Conference on Human Rights 1993 and the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995 symbolized a paradigm shi! in the protection of human rights of women in the “private” sphere, above all against domestic violence, all forms of sexual harassment and gender based violence, traditional practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, honour killings, sati, the gender pay gap in business etc. In December 1993, only half a year a!er Vienna, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, and in March 1994 the Human Rights Commission created the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, which had a major impact on the advancement of women’s rights and led to the adoption of domestic laws on domestic and other forms of violence against women and girls. Much has been achieved in making women’s rights more equal to men’s rights, but much more needs to be done in fighting for the full equality of women and against male dominance in governments and politics, business, religion, the family and society at large. That’s why this 9th edition of the Global Campus Magazine and the Global Campus Human Rights Conversation on 8 March, marking the International Women’s Day, is dedicated to strengthening the human rights of women. _______________________________________________________________________ This issue includes interviews to: Domenica Bumma, Laure De Dilectis, Ermelinda Damiano, Mahsa Kayyal.
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 10 (July 2023)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2023-07) Nowak, Manfred ; Matviichuk, Oleksandra ; Shynn, Daniel ; Kali, Yamuna ; Klumpner, Hubert ; Hanna, Andrew Leon ; Aquino, Elisa ; Ballarin, Giulia ; Esposito, Isotta
    The broad variety of contributions and interviews covered by the 10th edition of the Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine shows that the Global Campus has grown far beyond our core activity of organizing regional Master programmes in different world regions. Even within this core activity of post-graduate human rights education, we are expanding with an 8th Master on Human Rights and Sustainability in Central Asia (MAHRS). For many years, the regional programs of the Global Campus cooperate in organizing joint activities. The last Global Classroom, bringing together students, alumni and professors from all regions, was held in Pretoria and discussed the phenomenon of internal displacement from different regional perspectives with the active participation of Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. The second annual joint activity, the Global Campus International Conference, was organized by our President Veronica Gomez in Buenos Aires at the beginning of March on the topic of science and human rights. And much more on: Capacity Development at the Moldova State University, GC Children Leadership Team, the 14th Venice School for Human Rights Defenders. _______________________________________________________________________ This issue includes interviews to: Oleksandra Matviichuk, Daniel Shynn and Yamuna Kali - EMA students representatives, Hubert Klumpner, Andrew Leon Hanna.
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 11 (December 2023)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2023-12) Nowak, Manfred ; Gomez Lucini, Zahara ; Westphal, Florian ; Caravelli, Adriana ; Rijal, Amrit ; Aquino, Elisa ; Cammarata, Andrea G. ; Ballarin, Giulia
    The 11th Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine underlines again the broad variety of our activities by means of interviews with high level personalities in the field of human rights. Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was one of the keynote speakers who joined us in Venice during our third High-Level Venice Conference on the Global State of Human Rights, held on 14 and 15 July with the optimistic outlook “Towards a New Era of Human Rights”. The Venice Statement “Towards a New Era for Human Rights” as outcome document has been widely distributed and is also reproduced in the present Magazine. One of the keynote speakers of our EMA Graduation and Inauguration Ceremony on 24 September in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco was the former Minister of Women’s Affairs and Chair of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan, Right Livelihood Laureate Sima Samar. During this graduation ceremony, we awarded, in cooperation with the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, the first joint Annual Engaged Artivist Award on Atrocity Prevention and Human Rights to Zahara Gomez Lucini who told us: “Against incomprehensible and confusing realities, against darkness, against fear and injustice, art can be a powerful tool.” Our strong commitment to bring the arts and human rights into a closer relationship was also underlined once more by our September Summer School on Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy. One of the participants was Florian Westphal, the CEO of Save the Children Germany. He fully endorsed our deep commitment of empowering children and being guided by our Child Leadership Team. This approach was also underlined by the young child rights advocate Amrit Rijal who participated in our MOOC on “Children’s Mental Health: Rights and Perspectives”. Another major event during recent months covered in the present Magazine was the official opening of our new Master programme on Human Rights and Sustainability in Central Asia (MAHRS) on 29 September at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. Other contributions to the present Magazine include further recent developments and events as well as an interview with the Italian Magistrate Adriana Caravelli, who reported about her role as Surveillance Magistrate to monitor places of detention in Italy and who has assisted Roberto Chenal already for several years in the preparation of our highly successful Training Course for Italian judges and lawyers on the recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (CEDU). _______________________________________________________________________ This issue includes interviews to: Sima Samar, Zahara Gomez Lucini, Florian Westphal, Adriana Caravelli, Amrit Rijal
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 12 (March 2024)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2024-03) Nowak, Manfred ; Venturini, Simone ; Galli, Jacopo ; Scrobogna, Mariagiovanna ; Molinari, Hélène ; Mondello, Chiara ; Ivanov, Vasil ; Aquino, Elisa ; Cammarata, Andrea G. ; Sante, Francesca
    Venice as a city for young people with a sustainable future is the main theme of this 12th edition of the Global Campus Magazine. “Coming to study in Venice must mean coming to study the future” is one of the messages of City Councillor Simone Venturini. The city increasingly realises that young people are an asset for Venice and, therefore, started the Venice City Campus project with the aim of doubling the number of university communities in the coming years. The “Citta Campus” initiative is closely linked to the idea of developing Venice to become the World Capital of Sustainability, as Jacopo Galli, the project manager of the Venice Sustainability Foundation, explains. The history of Venice, a city built in an “impossible” place, is a “path of sustainability that spans the centuries”. In his opinion, the Mose project, “a work of mobile hydraulic engineering that has no equal in the world”, is the “true game-changer of Venetian development, as it enables the socio- economic development of a territory finally protected by the sea”. Visions for a Sustainable Future is also the theme of a series of TEDxVenezia talks, as Maria Giovanna Scrobogna explains in her interview for the GC Magazine. “Venice is built on water, and water is the source of life” serves as a powerful inspiration for the SUMUS (“We are”) community in Venice with the vision of a new way of living respectful of humanity and the planet. “What makes us so optimistic is the power of nature” says Helene Molinari, the founder of SUMUS: “nature is not only a beautiful landscape or supermarket for human beings, nature is an unlimited source of innovations to solve all our human challenges”. She urges us to better protect the rights of children, animals, plants and minerals and to “give an identity to the rivers, mountains as if they were a person to be able to better defend their rights.” These ideas resonate very well with the new priorities of the Global Campus, developed in partnership with Right Livelihood, namely to go beyond children’s rights to the protection of rights of future generations, nature and Earth Trusteeship. “Living in Venice was a once in a lifetime experience” for Chiara Mongello, one of our current EMA student representatives, and her counterpart Vasil Ivanov adds: “I never lived in a place that can take your breath away a few times every single day”. However, according to Vasil, Venice is still “mostly known as a tourist city and not really as a study destination. If more is done for the local students, such as the establishment of more places to socialize, student events (festivals), sports facilities, venues etc (especially in the historic centre) I believe that more and more young people will start seeing Venice as their future study destination.” As Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights, I fully agree with our EMA student representatives and, therefore, support local initiatives, such as the Venice City Campus and all efforts to make Venice the World Capital of Sustainability and, thereby, more attractive for students and young people who are actively engaged in fighting for climate justice and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Let me close this editorial with two messages of our student representatives. Chiara wishes the Global Campus community to “approach others with openness and kindness”, since “our honesty and interactions are our daily chances to live human rights and create positive impact”. In the same spirit, Vasil sees “many people from my generation that are good at outlining criticisms towards various things, however I wish more people started offering solutions as well. The reason for this is because the world nowadays more than ever needs answers about how to tackle multiple current crises instead of hearing the criticisms that the majority of people are already aware of.” _______________________________________________________________________ This issue includes interviews to: Simone Venturini, Jacopo Galli, Mariagiovanna Scrobogna, Hélène Molinari, Chiara Mondello and Vasil Ivanov
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    Global Campus of Human Rights Magazine n 13 (September 2024)
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2024-09) Nowak, Manfred ; Skoog, Olof ; O'Flaherthy ; Jelić, Ivana ; Arits, Lien ; Bastianelli Gambini, Mattia ; Pokharel, Saugat ; Aquino, Elisa ; Esposito, Isotta ; Sante, Francesca
    In this edition: • Interviews with Olof Skook, Ivana Jelić, Micheal O’Flaherty. • “Authoring Justice” stories by Anonymous, Lien Arits, Mattia Bastianelli Gambini, Saugat Pokharel. • An overview of the broad variety of Global Campus activities during the first half of 2024: “Authoring Justice”: new online course on storytelling for change with Prof. Andrew Leon Hanna; High-Level Conference on Global State of Human Rights to Convene in Venice; Kick-off of the new EU-funded “Climate Justice and Human Rights Education” project; Art as a Gateway to Inclusion: Insights from an Unconventional Conference hosted by GC Caucasus in Yerevan; Global Campus Alumni Together for Climate Justice and the Right of Future Generations – a remarkable gathering in Athens; EMA cohort 2023-24 study visit to Kosovo: learning about a post-conflict country; Reflecting on the Student Conference in Kyrgyzstan on “Just Transition”: A Transformative Learning and Bonding; Pioneering Climate Justice Education in Moldova and the EU Neighbourhood; 6th edition of the GC Policy Observatory; Right Livelihood International Conference Unites Global Activists at UC Santa Cruz; Human Dignity Takes Center Stage at 2024 Euregio Summer School; Venice Statement: Reconceptualising Exile for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.