The University of Hawaii at Hilo will be the Big Island host Friday for a Human Rights Campus Community Dialogue from noon to 1:30 p.m. via the Hawaii Interactive Television System. Focus will be on the UN World Conference on Environment, featuring a first-hand report from a Hawaii delegate. The session will originate from the UH-Manoa campus, transmitted to Neighbor Island sites, including the UH-Hilo Media Services Room 359.
The main speaker will be Joshua Cooper, director of the Hawaii Institute for Human Rights, who will discuss the state of human rights in the world and Hawaii, environment climate change in Oceania and adaptation strategies from small island states. He will share his experience from attending the United Nations Rio+20 World Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development.
It is part of this week’s 13th annual Advanced Summer Seminar On Human Rights, Peace, Ecology and Global Justice, sponsored by the Hawaii Institute for Human Rights along with a coalition of local and global associations. This year’s focus is human rights and the environment.
For more information, please contact joshuacooperhawaii@gmail.com or call 808-542-7204.
This week’s summer seminar talks are tracing the historical developments of human rights and the environment in international law and the accompanying important institutions and instruments measuring implementation.
The philosophy of the summer training program is dedication to the promotion of human rights principles and a culture of peace through education and personal empowerment. The course advocates the use of public law instruments in implementing civil, political, economic, social, cultural, collective and solidarity rights. The week-long seminar strives for social justice in the development of a sustainable society in Hawaii.
“Every annual seminar includes an action focusing on how Hawaii can participate as citizens of the world to make a difference in a global campaign,” explained Cooper. “The focus this year will be on Human Rights and the Environment in three important international initiatives. The first will be to explore how City & County of Honolulu and State of Hawaii can implement the Outcome Document from Rio+20 in the future. The second will be on the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United States of America. We will look at the recent visit of UN Special Rapporteur Jim Anaya to the United States of America in 2012.
“Another important campaign will be the midterm review of the adoption of the Universal Periodic Review of the United States at the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 and how to implement the recommendations. The main initiative will be the creation of a Hawaii Commission on Human Rights in the spirit of the global National Human Rights Institution to promote and protect human rights in Hawaii. Participants will be able to plan for the upcoming legislative session for Hawaii activities and also be able to use social media tools to advance human rights in the United States of America and the United Nations,” said Cooper. Visit www.human-rights-hawaii.org.
