United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights

Each Year GEM co-sponsors the United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights. The theme for 2007 will be Indigenous Peoples. You can check out a brief clip from the 2006 conference here.  

The 10th Annual UN Student Human Rights Conference will take place on  December 5-7, 2007. The theme for this year is Indigenous Peoples. The theme for the 2007 conference relates closely to several of the the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, including: Poverty Eradication; Health; Environment; and Global Partnerships.  The conference will unite 60 youth from around the world at the UN Headquarters in New York for discussion, collaboration, and action on 6 main indigenous issues including:

a.       Right to self-determination

b.       Right to land, territory and natural resources

c.       Right to Culturally Sensitive Education

d.       Right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

e.       Right to employment

f.       Protecting the rights of indigenous children and youth

Participants in New York will include up to 10 student representatives from each of the co-sponsors. Countless others will participate through videoconferencing and web-casting.

Prior to the conference, participants will conduct their own research on human rights and indigenous issues, and share their ideas through a web-based forum. During the conference, student representatives in New York will work with students from other countries participating by videoconferencing and web-casting to develop a consensus on these issues and draft a Plan of Action. The chairperson of the conference will present this document to the President of the UN General Assembly at the end of the proceedings on December 7, 2007. In past years, the President of the General Assembly has, in turn, presented the document prepared by the Student Conference to the General Assembly.

Background to the Conference

In December 1998, the United Nations Department of Public Information invited students from around the world to a conference at UN Headquarters in New York to help celebrate the 50 th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The conference goal was to produce the Youth Declaration of Human Rights.

This program at the UN was so successful that students lobbied to make the conference an annual event that would be scheduled to coincide closely with Human Rights Day (December 10 th). The UN Department of Public Information agreed to host the conference. The Carol Baur Foundation, Global Education Motivators, InterConnections 21 and the UN International School (UNIS) in New York City were founding co-sponsors . A total of nine such annual conferences have taken place since 1998.

While the theme of the conference changes each year, the goals of this annual event remain the same: to promote awareness and learning and prompt action among student leaders about human rights in general, as well as the specific rights issues related to the current year’s theme. 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 information technologies such as video-conferencing and web-casting.

Resources for the Conference

Frequently Asked Questions regarding the declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.pdf

DPI/NGO Briefing Summary "Indigenous Peoples’ Lands, Territories, Natural Resources: Livelihoods and Emerging Issues", April 19, 2007 - Briefing summary 19April07.doc

Article from Japan Today - Indigenous Peoples Seek UN Help to Protect Land Rights