Join our webinar on December 8, Human Rights Week:
When: 8 December 2020, 14.00-15.30 CET
Where: Zoom https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/64525397645 and should the zoom spots run out we welcome you to the RWI Youtube channel, RWI Facebook page and Facebook event to check out the session live and ask questions to the speakers.
For whom: Governments, development agencies, NGOs, experts – and anyone with an interest in human rights
Why: We are approaching Human Rights Day (December 10). With this webinar we aim to explore the links between human rights, poverty and inequality. We ask the question if current paradigms work or if we need a new social contract?
Human Rights and Poverty: Where do we go from here?
The Covid-19 pandemic has reversed decades of progress on poverty*. This has aggravated existing disparities. The pandemic brings about a vicious cycle between growing poverty and inequality.
Millions of people have already lost the possibility to lead a dignified life. Millions more stand the risk of the same unless urgent and decisive action is taken to address economic inequality, status inequality, and inequality of satisfaction.
The way forward is not to follow old paradigms. This is why the UN Secretary-General has called for a new social contract and a global deal. He underscores that taking a human rights based approach to development, ensures more sustainable, powerful, and effective outcomes.
Building back on the basis of human rights and the UN Sustainable Development Goals can significantly contribute to improving not only recovery but also resilience for the future.
- What are the key components of a new social contract?
- Would it look any different in the global north compared to the global south?
- What are the elements of a new global deal?
- How should a new development paradigm, based on human rights and the SDG’s, look like? How could a human rights based approach more concretely be applied in practice to address poverty and inequality?
These and more, are some of the key questions we will discuss during the webinar. Welcome to join the conversation.
The expert panel:
• Professor Olivier De Schutter, University of Louvain, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights
• Professor Jihen Chandoul, Tunis Business School, co-founder of the Tunisian Observatory of Economy, where she is head of policy research and advocacy.
• Professor Martha F. Davis, Northeastern University, Boston and Associate Professor at RWI
• Sabina Lauber, Senior Human Rights Adviser, UN Malawi
• Amira Malik Miller, Independent commentator and former Sustainability Advisor, in a Swedish cityormer Sustainability Expert, Large Swedish City
Adj. professor Morten Kjaerum, Director at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law will moderate the discussion.
Upcoming RWI publications:
The book ‘Human Rights and Poverty’, edited by Martha Davis, Morten Kjaerum and Amanda Lyons, will be published by Edward Elgar early 2021. Stay tuned for more information.The book ‘Human Rights in the COVID-19 Pandemic’ edited by Martha Davis, Morten Kjaerum and Amanda Lyons, will be published by Routledge early 2021
*Some key figures:
• 200 million people risk falling back into poverty;
• 71 million people may fall into extreme poverty;
• 500 million people are at risk of losing their jobs and being without social security (most are women)
• 463 million students globally, have no remote learning option