Human Rights Day and Human Rights Centre Open Day in Timor-Leste

As part of the Global Campus EU-funded capacity building project for the development of human rights education at the National  University of Timor Leste (UNTL), a special event was organized at the premises of the new Human Rights Center (HRC) in Dili, together with the Delegation of the EU and the Global Campus Alumni (GCA) association to celebrate the Human Rights Day, on 10 December 2019.

As part of an ongoing series of human rights extra-curricular activities, the UNTL Human Rights Center opened its doors to over 80 students and professors from the Faculties of Medicine, Economics, Agriculture, Engineering, Hard Sciences, and Social Sciences of the UNTL. The visitors were welcomed via video message by the Ambassador of the EU to Timor Leste, H.E. Andrew Jacobs, and were treated to an engaging multimedia presentation, including a video lesson on the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and main human rights concepts. The visitors found particularly inspiring the warm video greeting by the Secretary-General of the GCA, Ms Carla Miranda, who encouraged them to engage for human rights, as part of a wide Global Campus family of human rights enthusiasts – one of whose stories of civic and professional engagement they were introduced to.
Furthermore, they learned about the work of the Human Rights Center, and the opportunities for human rights engagement it offers. In the spirit of the Global Campus’ commitment to fostering an inclusive environment, this was a trilingual event (Tetum, Portuguese and English), conducted in a way which encouraged debate and exchange, which revealed much interest for the topic among Timorese youth. Quite fitting – given this year’s official HR Day theme – Youth Standing Up for Human Rights.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December - the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): a milestone document proclaiming the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or another opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or another status.