Participation is free and registration is now open! Join us for the full day, or attend individual presentations as your schedule permits. All sessions will be offered in person (NSU Alvin Sherman Library) and online (Zoom) - review the agenda below.

To register for the symposium, please click here.

Celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
75th Anniversary
December 7, 2023
 

Established in the aftermath of the horrors of the Second World War, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights represents an unprecedented affirmation of human dignity and of the preciousness of each and every human life. This value is enshrined in rights to be protected, everywhere, universally, by governments and others exercising political authority over the citizenry. Limited to a declaration – and so not a legally binding document – the UDHR has nonetheless inspired and catalyzed over 70 human rights treaties that have served to renovate laws and craft a culture of respect, and human decency, in countless parts of the world. This event marks the 75^th anniversary of the Declaration and is at once a celebration of human rights and an opportunity to connect with the pressing challenges to the full enjoyment of those rights today.

Hosted by the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies, the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, the Alvin Sherman Library, and the BEDI Advisory Council, the event is intentionally crosscutting – to reflect the declaration’s ethos of universality, given form at this celebration through interdisciplinarity and inclusion. The event comprises presentations and workshops on issues of global and local concern with participation from faculty in the Shepard Broad School of Law and Halmos College’s Department of Humanities and Politics as well as by faculty, alumni and students of the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies.

December 7, 2023

08:30am : REGISTRATION, COFFEE

09:00am : OPENING REMARKS - Terry Savage  [ASL Cotilla Gallery]:

• • Words of Welcome (30 mins), from hosting organizations
  • Jim Hutchens, NSU Vice-President for Information Services and University Librarian
  • Robin Cooper, Assistant Dean of Halmos College of Arts and Sciences
  • Ismael Muvingi, Chair of the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies
  • Eileen Petzold-Bradley, BEDI Advisory Council Executive Committee Member and PhD Candidate, DCRS
  • Justin Michal, doctoral student in DCRS

JIM HUTCHENS	ROBIN COOPER

ISMAEL MUVINGI	EILEEN PETZOLD-BRADLEY

• The World of Human Rights (20 mins): A series of 2 min clips from human rights champions in different locations where human rights issues are salient right now: United Nations headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland; Kathmandu, Nepal; Cape Town, South Africa; Kiev, Ukraine; Bamako, Mali. Each clip responds to the question, What do human rights mean to you in the here and now, where you are located?
• How libraries foster Human Rights (30 mins) (Laura L. Ramirez, Alvin Sherman Library)
• The Making of Human Rights (20 mins):
  • The crafting of international consensus (Terry Savage DCRS)
  • The role of US Foreign Policy (David Kilroy Humanities and Politics)

LAURA RAMIREZ	TERRY SAVAGE	DAVID KILROY

11:00am: KEYNOTE ADDRESS [ASL Cotilla Gallery]:

Evolving Efforts: Shifts within Anti-Trafficking Advocacy and the entities that support them, by Dr. Jacqueline Kulaga, Management and Program Analyst for the United States Government, and alumna of DCRS.

JACQUELINE KULAGA

 12:00pm: LUNCH

 12:30pm TWO WORKSHOPS : one at 12:30pm ; the next at 01:45pm

o 12:30pm: Workshop Session #1 - choose from the following options:

• The Death Penalty and its Abolition in the Commonwealth Caribbean [ASL Cotilla Gallery] (Jane Cross, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion & Public Impact, and Director of the Caribbean Law Programs)   
• Cancelled Education in Conflict and Crisis Settings [ASL #4009] (Cheryl Duckworth DCRS). This interactive workshop will share two key principles of education in conflict and emergency contexts, and involve participants in an activity that will help build conflict analysis skills, and begin designing curriculum that empowers teachers and students to transform drivers of violence. 
• Human Rights, Sustainable Development, and Conflict Transformation [ASL #3018] (Ismael Muvingi DCRS). This workshop examines sustainable development through the lens of conflict sensitivity and conflict transformation, highlighting the role of human rights in both.
   

JANE CROSS	CHERYL DUCKWORTH
MARY HOPE SCHWOEBEL	ALEXIA GEORGAKOPOULOS

o 01:45pm: Workshop Session #2 - choose from the following options:

• Dealing with History: Approaches to Justice [ASL #3018] (Terry Savage DCRS and former Reparations Policy Advisor with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights).This workshop explores contemporary approaches to getting justice for heinous violations of human rights, which, unaddressed, quickly turn into mass violence.
• Rights of Nature [ASL #4009] (Mary Hope Schwoebel DCRS) Rights of Nature is a powerful legal, non-anthropocentric, holistic approach for addressing the restoration of and protection of nature, global biodiversity, and the climate, that catalyzes multiple SDGs, including 6, 12,13,15, 16.
• Film and Human Rights [ASL Cotilla Gallery] (Alexia Georgakopoulos DCRS) As the Former Director of the Common Ground Film Festival at NSU for over 8 years, Dr. Georgakopoulos will cover the power film offers for teaching the ethos, logos, and pathos involving Human Rights. The session will cover examples of trailers and vignettes of compelling films including documentaries, award winning movies, media/news interviews, and documentaries that will give people the visceral experience of why Human Rights should be everyone's concern.

o 03:00pm: FACILlTATED DISCUSSION ON OUTCOMES AND NEXT STEPS
    [ASL Cotilla Gallery]

o 03:15pm: ASL AND DCRS OFFER CLOSING REMARKS
    [ASL Cotilla Gallery]

• This will include a few mementos for takeaway.