#ttm10

Thought Menu #10 - Human Rights & Wrongs - 7th Dec

The next Big Picture Day is on HUMAN RIGHTS & WRONGS on Saturday December 7th at Lime Wharf Annex.

:: DETAILS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS & WRONGS: Challenges & Opportunities in a Networked World 7th :: (check back for updates!)

Sign up here :: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/big-picture-day-5-tickets-9401922403 (free!)

What do human rights mean to you? Is social justice achievable? What is the interplay between social justice and advances in technology and global connectivity? This big picture day will focus on the topics of social justice and human rights, with a view to examining their role in an increasingly interconnected and on-line world. We will welcome speakers and workshops that seek to re-articulate and challenge notions of what human rights and social justice mean. We also want to hear from people who can speak about practical projects that confront these issues in a real way.

Key Challenges

1. What are human rights anyway? Are they still fit for purpose?

2. Both human rights and many social justice movements are misinterpreted and misrepresented in the popular press. How do we translate and communicate human rights and social justice for the new century?

3. Does Web 2.0 expand the opportunities for true, meritocratic participation. Are we seeing new groups rise to prominence in new ways, or are the same people being heard? And what implications does this have for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised groups?

4. Is ‘clicktivism’ – on-line activism and its associated petitions - a way of bringing activism to the more silent majorities? Or does it break down the culture of solidarity and horizontal cooperation in traditional social movements, reinforcing the vertical relationship between citizen and state?

5. Is respecting and protecting the rights of others a peer-to-peer responsibility? If so, how and by whom should the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of citizenship be communicated and defined?

6. Has the nature and role of the individual been coopted and distorted through new trends, particularly in institution led campaigns?

:: WHAT WILL THE DAY LOOK LIKE? ::

11:00- 13:00 - THE THOUGHT MENU We will hear from a variety of speakers covering the topic over a series of 20 min sessions.

14:00-16:00 - WORKING SESSIONS We will re-group and practically build on what has emerged so far. This will include sessions that either workshop projects or problem-solve existing issues.

:: SPEAKERS ::

More speakers will be updated once they dot their 'i' and cross their 't's!

Paul Dillane - Save Justice?

@Paul_Dillane

Paul is the lead on refugee litigation at Amnesty International UK and a former immigration and refugee law practitioner and advocate

Kim Evans- Bridging the justice gap

@lifeincustody

Kim Evans spent 30 years observing first hand how the criminal justice system treats the most disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society. She assisted Jon Robins in launching the award winning online access to justice magazine 'The Justice Gap' which attempts to explain the law and people's rights in everyday language.

Etienne Abelin - El Sistema - Playing Music as a Human Right?  

@etienneabelin

Etienne Abelin is a professional musician and is the founder of classYcal, a start-up dedicated to promoting innovations in classical music, for example by bringing classical music to clubs. A member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and a principal second violin of the Orchestra Mozart Bologna, he was the Artist-in-Residence and music curator at the Festspielhaus St.Pölten in Austria. Etienne initiated ((superar)) suisse, a start-up that brings music to socially disadvantaged children, has helped build the "Sistema Europe" network and is a founding member of the Hub Zurich.

www.etienneabelin.com

Ruth Taylor - The Orchid Project

@OrchidProject

Following two History degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level, Londoner Ruth Taylor began her working life in fundraising and direct marketing before moving into communications. In October 2010 she joined Orchid Project as a volunteer, becoming the first paid staff member at this start-up non-profit in January 2011. Now one of a team of 4.5 people, she is an expert on female genital cutting and the context surrounding it – human rights, social norms and change. 

Gaia Marcus - P2P Rights and Justice?

@la_gaia

Gaia Marcus is an Edgeryder and an UnMonk advisor, a Senior Researcher at the RSA, founded the Social Mirror project and is ¼ of the ThoughtMenu. As a relapsed yet trained human right-ist who works with communities across Europe, she will introduce the day, ensure everyone is speaking about the same things when the say ‘human rights’ and social justice, and outline her vision as human rights as a person-to-person responsibility.

:: THE WORKSHOPS ::

Normally, workshop themes emerge in the course of the day. Two potential workshops we would like to see happen are:

i. how do we tell a story of human rights that rescues it from the media?

ii. the brainstorming and organising of a seminar series that asks “what is the world we are currently creating through changes to the legal aid system”; that digs into philosophy of law and the values systems we create through our action and inaction.

:: Outputs :: Along with participant shaped focus, one of the questions we hope to address through discussion and workshops is how to tell a story of human rights that rescues them from the media. This and other themes will be captured and collated through blogs, popplets and a mash up of activist and techie collaboration on project ideas.

:: Who would you like to attend? ::

You! Human rights activists, human rights sceptics, the apathetic, the busy, the technologists… everyone is welcome, and everyone will have a role to play. Sign up here :: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/big-picture-day-5-tickets-9401922403 :: (free!)