EIUC: Venice School of Human Rights, Venice, 6-13 April 2019

The Monastery of San Nicolò at the Lido of Venice will host, from 6 to 13 April 2019, the Venice School of Human Rights, an educational programme managed by the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC).

The Venice School of Human Rights was established in 2010 with the goal of studying today’s challenges in the field of human rights and allowing its participants to examine thoroughly the details and the possible solutions concerning the topics addressed.

The 2019 edition of the Venice School of Human Rights will be dedicated to the issue of Human Rights Defenders.
Human Rights Defenders play an essential role in the realisation of rights, including equality in its various dimensions. Not only do they fight for human rights in situations of oppression and abuse; they also act as monitors, drawing attention of the international community to otherwise neglected violations and threats; they assist victims in claiming their rights; and they contribute to holding those in power accountable.

The Venice School of Human Rights’ programme will face a cross-section of instruments, policies and coordination mechanisms that have been devised to protect and facilitate the work of human rights defenders. This will be done with the involvement of Protect Defenders and Front Line and/or other major civil society organisations working in this area. The School will also explore possibilities for reinforcing the work of human rights defenders through a targeted engagement with international, regional and national human rights mechanisms as well as civil society organisations operative in areas intersecting with the work of local human rights defenders. Particular attention will be devoted to contexts of imminent threat to human rights, notably conflict and post-conflict situations and situations of repressive governance, as well as sexual and gender-based violence.

The keynote speaker for the opening lecture of the Venice School will be Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. Other lecturers are internationally recognised experts in the fields of human rights, such as the Academic Responsibles George Ulrich, EMA Programme Director; Kalliope Agapiou-Josephides, Chairperson of the European Institute for Gender Equality; Manfred Nowak, Professor of International Law and Human Rights and EIUC/Global Campus Secretary General; Teresa Pizarro Beleza, Full Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the new School of Law of NOVA (New University of Lisbon); Koen De Feyter, Professor of International Law at the University of Antwerp.

The Venice School is addressed to graduate students from all academic backgrounds, students from the different regional masters in human rights and democratisation, to E.MA alumni as well as to human rights practitioners willing to deepen and improve their knowledge in human rights issues.

Registration deadline is 6 March 2019.

More information about the Venice School are provided at the link below.

Last update

11/1/2019