Human Rights Day 2007: European activists celebrate with a brand new website

Today is Human Rights Day, and the United Nations will launch a year-long international advocacy campaign which looks forward to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first global enunciation of human rights. The theme that will link all the events toward the 2008,?Dignity and justice for all of us?, reinforces the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a commitment to universal dignity and justice.

?It is our duty to ensure that these rights are a living reality — that they are known, understood and enjoyed by everyone, everywhere. It is often those who most need their human rights protected, who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists — and that it exists for them? claims UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

European campaign
The core of European Human Rights campaign is the KnowYourRights2008.org website launched simultaneously in several European capitals on the 10th of December.The website will be a market place where every organisation, European or not, will upload and download ideas and share initiatives, projects and events along all the year. The website will be a useful source for information about events, campaigns and organisations which are active in Europe or all over the world and it will allow people to follow all the one-year campaign.

The UN agenda
The United Nations Headquarter will host a conference entitled Digital Dignity: New Media and Human Rights.

Kiyo Akasaka, (Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information), Craig (Mokhiber, Deputy Director, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), Jenni Wolfson, (Acting Executive Director, WITNESS), Peter Rosenblum (Professor in Human Rights, Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic), Katrin Verclas (Co-Founder and Editor, MobileActive.org), Rebecca Sommer (Independent Filmmaker), Rafal A. Rohozinski (Investigator, OpenNet Initiative) will discuss about the use of the world?s newest technologies to combat the world?s worst atrocities and to spread information.

The event will continue with a dialogue on: All of It, for All of Us: Toward an Inclusive Human Rights Agenda where representatives of states, civil society, academia and the United Nations system will discuss new approaches to restoring a holistic vision of human rights, ensuring the promise of universality, and meeting the challenges of our age.

The event will end with Sketching Human Rights the opening ceremony which will feature an exhibition of cartoons from artists around the world.

http://www.un.org/events/humanrights/2007/index.shtml