To mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Union and the United Nations join forces to give the floor to human rights defenders in a conference called “The Defenders Take the Floor” on 7 and 8 October at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Over 50 human rights defenders and human rights organizations will join us at this conference to give testimonies and to take stock of the situation of human rights defenders. The Brussels conference will also be an opportunity to review the support mechanisms that have been developed by the UN, the EU and the Council of Europe.
This website, launched on 1 October 2008, was specially developed for the conference and will be updated with more documents, photos and videos during the conference. Meanwhile you can join the human rights defenders by signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an initiative of the Elders.
Since the launch of UN’s yearlong, system-wide campaign to mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, on 10 December 2007 many artists have also joined the campaign dedicating their creative projects to human rights. The work of a great many of these artists is also be featured at the conference. Film makers from all over the world have made two to three minute films in an ensemble called: Stories on human rights. The films, as an ensemble or individually, will be for general use after 10 December 2008, the actual 60th birthday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The monumental new work of the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, called “6 Billion Others”, has over 5000 filmed testimonies from citizens in more than 70 countries. The Universal Declaration is recorded in over 360 languages in a project called “World Voices” by the American artist Brenda Ray. Nicola L. has dedicated her Blue Cape to human rights and, last but not least, a group of courageous political cartoonists, of the Foundation Cartooning for Peace, have been cartooning for human rights, foremost among them the French cartoonist Plantu.
The United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC) has also created a special website for the 60th anniversary called www.KnowYourRights2008.org. This website is a market place of ideas, where you can see what others are doing and post your own initiative. The spokesman for Know Your Rights is Le Petit Prince.
To claim your rights, you have to know them.