By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GENEVA (IDN) – Several international civil society groups and governments have joined hands to highlight the power of human rights education in transforming lives. In commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training<\/a>, they launched an Exhibition on March 6 at the UN in Geneva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Exhibition to be displayed until March 17 “reiterates the vital role of human rights education and training in the promotion of dignity, equality and peace, and in the prevention of human rights violations and abuses” \u2013 in the face of the rising wave of xenophobia, bigotry, and intolerance. Japanese<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Exhibition<\/a> is co-organized by Soka Gakkai International (SGI)<\/a>, Human Rights Education 2020 (HRE 2020)<\/a>, the NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education and Learning, and the states comprising the Platform for Human Rights and Training, “with thanks to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 25-panel exhibition shows how human rights education has transformed the lives of people in Australia, Burkina Faso, Peru, Portugal and Turkey. It invites citizens, governments and civil society organizations to take action to nurture a culture of human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the opening, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Ambassador Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo said, human rights education and learning is critical for \u201cachieving peace, tolerance, and sustainable development in the society\u201d, particularly at a time of \u201cincreasing polarization, violence, and extremism\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She was speaking on behalf of the nine governments involved in Platform for Human Rights Education and Learning. The nine governments are: Brazil, Costa Rica, Italy, Morocco, the Philippines, Senegal, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An escalating \u201crumble\u201d from people all over the world is that \u201cgrowing discrimination and abuse, joblessness and deprivation, inequality, and elite corruption,\u201d will no longer be tolerated as there is growing awareness of the power of human rights, said Craig Mokhiber, a senior official in charge of development and economic and social issues of the UN Commission for Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowledge and power of human rights education as demonstrated in the Exhibition, he said, empowers people to live with freedom and dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He praised SGI\u2019s initiative in spreading the human rights education and learning which ultimately helps the victims of \u201cdomestic violence in Turkey\u201d or harsh and violent methods of segregation imposed by the Australian authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SGI is a community-based Buddhist association with 12 million members around the world. Its members promote peace, culture and education as part of the long-standing tradition of Buddhist humanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quoting SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, Hirotsugu Terasaki, the Tokyo-based organisation’s Director General of Peace and Global Issues said: “. . . it has never been more important to create and solidify a movement for human rights education that will foster the social conditions in which people treasure human diversity and dignity. . .”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement read out by Terasaki, Ikeda said that the Exhibition was being held for the first time at the venue of the Human Rights Council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the \u201cdark forces of hatred and xenophobia are increasingly directed at refugees, migrants, and foreign nationals\u201d, sustained efforts must be made at all levels to promote human rights education for combating and eradicating \u201call forms of discrimination, racism, stereotyping, and incitement to hatred, and the harmful attitudes and prejudices that underlie them\u201d, Ikeda said in his statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In times of \u201cprofound transformation and uncertainty\u201d, said Abdulaziz Almuzaini, director of UNESCO\u2019s office in Geneva, \u201chuman rights education and freedoms is a fundamental tool to guarantee respect for the rights of all people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almuzaini said the exhibition organized by SGI \u201cdemonstrates that human rights education can be a powerful tool for nurturing values, including peace, justice, non-violence, tolerance and respect for human dignity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the adoption of \u201cuniversal declaration of human rights\u201d seventy years ago, Almuzaini said, UNESCO wants \u201call human rights- civil, cultural, economic, social, and political- can be best spread and promoted through sustained human rights education, and learning\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On behalf of the HRE 2020 \u2013 a coalition of 15 non-governmental organizations working on human rights and co-organizer of the exhibition \u2013 Emma Melander Borg underscored the need for continuous \u201cmonitoring and implementation of human rights as enshrined in the UN Declaration\u201d in a world undermined by challenges to democracy and violations of human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Against the backdrop of rising violence and growing violations of human rights by states and their new rulers, it is important to adopt \u201cvarious approaches that are necessary\u201d for empowering victims through human rights education and learning, Terasaki said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each case involving human rights violations needs a thorough examination for which human rights education must be central in all stages of peoples’ lives commencing at \u201celementary and primary\u201d school. \u201cUnless we create a feeling for understanding the importance of human rights in all people, human rights violations would be repeated. This is what [SGI\u2019s] initiative aims at through the exhibition,\u201d he told IDN-INPS, in an interview during the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked about the current plight of immigrants and their dire plight in the United States, Terasaki said: \u201cAmerica has developed through pluralism and diversity which helped the country to develop rapidly. If they actually change their attitude then they are rejecting their past, they are denying their past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He expressed concern over the current global phase characterized by unpredictability, uncertainty, violence, deprivation, and anxiety and general attack on human rights. \u201cThat is the reason why SGI is making a strong effort on human rights education,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Relevant to the theme of the Exhibition is the book titled \u201cAge of Anger \u2013 A History Of The Present\u201d by Pankaj Mishra, an Indian author and writer of literary and political essays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mishra says: \u201cThe post-9\/11 policies of pre-emptive war, massive retaliation, regime change, nation-building and reforming Islam have failed \u2013 catastrophically failed \u2013 while the dirty war against the West\u2019s own Enlightenment, inadvertently pursued through extrajudicial murder, torture, rendition, indefinite detention and massive surveillance, has been a wild success.\u201d [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 09 March 2017]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo: Ambassador Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo of Brazil (left in the photo) addressing launch of the Exhibition as representative of the Platform for Human Rights Education and Learning, comprising the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica, Italy, Morocco, the Philippines, Senegal, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Thailand. Credit: Kimiaki Kawai | SGI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda GENEVA (IDN) – Several international civil society groups and governments have joined hands to highlight the power of human rights education in transforming lives. 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