Kofi Annan Secretary-General of the United Nations October 2001

Student Conference on Human Rights at the United Nations

In December 1998, the United Nations Department of Public Information invited 400 students from around the world to a conference at UN Headquarters in New York to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The conference was so successful that students lobbied to make the conference an annual event, scheduled each year to coincide closely with Human Rights Day on December 10th. The UN Department of Public Information agreed to host the conference. The Carol Baur Foundation, Global Education Motivators, Interconnections 21, LePage Educational Consultants, UNA-Dominican Republic, and UNA-USA have been co-sponsors.

Today, the Student Conference on Human Rights seeks to promote awareness of, learning about, and action on human rights among student leaders, encouraging focus on specific rights and related themes from year to year. The conference provides opportunities for student leaders to network and develop important leadership skills, such as public speaking, team- and consensus- building, negotiation, research, and drafting. It also gives participants firsthand experience using current information technologies.

Subsequent to the September 11, 2001 tragedy, the format of the conference changed. Instead of convening 400-500 participants in New York, 35-45 students will gather at the UN over two days to take the lead in drafting a document concerning one particular human rights theme. Students around the world contribute to these efforts on the second day, through video-conference hook-ups and a webcast of the proceedings at UN Headquarters in New York. The theme will be “Education for All.” Students will draft a Plan of Action they will present to the President of the UN's General Assembly (GA) at the conference's end. In past years, the President of the GA has, in turn, presented the students' Plan of Action to the General Assembly.