Ceremony of the Awarding of Diplomas of the “European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation” of the academic year 2022/2023

The ceremony of the awarding of diplomas of the European Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA, Global Campus Europe) for the academic year 2022/2023 and the inauguration of the 27th cohort, academic year 2023/2024, will be held on Sunday 24 September at 16.00 at Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice.

In total, 86 students from 32 different countries will be graduating this September. Looking ahead to the new academic year in 2023/2024, we have 86 incoming students from 36 different countries.

Veronica Gomez, the President of the Global Campus of Human Rights, along with Manfred Nowak, the Secretary General of the Global Campus,  and Maria Laura Picchio Forlati from the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, will extend a warm welcome to the graduating students, their families and their friends, professors and members of our global network, and partner organisations and local guest. The Global Campus is particularly happy to this year welcome representatives of the new regional Master’s Programme on Human Rights and Sustainability in Central Asia with MAHRS, coordinated by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Keynote speaker of the conference is Sima Samar, winner of the Right Livelihood Award in 2012 and famous Afghan activist. In her country, Sima Samar established the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and served as its first Minister, and as Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Both institutions have since been dissolved by the Taliban. The second keynote is held by Chiara Adamo, Director of the "Gender, human rights and democratic governance" unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnership, main donor and long-term partner of the Global Campus. The Ceremony will be accompanied by music played by the Venetian ensemble‘Interpreti Veneziani’.

The ceremony will serve as a significant moment to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of the Global Campus of Human Rights, a network of 100 universities worldwide specialising in human rights education. The EMA programme is the oldest one of the eight regional programmes, marking 26 years of educating new generations of human rights defenders.

Among the attendees will be representatives from partner universities, rectors, and professors from universities participating in EMA, as well as professors from the Global Campus' regional hubs. Additionally, representatives from various international organisations and other authorities, including the European Union (the main supporter of the Global Campus of Human Rights) and Right Livelihood, will also be present. This event is a platform for recognition and sharing of accomplishments within this global human rights education network.

Among the important moments of the Ceremony there will be: the EMAlumni Award 2023, introduced by Mèlina Pele, President of the EMA Alumni Association. The award is a glass sculpture entitled “Collective Memory” generously donated by artist Koen Vanmechelen and Fondazione Berengo - to Charlemagne Gomez for her outstanding work for Afghan human rights defenders during the moment of crisis. In addition, we will present the first Joint Annual Engaged Artivist Award on Atrocity Prevention and Human Rights that will go to the artivist Zahara Gómez Lucini. The year long artistic residency award is symbolised with a Murano glass sculpture created by Venetian designer Eleonora Vaccari in collaboration with our partners from the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities(AIPG) and Binghamton University (G-IMAP).

Finally, Global Campus Europe will give the first scholarship in memory of our late colleague Nicola Tonon, IT and web marketing specialist, to an EMA student of the 2023/2024 cohort, José Vladamir Cortes Roshdestvensky from Mexico. José has previous experience as digital security expert and in digital media and communication and will dedicate his EMA research to Technology and Human Rights.

INSTITUTIONAL MESSAGES:

Manfred Nowak, Secretary General of the Global Campus: «EMA is one of the oldest and most prestigious Master programmes in the field of human rights and democracy. Our graduates work as human rights defenders in all world regions, often in high positions in governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations. In times of human rights backsliding and enormous global crises and challenges, high-quality education of future human rights defenders is more needed than ever».

Elisabetta Noli, Administrative Director of the Global Campus: «The EMA graduation ceremony provides always a moment of reflection: it is the time to celebrate students and universities for their hard and professional work during the past year, and to renew our commitment - in front of authorities, students, professors, and colleagues -  to continue to pursue the human rights education mission of the Global Campus. Its long-term investment for a future where respect of human rights can be better secured».