Brazil hosts World Forum on Human Rights

Criado em 10/12/13 15h16 e atualizado em 11/12/13 14h08
Por Mariana Tokarnia Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasília – Brasília is hosting a series of conferences, debates and activities connected with the World Forum on Human Rights, beginning this Tuesday (Dec. 10). Around 8 thousand people from all across the globe are expected to attend the event, which is scheduled to end on Friday 13.

The forum begins on the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the main achievement of the world-wide struggle against oppression and discrimination, which fosters equality and dignity in the lives of every citizen.

“We’ve faced a number of challenges when ensuring the exercise of human rights, and we’ve suffered a lot of threats from those who want to drive us back,” said Human Rights Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic Angélica Moura Goulart, during a debate organized by Portal EBC.

Some sections of society struggle more painfully to have their own rights ensured – that is the case with the indigenous population. Scholar Tonico Benites, a native Guarani-Kaiowá who holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology, said that it was not the Declaration, but the Federal Constitution, passed in 1988, which allowed native South Americans to be officially considered citizens of Brazil.

Defending human rights also poses a challenge in the international scenario. In Colombia, a country with a long history of massacres and crimes against human rights and against humanity, where one of the oldest armed conflicts takes place, the greatest challenge is to move the focus of the conflict-resolution debate towards the victims, according to Colombian professor and political scientist Alejo Vargas Velásquez.

The full timetable of the event can be viewed on the forum’s website:
http://www.fmdh.sdh.gov.br/index.php/en/

Edited by Graça Adjuto / Nira Foster
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira