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Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and UNESCO
Professor Catherine O’Regan and Dr Christos Kypraios report on a successful partnership promoting public understanding on freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom.
According to our mission statement, one of the purposes of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) is to ‘share knowledge about the law of human rights with the aim of improving the public understanding of human rights’. Since 2020, we have partnered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in several projects that foster public understanding and capacity building in the areas of freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom. Between May and July 2023 we delivered our second related Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), and in September 2023 we organised two major events: the Bonavero Institute-UNESCO-FCDO Global Conference for the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) 2023; and the Bonavero Institute-UNESCO International Judicial Symposium on Freedom of Expression.
Our second MOOC on freedom of expression and the safety of journalists was offered in seven languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish). It built on a previous MOOC that we ran in English in 2021 and was again open to judicial actors from all justice systems, as well as to journalists, academics and other professionals across the world. A total of 8585 people from 170 countries participated in the course, making it the stand-alone programme with the largest participation and furthest reach in geographical, generational and professional terms in the six years of the Institute’s operation – and the biggest MOOC that UNESCO has offered in the ten years of its Judges’ Initiative.
On 28 September, in the Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium at Mansfield we hosted the IDUAI conference in which we partnered with UNESCO and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The conference theme was ‘The Importance of the Online Space for Access to Information’ and it was attended by Justices and senior judges, information commissioners, leading academics and civil society organisations from across the globe, as well as UNESCO and FCDO officials. The conference led to the adoption of the ‘Oxford Statement on Importance of Access to Information and Digital Connectivity’ (https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/ oxford-statement-importance-access-information-and-digital-connectivity and https://www.gov.uk/government/ news/global-conference-marking-the-international-day-for-universal-access-to-information-iduai-2023).
The following day, we hosted the International Judicial Symposium on Freedom of Expression in the beautiful surroundings of Mansfield’s Old Hall. Participants included 15 Chief Justices, Justices and high-level judges from the five regions of the world as well as from all regional human rights courts and community courts, with a cumulative jurisdiction of more than four billion people. The symposium served as an important platform for the judges to discuss how to promote and strengthen the rule of law and freedom of expression as key elements of democratic societies.
The Bonavero Institute is grateful to our partners at UNESCO for working with us in enhancing global capacity among judicial and other actors in the fields of freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom.
