IX Summer School on Human Rights of the Consortium of Russian Universities «Sustainable Development Goals, Human Rights and Global Challenges»

On July 11, the Ninth Summer School on Human Rights of the Russian Interuniversity Consortium on Human Rights started. The Summer School is an integral part of the Master's Program on Human Rights, established by a Consortium with the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This year it takes place from July 11 to 15, 2022 at the site of the Sverdlovsk region Government. The organizer of the Summer School is the Ural State Law University named after V. F. Yakovlev.

Every year, the organizing university tries to make the school's program unique, to touch on topics that are most relevant. In 2022, students are invited to discuss together with lecturers and experts the protection of human rights and the promotion of the SDGs in the era of globalization. Global challenges are the reverse side of globalization. Values such as development, prosperity, freedom, justice and human rights coexist with injustice, inequality, poverty and abuse. Global action is needed at all levels to promote the most important values related to human rights and to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Summer School program is divided into three clusters, united by the cross-cutting theme of the SDGs and global challenges. Within the framework of the first cluster «Business and Human Rights», students will get acquainted with international and comparative aspects of entrepreneurship and human rights, study the relationship between human rights, corporate activities and international standards in improving the performance of the state and business to achieve the SDGs. The second cluster «Human rights and the Environment» will focus on the negative impacts of climate change on human rights and ways to create an enabling environment for ensuring human rights and achieving the SDGs. The third cluster «Right to Health» is dedicated to the right to health in the context of the SDGs and global challenges. Health influences and depends on other development goals and objectives, as it is not only a prerequisite, but also the result of policies in the field of socio-economic and sustainable development and the protection of human rights.

On the first day of the school, the Vice-rector of Ural State Law University named after V.F. Yakovlev Professor A. Vinnitsky, the Head of the Program Office of the of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation R. Aluash, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Sverdlovsk region T. Merzlyakova made welcoming remarks to the students of the school. In a video message on behalf of the head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , the audience was welcomed by H. Tsedev is the Head of the Europe and Central Asia Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The participants of the School were greeted by the Representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Yekaterinburg A. Kharlov. T. Merzlyakova read to the audience the welcome address of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation T. Moskalkova.

The substantive part of the School began with the plenary dialogue of the Commissioners for Human Rights in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation «Sustainable Development Goals and human rights: the experience of the regions of Russia». The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Perm Region, P. Mikov and T. Merzlyakova, told about how the SDGs affect the activities of ombudsmen in the regions and what efforts are being made to implement the goals in the Sverdlovsk Region and the Perm Region.

The topic of the regional experience of the SDGs was continued after lunch in the speech of the Deputy Minister of International and Foreign Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk region L. Berg. The Sverdlovsk Region is one of the few subjects of Russia that has declared commitment to the SDGs and prepares reports on the implementation of the goals on an ongoing basis.

At the end of the day, Professor A. Avtonomov, Vice-Rector for Research and International Relations of Moscow University named after A.S. Griboyedov, ex-Chairman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, delivered an honorary lecture to the audience, who told the audience about the norms and mechanisms of the UN to combat racial discrimination, xenophobia and multiple forms of discrimination.

The first day ended with a welcome dinner from the organizers of the Summer School, at the site of the Marins Park Hotel, where participants, lecturers and experts not only rested, but also had the opportunity to communicate in an informal atmosphere.

Such communication, according to an already unwritten tradition, forms a «brotherhood» of masters of the program «International Protection of Human Rights».

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