More than 200 people are expected to attend the 11th annual Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights, which will run from Thursday to Saturday and focus on the intersection of environmental issues and human rights.
Titled “Preserving our Rights,” the conference will examine topics such as environmental preservation, economic development and issues surrounding use of coal worldwide.
“The goal of the conference is to create a forum to foster dialogue, generate questions and promote different ideas,” NUCHR co-director Tracy Navichoque said.
Navichoque, a Weinberg senior, said she felt the topic would attract a wider campus audience beyond the conference’s usual group of political science and international studies students.
Past NUCHR topics have included international peacekeeping, globalization, torture and access to food.
This year’s opening speaker is Winona LaDuke, an American Indian activist, environmentalist, economist and author. She is perhaps best known for being presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s running mate in 1996 and 2000. The NUCHR closing keynote will be delivered by Njoki Njehu, a Kenyan grassroots organizer, women’s advocate and ecological activist.
There will be more than 10 other speakers throughout the three days of events, including a panel on the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation. Five educational trips to Chicago, including a visit to the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, are also part of the conference.
Mark Specht, co-director of NUCHR, said the conference wanted to emphasize that environmental issues are human rights issues.
“Environmental issues often affect the most marginalized communities much more so than wealthier communities,” the Weinberg senior said. “Poor people really bear the brunt of pollution and climate change.”
The final day of the conference will feature a presentation from the Beehive Collective, an organization that creates art depicting global issues.
“They spent a couple of years in the Appalachian region, talking to people and doing a lot of research,” Weinberg sophomore Melody Song, a NUCHR committee member and former Daily staffer, said of the Beehive Collective’s mural, “The True Cost of Coal,” which depicts mountaintop removal coal mining. “They put together this huge drawing.”
Besides the speakers and nonaffiliated attendees, more than 40 delegates from different universities will attend.
“We’re hoping that across the three days, people will be able to get together, exchange ideas and possibly use this as a model to take to their universities,” Navichoque said.
Specht said since NUCHR started 11 years ago, the conference has grown “too much.”
The conference has also expanded across campus, working with other student groups including Students for Ecological and Environmental Development, Engineers for a Sustainable World and One Book One Northwestern.
“We’ve been around for a long time, and we are constantly making improvements,” Specht said. “It actually has established itself as a regular Northwestern event that people across the University recognize as a fantastic thing that a lot of people are willing to support.”
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