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Millennium Development Goals Challenges: Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Human Rights

Rome -

The 2013 edition of the Summer School on Human Rights has been successfully organized by UNICRI and John Cabot University from 15 to 19 July 2013.

The course focused on the achievements and failings of the human rights system in addressing social, political and economic inequalities specifically affecting women. During this intensive one-week course, the 20 participants coming from 11 different countries, have been guided in examining critically how the human rights system engages with gender inequalities, assessing international policies and strategies and discussing the gender-based differential treatment in a variety of different areas.

The Summer School offered an opportunity to deepen, from a gender-based perspective, the understanding of how human rights are being implemented in practice. Good and bad practices have been also examined with a view to strengthen the capacity of the participants to promote public policies and strategies and become active actors of change.

In particular, the following areas have been discussed during the course:

  • International Human Rights Law, Standards and Strategies
  • Gender-Inequalities related to:
  1. Access to Justice
  2. Access to Resources an Enjoyment of Economic Rights
  3. Participation in Decision and Policy-making Processes
  4. Sexual and Reproductive Health
  5. Enjoyment of Cultural Rights
  •  Violence against Women
  • Voluntary and Forced Migration

The Summer School on Human Rights, which took place at John Cabot University (Rome, Italy), coupled theoretical lectures with roundtable discussions, dynamic case studies and practical exercises. The faculty was composed of academics from John Cabot University and elsewhere, United Nations staff, and members and representatives of international human rights bodies.

In this unique learning environment, participants had the opportunity to interact with international recognized experts, meet peers and build lasting professional relationships with young professionals and students from all over the world. This intense experience facilitated and promoted intercultural dialogue and a deeper understanding of some of the world’s most complex and debated issues.

The next edition of the Summer School on Human Rights will be tentatively organized in July 2014. Updated information on the new course will be uploaded onto the UNICRI website by March 2014.