Nicole Immler at 6th Human Rights Festival in Java

10 December 2019

Nicole Immler was invited to the 6th Human Rights Festival in Jember, East Java, from  19–21 November. The theme was 'Social Justice and Human Rights Based Local Development through Cultural Approach'.  The Human Rights Festival is an annual forum for national and local governments, civil society, academics, the business sector and the media. 

The objective is to share experiences, strategies, best practices in the promotion and protection of human rights within the framework of Human Rights Citiesand the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). Both frameworks are in line with developments in the United Nations to strengthen the role of local communities and activists in translating human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals to the local. 

As the University for Humanistic Studies is a key partner in Utrecht’s Human Rights Coalition, Nicole Immler talked about Utrecht’s process of becoming a Human Rights City, and the role of our University there within. She shared some best practices and reflections in the panel on ‘Global Human Rights Cities Movement’. In a workshop at the University of Jember with students those questions of human rights were linked to question of transitional justice.

Indonesia – as many other countries worldwide – face presently movements that oppose the values of human rights and democracy, rejecting Indonesian diversity and advocating a system of a Global Islamic State. The Festival was committed to discuss human rights from a cultural approach and also from an economic point of view, to show that human rights policies do not oppose local cultures or business interests, but that those aspects can go together. 

The festival was a chance to present the human rights approach in our UvH research: Human rights as a practice of care, how human rights get meaning in relational and situated contexts; involving the bigger picture of what a meaningful life and a just society contains.

Nicole Immler was invited to the 6th Human Rights Festival in Jember, East Java, from 19–21 November. The theme was 'Social Justice and Human Rights Based Local Development through Cultural Approach'. The Human Rights Festival is an annual forum for national and local governments, civil society, academics, the business sector and the media.