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The Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland. It works in cooperation with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Council to promote and protect human rights through global dialogue. Its work brings together the full spectrum of national non-governmental and international human rights actors, through international conferences, human rights training, and advice to governments and related agencies.

The Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria is both an academic department and a non-governmental organisation, which was founded in 1986 as part of domestic efforts against the apartheid system of that time. Its work mainly focuses on human rights awareness and education in Africa, as well as on the promotion and protection of the rights of women, indigenous peoples, and other disadvantaged and marginalized persons or groups across the continent.

 

By virtue of shared values and goals, the Geneva Centre and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, under which the two parties determined specific areas of cooperation as follows: 1) dissemination of human rights law and practice of universal and regional human rights mechanisms; 2) logistical assistance on projects and policy activities; 3) joint organisation of conferences and other related activities.

Accordingly, the Geneva Centre and the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights will promote each other’s activities related to civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, with a special emphasis on the rights of marginalised groups in Sub-Sahara Africa and the MENA region. The Geneva Centre and the Centre for Human Rights will also consider collaborating in the organisation of conferences or other events related to human rights and global dialogue, notably in regions of common interest, and will provide each other with lectures on the above-mentioned topics as well as with logistical assistance to promote mutually beneficial project outcomes.

Furthermore, the Geneva Centre will consider the possibility of providing students from the Centre for Human Rights with internship opportunities, and will explore the possibility of collaborating to conduct research on human rights promotion and protection through, inter alia, UN human rights instruments and regional mechanisms established within the framework of the African Union, the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

The two entities signed a partnership agreement for the organisation of the next World Human Rights Moot Court Competition, to be held in Geneva from 8 to 10 December 2014, in collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Headquarters in Geneva (OHCHR) and the Regional Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Southern Africa (ROSA).