Members of the Global Campus Alumni Association (GCA) from the Global Campus of Human Rights (Global Campus) had their first in-person meeting in Athens, Greece on 17 -19 April 2024 to discuss climate-related challenges.
The decision to launch the GCA Taskforce on ‘Climate justice and rights of future generations’ shows the determination of the alumni to advance climate justice, to safeguard the rights of future generations and to empower the whole alumni community with the necessary skills and tools to address the issue. At this meeting, we planned a year-long alumni programme focusing on climate justice and rights of future generations. While alumni from the Arab region focused on mapping climate justice actors in their region, Latin American and Asia Pacific region prioritised the development of child-friendly education. On the other hand, alumni from the Europe and the South East Europe regions presented on information and disinformation on the climate crisis in their respective regions. The Caucasus region proposed different activities such as a photography exhibition, creative games and discussions around climate justice in the Post-Soviet region.
It was an opportunity for alumni to share progress made so far and to expand their voluntary efforts through collaborations among the different regions. This meeting is part of the planned activities that was agreed upon during the gathering of alumni representatives who met at the GC Headquarter in Italy in 2023.
During the conference in April, seven alumni from the Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa Master’s Programme (HRDA), that is, the Africa region, put forward their plan to establish a ‘Research and Advocacy Hub in Africa on Climate justice’. As of now, the Africa taskforce has a total number of 31 members, including the HRDA Alumni Coordinator, Davina Murden (HRDA Class of 2021, Mauritius), who is also leading this project with the support of all the members.
The participants at the Greece Conference from the Africa region were Prof Ademola Jegede (Class of 2008, Nigeria), Seun Bakare (Class of 2014, Nigeria), Dr Michael Addaney (Class of 2015, Ghana), Nastasia Thebaud-Bouillon-Njenga (Class of 2015, France/Kenya), Elsabe Boshoff (Class of 2016, South Africa), Maria Matui (Class of 2020, Tanzania) and Davina Murden. During her intervention, Davina spoke on some of the climate-related activities that the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has been engaged under its #GreenJusticeAfrica Campaign.
Seun and Michael both touched on the importance of raising awareness on climate-related issues in Africa and also on how climate change exacerbates existing social, economic and political issues across the continent. Further, Nastasia and Maria reflected on the definition of intersectionality in the context of climate justice in Africa and the need for cooperation of Global South communities to tackle historical power imbalances. For his part, Prof Jegede stressed on the importance of having a ‘Research and Advocacy Hub’ in Africa that specialises in climate justice and how the HRDA alumni have the potential of driving this project for it to become a reality. He highlighted, ‘The event was quite rewarding as I was able to make an argument (and it was well received) for the need to set up an Africa research and advocacy hub on climate justice’. Finally, Elsabe presented the Blog Guideline and Podcast Guideline that the members of the Africa taskforce have come up with during the past few months.
As we know, an important event like this requires meticulous planning and will. Two members from the Global Campus team who have been behind this successful event are Manuela Pegoraro, the GC Academic Partnerships Manager, and Hazem Mizyed who is the GC Alumni Coordinator. Manuela commented ‘I’m very grateful to have facilitated the planning and execution of an inspiring event that united over 40 alumni from diverse corners of the globe. I eagerly anticipate continuing to support these exceptional alumni as they amplify the impact of their efforts on climate justice and the rights of future generations’. ‘We saw creative projects presented in the conference, we saw interesting research and mapping projects, we saw outstanding climate-justice related ice-breakers and games, artistic projects, and an overall high degree of commitment from the alumni’, Hazem noted.
Needless to say that this conference was a ground-breaking starting point that nurtured potential of future collaborations among our GC alumni.
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Michael Addaney (HRDA) noted ‘Regarding my experience in Athens, the meeting provided a powerful platform to connect with Alumni from all the regions across the world to mutually learn from each other, especially sharing best practices on the promotion and protection of human rights challenging landscapes - the Global South’.
Maria Matui (HRDA): ‘Several key insights emerge, among which the potential for collaborations and knowledge exchange with other task forces is evident’.
Maida Salkanovic (Alumna from the European Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation, Bosnia-Herzegovina/USA, Journalist/Researcher): ‘It was a great experience meeting alumni all working on the cause of climate change and sharing my work and knowledge on climate disinformation with them. I see a lot of possibilities for future collaborations and I look forward to working together’.
Finally, we would like to keep encouraging our HRDA alumni to join us in this cause and to bring their expertise on board to make a better planet.
Acknowledgement: The Centre for Human Rights is the regional headquarters of the Global Campus Africa, which comprises 13 partner universities across Africa.
Global Campus of Human Rights is a network of over 100 universities in eight regions with the vision and mission ‘to foster new generations of human rights defenders contributing to a world in which human dignity, equality, freedom, security, sustainable development, democracy and the rule of law are realised.’ The Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria acknowledges the financial support of the European Union through the Global Campus of Human Rights.
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