Concept note

This international conference aims to explore the intricate and complex relationship between self-determination, peace, core human and peoples’ rights and multilateralism in the current era, marked by rising aggressive nationalism and a return of power politics and armed conflict. The last decade has shown an unrelenting increase in unilateral war actions, forbidden under the UN Charter, including those launched by Russia against Ukraine, and those advanced by Israel against Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and more recently Iran, with the direct engagement of the US. Lots of people and groups are having their fundamental rights and freedoms smashed by these actions and their consequences. In Gaza, the situation in which civilians find themselves, especially women and children, is beyond imagination, with authoritative voices in academia and civil society identifying it as a genocide, and with ethnic cleansing looming in the words and actions of the Israeli and US Governments concerning the future of the Strip. The European Union and its members show to have completely forgotten (or betrayed) the values on which European political integration has long been claimed to be built, displaying clear self-interested double standards in approaching ongoing international situations and a short-sighted but strong and ultimate belief in the power of rearmament. The UN, turning 80 in 2025, have received unprecedented blows to their legitimacy, credibility and “moral force”. The most powerful states are bending, as never before since 1945, international law to the particular political interests mining the normative basis of international politics. Member states are also cutting resources for global multilateral cooperation and institutions, leading to a process of streamlining of UN functioning which, however, risks flattening the diversity and visibility of its action for peace, human and peoples’ rights, sustainable development and climate justice, as implied in the recommendations of the recent UN80 Task Force’s memo about the actions to be taken. Still, while institutions and programmes for human rights and social and economic development are cut to the bones, the arms race is skyrocketing in every part of the world with possibly disastrous nuclear outcomes on human life and the environment. On its part, the climate crisis is disappearing from the radars of international politics reducing the opportunity for agency, participation and protection of civil society, especially vulnerable groups, indigenous peoples and minorities.

Framed within such a daunting global context, the conference aims to examine how the fundamental right to self-determination and other people’s rights, such as those to a healthy environment and to development intersect with the individual and collective aspiration for peace and justice before the current status of international politics and international law. It seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of human and peoples’ rights and their multilateral frame in the current complex geopolitical landscape and to more enhanced research on these crucial elements of global, transnational and national politics, with the University of Padova at its centre. It is open to the participation of scholars (including Ph.D. students and early career researchers) and human rights practitioners and looks for ideas and practices to resist the current existential challenges for the survival of an international order based on inclusive multilateral order based on dialogue, inclusion, respect and shared values. 

The International conference is organised by the Human Rights Centre “A. Papisca” together with the UNESCO Chair Human Rights Democracy and Peace and with the support of the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies of the University of Padova. It benefits from the active collaboration, of the following partner institutes:  the Human Rights Consortium at the University of London, the UNESCO Chair in Human Security and Human Rights at the University of Graz, the School of Global Studies at the University of Goteborg, the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, the Global Campus of Human Rights (104 world universities with headquarters in Venice) and the Institute of International Studies at the University of Wroclaw.