The United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights is hosted each year by the UN Department of Public Information and is scheduled to coincide closely with Human Rights Day on December 10th. The Carol Baur Foundation, Global Education Motivators, InterConnections 21, LePage Educational Consultants, United Nations International School (UNIS), UNA-Dominican Republic, and UNA-USA were all co-sponsors of this event.

The goal of this annual event is to promote awareness and learning and prompt action among student leaders about human rights in general and to encourage them to focus on specific rights and related themes from year to year. The conference is also an opportunity for student leaders to network and develop important leadership skills such as public speaking, team and consensus building, negotiating, and research and drafting. Finally, the conference provides participants with first-hand experience in using many recent information technologies such as video conferencing and web casting.

This year’s conference took place on December 2-3, 2004. The theme was “HIV/AIDS: From Awareness to Action”. Students at the United Nations worked with their peers around the world to draft a Plan of Action that they presented to the Vice-President of the 59th General Assembly Session, Ambassador Iftekar Ahmed Chowdry of Bangladesh.

The official sites included; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Mexico City, Mexico; Fairfax, Virginia, USA; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Vancouver, Canada; Bristol, United Kingdom; Barrie, Canada; Somerdale, New Jersey, USA; and Johannesburg, South Africa. During the conference, participants discussed, amended, and voted in person and via video conferencing on the draft Plan of Action prepared at the workshop the previous day. Students around the world participated online by sending comments and questions through the chat forum during the live webcast.

The event was highlighted by special performances and conversations. From South Africa, a young woman, Ms. Lucia Sibanyoni, talked about her life experiences being HIV positive. In New York, an awareness group, NiteStar, performed a series of monologues on suffering from HIV/AIDS. From Philadelphia, Dr. Joe Kulkosky performed “If Not Us, Then Who” and was joined in song by the students at each of the remote sites.

GEM worked with 8 student leaders to bring to conference in New York, as well as prepared students in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Vancouver, Bristol and Johannesburg for their participation in the program. Students are prepared through resources, on site programs, and/or the videoconference From Words to Deeds.