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Summer school students

Summer School students reflect on UDHR’s relevance 70 years on

25 September 2018

The sixth edition of the annual Summer School on Human Rights, hosted by the Consortium of Russian universities, brought together more than 200 university students from nine Russian regions and four Commonwealth of Independent States countries. The focus of the weeklong programme this year was the 70 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – its promising legacy and emerging challenges.

The annual Summer School, organized in collaboration with UN Human Rights Russia, offers students an opportunity to listen to over 30 lectures and interact with eminent national and international professors, practitioners, human rights defenders and UN treaty body experts from some 10 countries.

Why is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights important in our days? What impact does the Declaration have for establishing the European system of human rights protection? How does it contribute to the protection of vulnerable groups such as migrants and refugees, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, women, and children? These were some of the issues discussed by students participating in the programme.

Recently, the summer school programme was one of the subjects of a side event, which took place during the 39th session of the Human Rights Council. The side event raised awareness on the achievements of the initiative in the context of human rights education. It also promoted greater awareness of the Human Rights Masters Programme as an example of the cooperation between the UN Human Rights Office, national government, academia and national human rights institutions. It also provided an opportunity for the universities to present their achievements and programme alumni to share their stories.

The Stalker Human Rights Film Festival and a Moot Court competition based on the model of the European Court of Human Rights were also held as an integral part of the Summer School outreach programme. To wrap-up their study week, the students participated in a UDHR quiz game.

Both students and lecturers pointed out that the Summer School provided a unique opportunity not only to acquire new knowledge and skills, but most of all to interact with different people and exchange experience and views beyond an academic setting.


  • I will respect your rights regardless of who you are. I will uphold your rights even when I disagree with you
  • When anyone’s human rights are denied, everyone's rights are undermined, so I will stand up
  • I will raise my voice. I will take action. I will use my rights to stand up for your rights.

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