2019:Partnerships/Strengthening Human Rights through Wikimedia, in relation to the SDGs

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Partnerships/Strengthening Human Rights through Wikimedia, in relation to the SDGs

Maathai · Friday 13:00 - 14:30

Description

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of humanity's greatest achievements in modern history. The Sustainable Development Goals seek to "realize the human rights of all", delivering the UDHR's promise of equal dignity and rights. In this session, we want to put human rights to the fore, and emphasize that they are indissociable from the realization of SDGs. The overriding message of the SDG Agenda is to leave no one behind. It puts the human rights promises of equality and non-discrimination for all at its core, and these are values we cherish and promote within the Wikimedia movement, including our 2030 mandate.

Many people in the world today don’t even know that they have rights. Moreover, on Wikipedia, articles about certain human rights topics are limited, non-existent or of questionable objectivity, in many major world languages. Examples include: women’s sexual and reproductive health (SDG 5 – Gender Equality); discrimination against minorities (SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities), access to remedy & justice for violations (SDG 16 – Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions). Empowerment through open knowledge maximes everyone's full potential to know and claim the rights. To reduce inequality we need empowered citizens who know their rights and those of others and who can engage in public processes necessary to achieve real change.

This session aims to showcase the importance of human rights in the Wikimedia context, and how we need partnerships to promote and disseminate information about human rights in our movement. Specifically, we want to present our new partnership between Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Argentina, and the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to the global Wikimedia community, providing an overview of projects we are going to work on together (Wiki loves human rights, edit-a-thon, making Human Rights Content available on the internet). In addition to the specific discussion on the partnership, we would like to connect the SDGs and human rights in the mind of the community, discussing ways to addressing & resolving the existing gaps about human rights content on Wikimedia projects, and motivate a conversation to brainstorm other ways in which this and other partnerships can promote human rights (in connection with the SDGs) in the Wikimedia movement.

Relationship to the theme

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner:

SDG # 17 seeks to strengthen global partnerships to support and achieve the ambitious targets of the 2030 Agenda, bringing together national governments, the international community, civil society, the private sector and other actors. Human rights are also horizontal across all of the SDGs, and the UDHR is embedded in the spirit of the work to be done towards 2030. This session wants to highlight the importance of human rights, and its clear relationship with the Wikimedia Movement and its 2030 strategic direction, in relation to achieving the SDGs.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

Participants will learn about the importance of recognizing and highlighting human rights within the Wikimedia ecosystem, its relation to the SDGs, as well as current and future efforts that this partnership aims to achieve in this context. There will be an open conversation about the main topic and how to better achieve this goal. Attendants to the session can also share ideas to work with the participating panel in their local context.

Session leader(s)

Laurent Sauveur (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - OHCHR)
Jeff Lee (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - OHCHR)
Jorge Vargas (WMF Partnerships Team)
Anna Torres (Wikimedia Argentina)

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

Initial Panel & Workshop to identify and try to solve problem

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

Room:

Panel seating facing the audience. Podium and mike required.

Audience:

Audience type: Community members interested in learning about partnerships within the movement, human rights, and its direct impact to Wikimedia.

Recording:

Yes content and format are appropriate for filming.

Interest

If you would like to attend this session, please express your interest by signing ~~~~ below

--Sparrow (麻雀) (talk) 20:11, 4 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
--Muhraz (talk) 22:10, 8 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
--DRanville (WMF) (talk) 18:14, 11 August 2019 (UTC) (still unsure)[reply]