COMMUNICATION

The European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation aims to encourage and facilitate the participation of young people to be active participants in the European integration project and in an international cooperation context; the course “Youth and Human Rights Activism” will thus be held from 18 to 20 July. (15/07/2023)

The current international context of great instability and uncertainty that chains social, political and economic crises, and which in turn faces immense threats such as climate change, puts the ability of our societies to implement transformations that get to the root of the problems to the test.

Citizen activism, especially the one promoted from the younger generations, is at the heart of the goal of collective claims and struggles for the construction of a sustainable, inclusive and human rights-respecting future.

This course, which is funded and co-organised by the Extremaduran Agency for International Development Cooperation, is proposed as a space for meeting and to share experiences and knowledge.

The objective is to generate a platform for the training, support and connection of young activists who lead the social transformation, in order to amplify their demands, influence and impact on society, and for their messages to serve as an engine for change to generate a transformative public agenda that mobilises public opinion as well as decision-making.

The course has attendees from different Spanish universities, as well as sixty students from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Spain, Morocco, Mexico, Nicaragua and Portugal.

With issues such as new feminisms, climate demonstrations, social platforms against poverty and precariousness or for the defence of refugees, among others, the demands for social transformation are expressed and made visible to build a future that leaves no one behind, one that will ensure the sustainability of life and the dignity and rights of every human being as something inescapable.

International cooperation is also working to defend human rights at a border between the institutional, political and civil society sectors and NGOs.

The course “Youth and Human Rights Activism” is directed by the professor of Administrative Law and the European Union of the University of Extremadura, Enrique Hernández Díez, and by the PhD in Latin Philology of the University of Extremadura, Marta Ramos Grané. Among other speakers, it will feature reporter and documentary photographer Roberto Palomo; researcher, communicator and anti-racist and Afro-feminist activist Quinddy Akeju; the director of the University Institute of Biosanitary Research of Extremadura (INUBE) and full professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Extremadura, Adrián Llerena Ruiz; and the lawyer and human rights defender, Pastora Filigrana García.

Also the Iranian activist and social researcher Ramtin Zigorat; the journalist and coordinator of Pikara Magazine, María Ángeles Fernández; the spokesperson of Amnesty International Extremadura, Alejandro Corchado Bejarano; the spokeswoman of Youth for Climate, Paula Martínez Hidalgo; the director of Advocacy for Ayuda en Acción, Alberto Casado Valera; the president of the Children and Youth Board of SEO/BirdLife, Alejandro Quecedo Del Val; and the coordinator of the Rurex Development Association and coordinator of the project “Me toca la fibra”, David Cumbres da Cruz. It will also feature the Austrian trainer, teacher and activist of Social change rocks! Joanna Egger; and the trainer, facilitator and designer of recreational resources FUNISFÉRICO, Jordi Martín Simón.

This course, which will be held at the Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste, can be followed online via Yuste Foundation’s YouTube channel, thus opening a window to the world.

“Youth and Human Rights Activism”, which is part of Yuste Foundation’s training programme Campus Yuste, is part of the University of Extremadura’s International Summer Courses and is sponsored by MAFRESA; it counts with the collaboration of the Youth Council of Extremadura; the Youth Institute of the Regional Government of Extremadura, the European Documentation Centre of Extremadura; National Heritage and the Councils of Caceres and Badajoz.