Activities in Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the UDHR

EIUC is naturally dedicated to paying tribute to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a living document and is committed to organising and promoting events in celebration of the UDHR during the entire period leading up to the 60th anniversary on 10 December 2008.

 

 

Several coordinated activities are already underway, and many EIUC professors have pledged to organise events at their home universities – with the support of or in cooperation with EIUC – in honour of the UDHR.

 

 

EVENTS ORGANISED BY EIUC

• 19 July 2008: EIUC Diplomatic Conference on "Living the UDHR after 60 Years: Challenges for the European Union", Venice (Italy).

Information note:
The EIUC Diplomatic Conference is every year devoted to an exploration of topical issues in the area of human rights and democratisation. It brings together academics and experts from the EIUC participating universities and associated organisations, EIUC Advisory Board members, members of the EU COHOM group, and human rights and democratisation experts from the EU institutions.
The 2008 Diplomatic Conference is devoted to exploring the ability of the UDHR to respond to pressing global challenges that have emerged on the international agenda in the decades after the adoption of the UDHR. Taking into account a diversity of institutional perspectives on current opportunities and challenges in international human rights, the conference will examine three main themes. These are: Human rights policy challenges for the European Union; Globalisation, poverty and scientific progress; and Urbanisation and environment. A particular focus of the conference will be to identify guidelines for the role of the EU in the UN Human Rights Council.

• Summer 2008: Book "60 Years of UDHR in EU Member States", Abo Akademi University (Finland).

Information note:
Dr. Vinodh Jaichand and Prof. Markku Suksi are editing a review of the UDHR from a comparative perspective, that is, from the point of view of national law concerning the reception of the UDHR in national legal orders and by the three European organizations with a view to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UDHR. The idea is to engage the EMA network in an effort to compile a commentary or a narrative from the point of view of national law so that each of the 27 member countries and the three European organisations would feature in the book with one article on the reception and understanding of the UDHR in the legal order and political system of that country. The idea was presented towards the end of the EIUC Assembly meeting on 2 December 2007.

EVENTS ORGANISED at EIUC UNIVERSITIES in PARTNERSHIP with  EIUC

• 25-29 March 2008: conference on "Rewriting Rights in/through Postcolonial Cultures: try freedom ", Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italy).

Organisers: Cà Foscari University of Venice, Università degli Studi di Padova, Venice International University (VIU).
Information note:
The aim of the conference is to explore and articulate the interest of postcolonialism in the discourses of/on freedom and human, civil and cosmopolitical rights. It encourages a rethinking of postcolonial theory's traditional emphasis on the ethics of engagement in view of the conceptual inputs of new theoretical approaches; it promotes reflections on how to practice postcolonial pedagogies in an increasingly uncivil public sphere; and above all it invokes culturally diversified responses to these questions from the literatures and the arts (theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, cinema…) of the postcolonial world. The overall effort involves active inter-disciplinary dialogue, and the presence of speakers across a range of academic disciplines.

• 16-18 October 2008: conference on "The Local Relevance of Human Rights", University of Antwerp (Belgium). Organisers: University of Antwerp, UCSIA, Catholic University Leuven.

Information note:
Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10th 1948, numerous international documents have reaffirmed human rights as global norms. But do human rights offer real protection when disadvantaged groups invoke them at the local level in an attempt to improve their living conditions?   
The Antwerp conference examines what factors determine whether appeals to human rights that emanate from the local level, are successful, or not. In this context, the conference equally reviews whether the Universal Declaration adequately responds to threats as currently defined by relevant groups, or whether a revision of some of the ideas included in the UDHR is needed in order to increase its contemporary relevance.

• 01 November 2008: conference on the "Rights of Future Generations", Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (Hungary).

Organiser: Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Co-organiser: Institute for Legal Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Information note:
Two-day International Conference of the Eötvös-Loránd-University, Budapest on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
November 2008: one-day workshop  on  the  theme  of the  freedom  of expression  in  the  UDHR.  Which  is  the  content  of  the  freedom  of  the  religion?  Which  are  its  limits  in  Human  Rights  terms?  How  a  majoritarian  religion,  in  our  case  the  Christian  orthodox  has  to  interact  with  other  religion?  How  to solve  the  possible  conflicts   of  norms?  Given  the  importance  of  the  topic  we  can  organize  a seminar  on  this  topic  with  foreign and  Romanian  academics  discussion  the  topic. University of Bucharest. Prof. Iulia Motoc.

• 6-10 December 2008: conference on "Systems of Protection of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 60 years later", Université du Luxembourg (Luxembourg).

EVENTS ORGANISED AT LOCAL LEVEL AT EIUC UNIVERSITIES

• 23 May 2008: Awarding of Doctorate Honoris Causa to Ms Louise Arbour, Abo Akademi University (Finland).

Information note:
The Faculty of Law, Åbo Akademi University, during the promotion of doctors will award the Doctorate Honoris Causa to Ms Louise Arbour, UN HCHR, for her HR work and work as the Chief Prosecutor of the Yugoslavia War Crimes tribunal as well as for her solid academic contributions.