Human Rights Awareness Tour
.Individual Event Biographies.
The Human Rights Awareness Tour is a series of captivating and stimulating events that aim to raise awareness about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid forth by the United Nations, to educate on current issues and human rights topics, and to inspire and motivate university students nationwide to join the growing Human Rights Movement.
Human Rights Awareness Festival
As the grand finale of an educational and motivational week dedicated to promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we present the Human Rights Awareness Festival. The goal of the festival is to fuse Human Rights education with world class entertainment in an effort to unite every member of the university. We hope to inspire students to furthur their own efforts and expand Human Rights activist groups on campuses nationwide. This event is an all day festival featuring nationwide tour bands as well as local and school acts. The festival will include several different genres of music to celebrate the diversity of Human Rights. Inspirational, positive Human Rights speakers and films will be presented during band changeovers and set breaks to capture the moment and motivate students to join the growing Human Rights movement. Human Rights related NGO's, student groups, and companies will have information booths set up to show students the opportunities involved in Human Rights and how they can get involved. Also all of the cultural groups at the University will be invited and encouraged to set up cultural displays to go along with the festival theme of celebrating the diversity of Human Rights.
The Human Rights Festival can range from an all day outdoor event with several performances to a 2-3 band indoor performance based upon each schools financial allotment, venue space, and expected climate. On our bands page we have included a list of Human Rights passionate bands with varying price ranges for each school to choose from.
The Human Rights Awareness Festival will include a handful of touring acts. There will be several performance slots available to student bands and performers from the school the tour is stopped at. If you would like your band or performance group to be booked at the festival please contact festival coordinator John Corkery.
To see the list of bands involved with the Human Rights Tour please go to the "Bands" page.
No Sweat Fashion Show
Our No Sweat Fashion Show features several sweatshop free clothing companies that uphold strong worker ethics and comply with the twenty third article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Clothing manufacturers that advertise as "Sweatshop Free" must have Unions led by workers, an equitable percentage of the profit from the items sold, and a safe, comfortable working environment. A few companies featured in this show, such as No Sweat Apparel, purchase products from cooperatives in developing countries such as Palestine for fair prices. These companies visit each location and interview workers to ensure compliance with Article 23. Other companies featured sell apparel manufactured in the U.S. and have an equitable payment scale in which the highest paid members of the company receive a fixed percentage more than the lowest paid. The aim of the No Sweat Fashion Show is to give university students the option of making a difference in the world just by being a consumer; catalogs and coupons are available at the show to facilitate this option.
The Human Rights Awareness Tour will be traveling with 4-6 models. The rest of the models will be selected during a rehersal at the school the tour is stopped at. If you would like to be a model in The No Sweat Fashion Show please contact the fashion show coordinator Catherine Dagon.
To see the list of models involved with the Human Rights Tour please go to the "Bands" page.
Fair Trade Coffee Night
Allowing students to relax in a campus coffee house after classes end for the day while at the same time learning conscious consumerism is the aim of our Fair Trade Coffee Night. We offer free coffee and chocolate donated solely by farms with strict labor rights policies, which follow the twenty third article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.htmlIn addition to introducing the notion of drinking coffee that does not support enslavement, the Fair Trade Coffee Night also presents national, local, and student accoustic muscians and poets in an open-mic setting to show their support of Fair Trade Products.
The Human Rights Awareness Tour will be traveling with 3 to 4 accoustic musicians and poets. As such there will be several performance slots available for students the school is stopped at. If you are someone you know is interested in performing at the Fair Trade Coffee Night please contact tour coordinator John Corkery.
To see the list of accoustic acts and poets involved with the Human Rights Tour please go to the "Tour Artists" page.
Film Series
To reach students in a multimedia setting, our film series aims to educate and inspire while raising awareness, in a dramatic fashion, of current violations of human rights and possible opportunities of prevention. One of the films that we present, Invisible Children, shows the terrible repercussions of the constant upheaval of governments in Uganda, which result in guerrilla groups gaining military strength due to forcing the children of captured villages to join their faction as young as nine years old. This film in particular offers motivation to college students, as it is filmed and produced by three young men studying film in California.
Each school will have the opportunity to choose the films in the film series from our list. To see the list of films involved with the Human Rights Tour please go to the "Films" page.
Speaker Series
To add a note of traditional education to the tour, we present several speakers, individually or in panel form, addressing a pertinent topic or current event in an inspirational fashion. The speaker is generally incorporated into a theme of the week as a whole; for example, a former sweatshop worker to discuss labor rights preceding the No Sweat Fashion Show. A panel may include debates on issues relating to human rights, such as the question of military intervention in obvious human rights violations, or present a few like-minded intellectuals to emphasize the simplicity of activism on any level or the intolerability of torture. In the university setting, panels and individual speakers are useful to invite entire classrooms to in place of the day's lecture to expand their human rights perspective.
To see the list of speakers involved with the Human Rights Tour please go to the "Speakers" page.
Art Exhibit
Placed in a high traffic area, such as the campus library or student union, our Art Exhibit offers the opportunity for silent contemplation, as well as visual entertainment through live displays. Pictures may include images of current violations, creative interpretations of statistics, or photographic proof of activism and the prevalence of human rights. Live art performances will be put on at peak traffic times.
Students are more than welcome to submit their artwork or give a live performance at the Human Rights Art Exhibit. If you are interested in having your work be a part of the show please contact coordinator Catherine Dagon.
To see the list of artist and photographers involved with the Human Rights Tour please go to the "Artists" page.