Every year, Human Rights Day is celebrated on December 10, as it is the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although over 70 years have passed since this act was passed, there are still countries where human dignity is not respected. To emphasize the importance of human rights and the scale of their global violations, the Students Center for European Union Research „EU Club” and the Student Scientific Circle of the Institute for Research on Civilizations organized two events addressed to students and employees of our University.
The first was the Amnesty International Letter Writing Marathon. During the event, participants wrote letters to the governments of countries where human rights are violated. This idea was born a dozen or so years ago in Poland and became the largest event in the world to defend human rights. In 2018 over 5.9 million letters were written worldwide.
It may seem that one letter cannot change anything. But that’s not true. Each message makes a difference, as demonstrated by the effects of earlier marathons. Last year around 500,000 letters were sent to Brazilian authorities. Later we saw in the news that the killers of activist Marielle Franco were arrested.
The second event was the UITM Talks: Human Rights, during which seven students presented six speeches to inspire and raise awareness about human rights and fight to defend the vulnerable. From among a dozen or so entries, the organizers chose those that comprehensively presented the issue and pointed to the changes that should be made to make the world a better place.
“The event was organized for the first time, which is why we were surprised by the scale of interest, from the number of applications received, through the completed IQ Club, to 1,600 people who watched us online. The topics discussed concerned refugee rights, the impact of veganism on the environment and public health, the right to education, violations by the fashion industry, the death penalty and a lack of respect for human rights of the world’s poorest people. We invite you to the next edition of the event, which will take place in March and will be entirely devoted to women’s rights” sums up Sylwia K. Mazur.
fot. Duong Manh Thai Nguyen
