On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Germany’s Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” and the Nuremberg Human Rights Center are holding an international conference on human rights from November 20 to 22.

Under the title, “Rights That Make us Human Beings; Human rights as an answer to historical and current injustice,” the three-day conference will provide a forum on current human rights issues “in the light of the injustices that led to the human rights declaration in 1948,” according to conference organizers. “The international conference aims to reach consensus on which of the experiences and arguments that shaped the development of human rights are especially relevant to the challenges that face us today.”

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

(© UN photo)

The conference will focus on two main issues: the historical developments set in motion by the experience of specific injustices which led to the formulation of universal human rights and enhancing human rights education through history learning. One public panel discussion will deal with the ban on torture.

With history as a main theme running through the conference program, historic sites in Nuremberg will serve as a backdrop for the conference. Courtroom 600, the historic location of the Nuremberg Trials, is one program venue and participants will visit the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the Way of Human Rights,  among others.

Along with the public panel discussion, a program of short films and a tree planting are open to the public, and a group of school children will meet with a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp.