Graduation Ceremony of the E.MA 2015/2016 and Inauguration of the A.Y. 2016/2017

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice is the beautiful setting in which the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) will welcome – on Sunday 25 September - the graduating students of the academic year 2015/2016 of the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation E.MA – as well as the new cohort of E.MA students who will contextually celebrate the opening of the E.MA academic year 2016/2017.

The Graduation Ceremony will be the occasion for the EIUC President, Dzidek Kedzia, and EIUC Secretary General, Manfred Nowak, both recently appointed, to address renowned international authorities, academics and professionals active in the promotion of democracy and the implementation of human rights worldwide, with their input and views on the Centre’s perspectives and development.

At the core of the Graduation Ceremony will be the students, the representatives of all EIUC and E.MA participating universities who hosted, taught, supervised the students throughout the year, as well as the representatives of the universities partner in the Global Campus network. Veronika Gomez, Global Campus Chairperson, will address the audience on behalf of the Regional Master’s programmes.

The Ceremony will further be the venue for EIUC to provide visibility to the fundamental support the Centre gathers for international organisations, the Italian government, and local authorities.

Among the latter, the Ceremony will feature in particular:

In addition to the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, hosting the event in Scuola Grande San Rocco:

• Pier Paolo Baretta, State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Finance, Italian Government
• Fabrizio Petri, Minister Plenipotentiary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italian Government
• Ulrike Lunacek, Vice President of European Parliament
• Michael O’ Flaherty, Director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA)
• Véronique Dauge, Head of Culture Unit and Officer-in-Charge, for the Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe of UNESCO, speaking in representation of Nada Al-Nashif, Assistant Director General for Social and Human Sciences, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Further highlights of the 2016 Graduation Ceremony include:

• The gracious patronage of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament;
• The awarding of the EIUC Medal of Honour to Horst Fischer, former EIUC President;
• The signing of a Working Arrangement between EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and EIUC;
• The announcement of George Ulrich as new E.MA Programme Director for the academic year 2016/2017.

A new accompanying music arrangement for the Ceremony , performed, for the first time by Musicians For Human Rights – under the lead of Julian Fifer - with music pieces from South America, Asia, and the Middle East (both Arab and Jewish) in addition to classic closure of the Ceremony with Ludwig van Beethoven “Ode an die Freude”.