The International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (HR Network) has released a resource guide entitled Engaging with Human Rights in the National Academy Context.

To accompany the release, the HR Network has produced a webinar that highlights key themes addressed in the guide.

Speakers from several national academies participating in the HR Network shared their views on the relevance of human rights for national academies and discussed different ways in which academies regularly engage with human rights in the course of their work. They include Prof Peter Vale, director of JIAS, and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. The other speakers are:

  • Abdallah S Daar, a Executive Committee Member of the HR Network
  • Martin Chalfie, Chair of the Committee on Human Rights of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
  • Esther Mwaikambo, Past President of the Tanzania Academy of Sciences
  • Hans-Peter Zenner, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

The HR Network is an international consortium of honorary societies in the sciences, engineering, and medicine with a shared interest in human rights.

Created in 1993, it advocates in support of colleagues suffering human rights abuses, promotes the free exchange of ideas among scientists and scholars, and supports the independence and autonomy of national academies and scholarly societies worldwide.

To access the webinar, click here.