This February 2025 marks the launch of the Column by the University Centre for Human Rights Antonio Papisca and the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights, Democracy and Peace at the University of Padua, dedicated to inclusion and eco-social justice. It aims to promote a culture of inclusion and eco-social justice through a scientific and informative approach and disseminating content and in-depth analyses on these topics, from a perspective that is as articulate, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, and open as possible. It will feature a variety of resources, including news, thematic insights, documentation pages, multimedia content (videos, podcasts, audio recordings, image galleries, etc.), and hyperlinks.

The starting assumption is that the right to inclusion, grounded in each person's diverse realities, is a fundamental right. A society without inclusion undermines the possibility of a world in which dignity and human rights can be fully realised.
The right to inclusion and eco-social justice demands recognition and respect not only for civil and political rights, but also for economic, social, and cultural rights, the rights of peoples, and the rights of the Earth.

The Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world".

This is certainly a challenge that many of us have taken up, colleagues from various departments, technical-administrative staff, permanent and non-permanent personnel from this and other universities, professionals working outside the university sphere in different sectors, and interested citizens. The scientific-editorial committee is composed of individuals who are deeply engaged with the project’s topics and eager to contribute to building collective forms of reasoning, reflection, resistance, and transformation.

We are convinced that references and allusions to the themes of inclusion and social justice are becoming increasingly frequent today. On one hand, we believe this is significant, as we are repeatedly called to witness the expansion of climate, environmental and economic threats, inequalities, tensions and wars, conditions that foster increasingly complex forms of vulnerability across ever-wider sections of the population. These dynamics contribute to the fraying of social cohesion, demotivation, loss of meaning, and changes in future-oriented thinking.

On the other hand, we ask ourselves why, when crossing these trends — inclusion and social justice on the one hand, and inequalities and inequities on the other — intersect,  it seems that nothing 'good' comes of it. Why is it that, despite increased attention to social justice, we continue to review reports, research and documents that attest to the expansion of inequities, difficulties, discomfort, pain, passivity— even with regard to the future?

The background scenario is one of global interdependence, characterised by the multiplicity, complexity, and fluidity - in short, the disorderly unfolding - of ongoing processes of change. The more the world is marked by interdependence and globalisation, the more extensively the fundamental rights of the person are asserted.

In the Report "Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education" (2021) developed by the International Commission on the Futures of Education and promoted by UNESCO, it is stated that "a world order anchored in the common values expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is weakening", and that a new social contract for education "must be founded on human rights and based on principles of non-discrimination, social justice, respect for life, human dignity and cultural diversity. It must encompass an ethic of care, reciprocity and solidarity."

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted by UNESCO in 2005, states: "The protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions presuppose the recognition of equal dignity of, and respect for, all cultures, including the cultures of persons belonging to minorities and indigenous peoples."

It is on the basis of these premises that we have decided to embark on this endeavour, because we care deeply about reducing the ambiguities that characterise these themes, those of inclusion and eco-social justice, which are often used to support everything and its opposite, creating confusion and effectively keeping minds trapped in the 'status quo'. We are convinced that it is necessary to overcome ambiguity and superficiality; that it is essential to deepen understanding, clarify meanings, and offer valuable insights — to stimulate greater awareness and critical reasoning, and thereby provide fresh operational impetus, energy and hope.

We are also convinced of the need to move beyond mainstream visions — those that have taken hold, often without our realising — and to reclaim plural thinking and the richness of conceptual frameworks. At the same time, we believe in the importance of making conscious choices and pushing ourselves towards innovative and generative solutions and ideas. We wish to move in this direction through unprecedented contaminations, experimental ideas, collaborative co-constructions between various knowledge and disciplines – reaching towards a future that does not want to be a wait for the present that reiterates itself, and its misery, but as a common good, collective, shared – sunny for human beings and beyond.

The complex and difficult challenges faced by humanity and our planet lead us to argue that human rights, inclusion, social justice, and also ecological cultures must be placed firmly at the centre These must be capable of interweaving in innovative ways to favour quality social transformations, promote freedom, peace, equality – in more complex forms than in the past, involving different forms of life, both human and non-human. Our thinking must become complex, articulated, capable of thinking about human beings and all living forms if what we desire is a quality future. Hence, the name of the Column: Inclusion and Eco-social Justice.

We hope that these commitments and efforts will serve as a stimulus, a source of support and inspiration – to give meaning to human life, to foster essential processes of signification, and to cultivate new forms of collective and equitable agency centred on human rights, as well as on the respect for and inclusion of diverse forms of life.  We also aim to encourage experiments that promote knowledge, reflexivity, critical consciousness and actions inspired by these values. In short, the aim is to promote the development of a universal citizenship to be exercised "from the city to the UN". Universal citizenship both summarises and harmonises demographic citizenships, and the inclusive city is the space that facilitates this process. Thus, universal citizenship presupposes the inclusive city – and vice versa.

Finally, we wish to emphasise that the Column is open, evolving,  and collaborative. It is aimed at students, researchers, professionals in the field, school teachers, administrators and operators of local authorities, members of civil society organisations and, in general, citizens – with whom we hope to start further co-constructions and interactive, osmotic, and creative virtuous circles.