From Venice to the world, to promote human rights

Cristina Barbetta

Cosmocafes are real conversations between people who are experts or interested in human rights, taking place all around the world, for 18 months in total. They are part of the Human Rights Pavilion, a project by Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen. The final goal? To establish a permanent and supranational Human Rights Pavilion as part of the Venice Biennial. The project was initiated in Venice, and there we embarked on participating in one of these conversations with Italian and foreign experts

Venice the centre of the most prestigious European human rights master’s programme

Cristina Barbetta

As of tradition the graduation ceremony of the European Master's Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA) has taken place in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. EMA is the first master’s programme funded by the EU. 41 universities located in all EU member States are part of the programme. EMA is promoted by Global Campus of Human Rights, a network of more than 100 universities worldwide which offers training in the fields of human rights and democratisation

Last call to enter projects for the EESC's 2019 Civil Society Prize

Staff

Launched by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), this year the prize, rewarding excellence in civil society initiatives, is dedicated to the theme of gender equality. Final date for applications is 6 September

Yemen, MSF: Chaos and fighting in Aden as over 50 wounded admitted in just a few hours

Staff

The city of Aden, Yemen, has been hit by heavy fightings between various armed groups. This was stated in a note by MSF, reporting that, in the space of a few hours, their teams have admitted 51 wounded people to their hospital

Syria, the deadliest place in the world to be an aid worker

Staff

This emerges from an analysis done by CARE International, a major international humanitarian agency, founded in 1945 in the USA, delivering emergency relief and long-term international development projects. Syria has been holding the sad record for the third year running

Venice Film Festival: director Askold Kurov presents documentary about the case of Oleg Sentsov

Staff

In the framework of the Festival, Askold Kurov presented the documentary: “The Trial: The State of Russia vs. Oleg Sentsov” and spoke in a live panel organised by Global Campus of Human Rights at their headquarters in Venice Lido. Dissident Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for terrorism and arms trafficking after a trial denounced as “Stalinist”. In 2018 he was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament

Blockchain can have multiple applications in the social economy, but must not create a new "digital economy elite"

Staff

Originally associated with cryptocurrencies, blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are in fact very versatile and can be usefully applied to the social economy. However, it is important to regulate them properly and gear them to benefits for all, allowing everyone to participate, says the EESC in a report tabled at its July plenary

Europe: mobility is higher than ever before

Staff

Figures published in “People on the move”- statistics on mobility in Europe”, the new digital publication issued by Eurostat, show that people in the EU are on the move more than ever, be it for migration, education, work or tourism

Circular Economy: time to unleash the power of consumers, urges the EESC

Staff

So far, actions to boost the development of a circular economy in Europe have centred on production, getting industries to introduce circular business models and bring circular options to the market. Now conditions are ripe for getting consumers involved, and empowering them to make sustainable purchasing choices in their daily lives, says an EESC report adopted in July

Equal opportunities, the theme of the 2019 EESC Civil Society Prize

Staff

The EESC dedicates its flagship Civil Society Prize in 2019 to the empowerment of women and the fight for gender equality. Applications for 2019 are now open