Human Rights Defenders Exhibition

Date/Time
Date(s) - 07/11/2024 - 20/11/2024
12:00 am

Location
Maison du Savoir, ground floor

Categories


Across the world, the security of individuals and organisations defending human rights is threatened. Human rights violations continue to worsen, in a context where the space accorded to civil society is dangerously shrinking in a growing number of countries. Human rights defenders, engaged in the peaceful struggle against social and environmental injustices, are frequently the victims of violent repression. With this exhibition, a group of five Luxembourg NGOs active in the domain and the UNESCO Chair of Human Rights at the University of Luxembourg come together in order to raise awareness of this worrying reality.

Across a series of fifteen poignant testimonial portraits, the exhibition allows the visitor the opportunity to explore the varied experiences of human rights defenders from Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, all of whom share in the daily fight for the defence of human rights in their communities. The exhibition further provides a more general overview of the global situation of human rights defenders, provides information on the United Nations framework, and opens possible avenues of civic engagement here in Luxembourg for supporting human rights defenders.

With the participation of Mary Lawlor, United Nations Special Reporter on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, the UNESCO Chair is organising a round table on 12 November around the theme of ‘Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society: Issues, Challenges, and International Perspectives’. Seeking to foster a better understanding of the realities on the ground, the round table will bring together human rights defenders providing accounts of their experiences, as well as discussions of the place of international institutions in the protection of human rights defenders.

Opening event: Thursday, 7 November 2024, 11.00

Living Books – Thursday, 7 November 2024, 12.00 – 13.30.

Conference: Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society: Issues, Challenges, and International Perspectives – on Tuesday, 12 November 2024, 9.45-15.30.