UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme

The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme was launched in 1992 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in conformity with Resolution 1.14 adopted by the General Conference at its twenty-sixth session (1991).

This framework is designed to promote international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work.  It is one of the instruments intended to reinforce the capacity for the sharing and the transferring of knowledge in a spirit of solidarity. It promotes the North-South and South-South cooperation as a strategy of enrichment for all of the institutions involved.

The Programme involves over 700 institutions in 116 countries to address pressing challenges and contribute to the development of their societies. The participants are principally universities and research institutes that act in partnership with numerous NGOs, foundations and organizations of the public and private sectors, involved in the field of upper level education, in particular in fields of education, natural and social sciences, culture and communication.

By the end of 2019, there are 30 UNESCO Chairs in Italy and 2 UNITWIN networks. The UNESCO Chair in “Human Rights, Democracy and Peace” was established in 1999 with an agreement signed by the Director-General of UNESCO and by the Rector of the University of Padova. Professor Antonio Papisca, founding father of the Human Rightes Centre of the University of Padova and the European Master Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation, held the UNESCO Chair from 1999 to 2017. Since 2018 the Chair holder is Marco Mascia, professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies of the University of Padova.

The Chair carries out educational and research activities in organic connection with the Human Rights Centre “Antonio Papisca” of the University of Padova.

Other Italian UNESCO Chairs working in sector of human rights are: “Human Rights and Ethics of International Cooperation" established in 2003 at the University of Bergamo, the Chair “Bioethics and Human Rights” established in 2009 at the Pontifical University “Regina Apostolorum”, European University of Rome, and Gender Equality and Women's Rights in the Multicultural Society established in 2019 at the University of Insubria.