John Cabot University and UNICRI Launch Summer School on Human Rights

On Monday, July 23rd, John Cabot University and UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute), launched the Summer School on Human Rights. Bringing together mainly post-graduate students from 5 continents, the summer school featured lessons held by international experts (and several JCU professors) on such subjects as the Universal and European frameworks for civil and political, and social, cultural and economic rights; human rights in the Islamic world; the right to food security; women’s rights; and the freedoms of speech and religion.

JCU alumna Giorgina Alfonso Rodriguez, from Uruguay, served as the tutor for the course, coordinating the content of the different lectures with the instructors and students. For Giorgina, “the Summer School in Human Rights was particularly important for gaining awareness about the contemporary challenges to human rights. It has taught me that in an increasingly globalized but still incredibly diverse world, it is a challenge to reconcile the theoretical universality of human rights with a practical, particular implementation. At the same time, the course has been important in teaching the best ways in which human rights can be guaranteed; for instance, cultural rights, which in their specificity clearly conflict with the pursued universality of human rights.”

Several John Cabot alumni, on their way to positions in international non-governmental organizations and graduate study in human rights, participated in the course, gaining insight from such an intensive examination of so many different facets of human rights. Students from Asia, North and South America were especially keen to learn about the particularly successful European system of human rights.

For further information, and the full program, click here.