Human Rights Day Celebrations
08 December 2009
Venue: Various locations, Colchester Campus
Human Rights Centre
Time: 18:30
To mark the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Colchester Campus will be hosting several activities organised by students, student societies, and the Human Rights Centre from 8-10 December:
Tuesday 8 December: The Essex Amnesty International student group will welcome Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, a Burmese student refugee whose father is a political prisoner in Burma, who will give a talk chaired by Professor John Packer, Director of the Human Rights Centre, in LTB3 at 6pm. This event will be followed by a musical night, hosted by all the human rights societies on campus, in Level 2.
Wednesday 9 December: To mark the anniversary of the Genocide Convention, and in preparation for Holocaust Memorial Week and the Essex Model United Nation (MUNEX) Conference in January, students and societies will raise awareness about genocide.
Thursday 10 December: To celebrate the theme for Human Rights Day, non-discrimination, human rights and cultural societies will turn the Squares on the Colchester Campus into a festival of music, dance and colour. Stalls and displays will be set up to raise awareness about discrimination and students will be using the campus steps to write-out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
During the afternoon there will be a short demonstration to support two youth activists who were arrested and imprisoned in Azerbaijan, Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada. Recognised as ‘prisoners of conscience’ by Amnesty International, the EU, the Council of Europe, Human Rights Watch, the US State Department, and British and German MPs have condemned their arrest.
The demonstration has been organised by Essex postgraduate student Turgut Gambar, a friend of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada. A video petition demanding freedom for the two youth activists will be recorded at 2pm and dozens of people are expected to take part in this call for the respect of human rights.
The day will conclude with two discussions. At 5.15pm Professor Andrew Mack from Simon Fraser University will give a talk entitled, ‘A more secure world? Explaining the post-cold war decline in global conflict’. This will be followed at 7pm with a discussion on discrimination and its forms. Chaired by Professor Lydia Morris of the University’s Department of Sociology, members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) Society, Refugee Council and disability team will join the panelists.
Finally, students and local communities will be able to end the celebrations with a music night in Level 2.
For more information on all the activities organised, e-mail babdulb@essex.ac.uk or telephone 0753 9462330.
This event is open to the general public.