Note to Correspondents

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to Address Twelfth

Annual United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights, 4 December

On Friday, 4 December, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, will address high school students from Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America who will participate in a videoconference at United Nations Headquarters.  The High Commissioner is expected to share with the young people her conviction of “the tremendous potential of the United Nations to facilitate the realization of human rights in the lives of men and women around the world”, and the role they can play in that important endeavour.

The twelfth annual Student Conference on Human Rights, organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) in collaboration with a number of partners, will discuss human rights education.  The three-day Conference will be hosted by the United Nations International School in New York on 2 and 3 December, and by DPI on Friday, 4 December. 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regularly stresses the importance of human rights as a pillar of the work of the United Nations.  “People look to the United Nations to defeat poverty and hunger, to keep the peace, to expand education and stand up for human rights”, he said in an address on United Nations Day earlier this year.  During the Conference, the students will discuss and compile recommendations on how young people can contribute to educating others and raising awareness about human rights in their schools and communities.

In their working groups, the students will discuss the sub-themes:  defining human rights education; making the school human rights friendly and implementing a strategy for action; using information and communications technologies to promote human rights; and becoming a human rights ambassador.  The students will share their recommendations electronically with all groups participating at five videoconference sites.  A human rights education panel will review the recommendations and discuss them with the students during the videoconference.

Overall, more than 300 students will participate in the conferences from the various locations.  At the Conference in New York, more than 150 students will attend from 65 schools in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the United States and from schools in British Columbia and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Associated Schools Project network (ASPnet) in Winnipeg, Canada.  Other students in New Jersey and Pennsylvania will participate remotely from videoconference sites.

In addition, more that 40 students from 11 countries in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Panama and Mexico) will gather in Mexico City in a parallel conference organized by the United Nations Information Centre in Mexico.  In Colomiers, in south-western France, more than 40 students from four schools will participate in the videoconference.

This year, the Conference is organized in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centres in Brussels, Mexico City and Port of Spain, and UNESCO ASPnet schools in Canada.  Other partners include the United Nations International School and the Berkeley Carroll School in New York, both of which will host students from outside of New York.  Civil society partners include Amnesty International, Global Education Motivators and InterConnections 21.

Student videoconferences are organized at United Nations Headquarters by the Department of Public Information to reach out to students around the world and to facilitate an exchange of views on United Nations priority issues.  The student activities are an integral part of the Public Information Department’s educational outreach activities.

Over the years, the Department’s student conference on human rights has contributed to broadening high school students’ knowledge of human rights issues, including the culture of peace, human rights and HIV/AIDS, the rights of indigenous peoples, water as a human right, and the Universal Declaration of human rights, among other themes.

Prior to the Conference, students from around the world participated in an online forum hosted on the United Nations Cyberschoolbus website http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/student/2009/about.asp.  During the Conference, students and teachers away from United Nations Headquarters are encouraged to follow the videoconference live via webcast at http://cyberschoolbus.un.org and to send in comments and questions.

This year’s student observance is being supported with a generous contribution by the United Nations Federal Credit Union, which has become a partner for the programme of student conferences.

For additional information, please contact Yvonne Acosta, Chief, Education Outreach Cluster, Outreach Division, Department of Public Information, at acostay@un.org; or Bill Yotive, Manager, Global Teaching and Learning Project, at yotive@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record