Posts Tagged ‘Geneva’
DiploHack 2016 Geneva: a short video report
March 1, 2016Regional update for ASIA
February 29, 2016A regional update on Asia is based on a submission to United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (15 February) and a report of the Regional Consultation of Citizens’ Voices held in Kathmandu (25/26 February) held under the aegis of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR).
The Asian Legal Resource Centre directs the attention of the Human Rights Council to the critical situation of human rights defenders in China, Bangladesh, and Thailand, who are facing dire threats to their person and profession: Read the rest of this entry »
Is the EU still a World Leader in Human Rights?
February 29, 2016
The Graduate Institute of Geneva is organizing a potentially interesting Lunch Briefing on Tuesday 1 March 2016, 12h30 – 13h00, in the Maison de la Paix.
Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU’s Special Representative for Human Rights, will explore the role of human rights in EU foreign policy and major challenges in ensuring effective human rights promotion around the world, including the question of the universality of human rights, the shrinking space of civil society, and the issues of coherence and effectiveness that the EU faces today.
Stavros Lambrinidis (former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece)
For more information and registration: Newsletter The Graduate Institute, Geneva
HURIDOCS launches RightDoc to improve access to UN human rights documents
February 25, 2016
launches its new RightDocs tool with a Demo on 29 February 2016, from 18:00-19:30 in the Palais des Nations, Delegates Restaurant, Geneva.
RightDocs is a new tool to search, sort, filter, and discover resolutions of the UN Human Rights Council online and public.
The RightDocs tool is supported by the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the UN in Geneva. Read the rest of this entry »
DiploHack event on human rights to be held in Geneva on 26-27 February
February 24, 2016The Permanent Mission of the Netherlands in Geneva, THE Port Association (https://twitter.com/theportatcern) and Impact Hub Geneva will host their hackathon in the field of human rights, on the 26/27 February 2016. The Human Rights DiploHack event will bring together diplomats and human rights experts with tech developers, designers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all over Europe and beyond, to experiment and innovate on projects that directly impact people’s lives. From the multidisciplinary expertise of the participants, teams will be formed to work on two challenges presented by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
- “How can Human Right Defenders collect and transport evidence in a safe way?”, and
- “Does a photo or video tell the ‘truth?”.
[as a first contribution I refer to the video as evidence instructions posted by Witness on 18 February 2016
The result will be presented at the Palais des Nations, on 29 February during a side event open to the public on the occasion of the Human Rights Council (for accreditation to this side event, non-UN-badge holders are invited to contact the organizers before 24 February). True Heroes Films (THF) will be filming the event and will produce a short film to be shown at the side event.
http://www.diplohack.org/geneva-diplohack-for-human-rights.html
14th International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights opens in Geneva on 4 March
February 24, 2016The 14th edition of the “Festival du Film et Forum International sur les Droits Humains (FIFDH), will take place in Geneva from 4 to 13 March 2016. 200 film makers and international personalities are expected to show their films and participate in the debates.
This edition is dedicated to memory of the artist Leila Alaoui, who fell victim to the attack in Ouagadougou (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/14th-edition-of-the-geneva-human-rights-film-festival-fifdh-from-4-to-13-march-2016/). The opening takes place in the presence of te UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein and the festival closes with ‘Made in France‘ by Nicolas Boukhrief. For the full programme follow the link: http://www.fifdh.org/site/en/program
Source: International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, Geneva
Annual Sergio Vieira de Mello debate on 7 March 2016
February 17, 2016The Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation, dedicated to promoting dialogue for the peaceful resolution of conflict, organizes its annual debate on 7 March 2016, from 18h30 to 20h00, together with the Graduate Institute of Geneva. The subject is: “Mass migration: how can we ensure people’s safety and dignity?“. I takes place in the Auditorium Ivan Pictet, Maison de la Paix, Geneva. The speakers are:
Peter Maurer, President, International Committee of the Red Cross
Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
see also: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/filippo-grandi-new-united-nations-high-commissioner-for-refugees/ Read the rest of this entry »
Video to learn more about the Nelson Mandela Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
February 10, 2016
On 4 February 2016 Penal Reform International, the Quaker UN Office, and the Permanent Representations of Switzerland and Uruguay to the UN in Geneva, invited delegates, representatives of NGOs and interested stakeholders to a briefing in the Palais des Nations in Geneva on the recently adopted revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the ‘Nelson Mandela Rules’.
An expert panel provided an overview of the revision process and the significance of this set of standards, and then focused on a number of critical areas of the Rules that were updated. It sought to initiate discussion on the implementation of the Nelson Mandela Rules and to start collecting recommendations and good practice in this regard.
The panel was moderated by Laurel Townhead, Quaker UN Office, and included:
· Representative of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland
· Philipp Meissner, UN Office on Drugs and Crime
· Robert Husbands, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
· Nigel Rodley, Chair, Essex University Human Rights Centre
· Stefan Enggist, World Health Organization
· Andrea Huber, Penal Reform International.
The video – prepared by True Heroes Films (THF) – is on the long side (1 1/2 hours) but is excellent for people who want to learn more about the revised standards.
Which heroes should we cast in bronze? Human rights defenders and their statues.
February 3, 2016Some time back, 12 October 2015, Simon Bradley wrote for Swissinfo a piece on the question: “Which heroes should we cast in bronze?”. Indeed, statues celebrating dead generals, kings, artists and philosophers are found in public spaces around the world, but what about contemporary heroes, especially human rights defenders? I found a few cases where human rights defenders objected to a statue (think of the Confederate statue issue in the USA, or the protest against a statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patellar on the Sardar Sarovar Dam in India – see: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/24188), but the positive question of which human rights heroes should be honored and how is an interesting one. Bradley’s article and thus this post concern just Geneva. I wonder what other experiences exist in this area and would welcome contributions! Read the rest of this entry »
14th Edition of the Geneva Human Rights Film Festival (FIFDH) from 4 to 13 March 2016
January 28, 2016Save the dates: From 4 to 13 March 2016, the Geneva Human Rights Film Festival (FIFDH) will welcome close to 200 filmmakers and international personalities. This year, for the first time, the Festival will be also screened in 11 municipalities of the Greater Geneva area, including Anières, Bernex, Meyrin and Chêne Bourg and We also screen films in Lausanne, in partnership with Cinémathèque Suisse and Amnesty International. While waiting for the full programme’s announcement on the 23th of February, you could have a look at the debates of the 2015 edition.
French-Moroccan photographer and video artist Leila Aloui died tragically on the 18th of January 2016 following injuries sustained during the attacks in Ouagadougou. She was to be honored during the upcoming edition of the Festival and was responsible for the photograph featured on the poster. The Festival will pay tribute to her during the 2016 edition.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 