Facing History and Harvard Law School Host Nov 20 Conference

To mark the 60^th anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Facing History and Ourselves and Harvard Law School are convening some of the world's leading human rights scholars, practitioners and educators for an international conference entitled, "Hope, Critique and
Possibility: Universal Rights in Societies of Difference" on November 20^th at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

At the conference, scholars, lawyers, public officials, teachers and students will explore the effectiveness and impact of the most ambitious human rights document to come out of the devastation of the second World War. Ratified by the United Nations (UN) in 1948, the document was crafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. It represented people's hopes for a universal set of standards that would protect both individual freedom and human dignity in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II.

In the sixty years since the adoption of the UDHR, the document has inspired efforts by governments, grassroots organizations, businesses, and educators to pursue the vision of individual dignity, freedom, and equality captured in the documents 30 articles. One result is the set of regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws echoing and elaborating basic human rights.

Despite these efforts, the world has witnessed repeated instances of genocide; waves of terrorism and ethnic cleansing, famines and dispossession of people from their homes in patterns involving not merely natural disasters but deliberate decisions by state actors, and persistent deprivation of basic education and health resources for children. Political turmoil and economic transitions have given rise to unprecedented levels of global migration. This further tests that all individuals, even displaced persons and noncitizens, have universal human rights, challenging many historically relatively homogeneous nations to re-conceive of rights in response to populations with increasing religious, racial, and ethic diversity.

These realities raise questions as to whether domestic nations and international actors have the tools to realize human rights and whether the ideal of a universal set of such rights remains a desirable aspiration or feasible goal.  With conflicts over the proper scope of freedom of speech and religion, for example, in societies confronting new dimensions of diversity, some people question the relevance of the UDHR framework when compared with national constitutions and cultures. Nowhere is this challenge felt more profoundly than in schools, where teachers work to help their students learn to respect difference and to inculcate national values and identities.

At this conference, educators, lawyers, political theorists, and other participants will examination critiques and possibilities that remain in pursuing universal rights in schools and societies where refugee and immigrant populations, long-standing domestic divides, and periodic global disasters challenge nation states and the world as a whole.  The conference is co-chaired by Martha Minow, Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor at Harvard Law School, and Margot Stern Strom, Executive Director of Facing History and Ourselves. It is held in partnership with the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies and will take place at Harvard Law School's Pound Hall.

According to Margot Stern Strom, the executive director of Facing History and Ourselves, "As the UDHR became recognized, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke of the small places where human rights begin - places ‘so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world.' In the 21^st century, those small places have to include classrooms where teachers and students together address the complex issues relating to human rights.  It is our hope that in our classrooms this next generation will learn to develop the empathy, the world view and the skills to prevent further mass violence and genocide."

Professor Minow added, "The anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives us an occasion not only to celebrate the hopes and hard work of its drafters but also to engage in detailed analyses of precisely how it is possible to promote, as Article 26 calls for the ‘full development of the human personality,' strengthen  ‘respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms," and ‘promotes understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups' in real classrooms in Kansas City, in London, Marseilles, and in Hamburg."

The Harvard Law School/Facing History and Ourselves Program, funded by the Seevak/Facing History and Ourselves Fund at Harvard Law School, provides for the study of legal and political levers of power, available to ordinary people across the world as they advocate for democracy and human rights with the purpose of using these historical examples to highlight, inform and guide the present and the future. The initiative will include work drawing from human rights, civil rights, international law, terrorism, poverty law and legal history.

List of Conference Participants