Breakout session: "From Vulnerability Toward Empowerment"
Breakout session: "Human Rights, Sustainable Development and the Earth Charter"
La Mairie due Veme Arrondissement de Paris
Gustavo Germano talks about his show, "ausenc'as" (absences)Helen and I arrived in the middle of the women's rights caucus. The room was pretty full on day two, and we broke up into discussion groups. The goal was to come up with a statement on discrimination from the women's perspective to report back to the general session. Unfortunately we ran out of time, but one member voiced a strong opinion on ageism.
Day Two of the conference started with a roundtable session on Article 2 of the HR Declaration: "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
Panelists Lita Anggraini, Eugen Brand and Dan Pescod spoke of their constituents - domestic workers, people with mental illness and the blind, respectively. Although human rights treaties have affirmed the principle of equality and non-discrimination, in reality discrimination continues in countries. These panelists spoke of actions they have taken, using human rights mechanisms to champion their causes.
Helen's favorite breakout session was on the Earth Charter, a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society. All of the speakers on this panel were dynamic and impassioned. We were particularly impressed with Mary Evelyn Tucker, lecturer in religion and the environment at Yale University.
At the end of the day, we attended an artist's reception at Salle des Fetes of the Mairie du Veme arrondissment. Another beautiful venue, it displayed the works of photographer Gustavo Germano. It documented the lives of people who lost their lives during the military dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 through 1983 through "before" and "after" family portraits.
