Parents and Children
January 2009
Banner photo: © Frans Lemmens/Getty Images
Highlighting Human Rights Education
Kazunari Fujii (4th from left) speaks at the human rights conference
[© SGI-UN Liaison Office]
Human rights education might seem a slow and inconspicuous means of confronting human rights violations in the world, but it is a vital effort that attacks the problem of human rights abuses at its roots, creating lasting, sustainable solutions. This was the key theme of SGI representative Kazunari Fujii's presentation at the International Expert Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria, held from August 28 to 29.
Organized by the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, the aim of the conference was to review the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights and to reaffirm the challenges to protecting and promoting human rights.
As chair of the Geneva-based NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education & Learning, Mr. Fujii gave the introductory presentation to one of the conference's three main working groups, describing efforts by NGOs to keep human rights education on the international agenda and the role of NGOs in the ongoing process of drafting a UN declaration on human rights education and training.
The 100 participants included the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jos‚ Ayala-Lasso, the president of the UN Human Rights Council Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, and representatives of intergovernmental organizations, human rights and academic institutions and a wide range of NGOs. Presentations made at the conference are to be compiled and published by the conference co-organizer, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights.
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