Transcript [00:00] Thank you, Daniel. [00:01] Um, distinguished guests, uh, ladies and [00:04] gentlemen, um, dear colleagues, [00:07] thank you all for being here with us [00:09] today. [00:10] Um, [00:11] I would like to start with the a little [00:13] bit from the background or the history [00:16] uh, I have in the family. Um, growing up [00:19] under the the both um, [00:22] Assad regimes, that the rule of [00:24] dictatorship, uh, I mean here both [00:26] Assads, the father and the son, and um, [00:29] coming from uh, a Kurdish family, [00:32] especially a politically active family, [00:34] uh, and belonging to a nation um, [00:37] persecuted by four governments in the [00:39] Middle East, [00:41] um, human rights education became for me [00:45] far more than a concept. Um, [00:49] it became something much more personal [00:51] and embedded in the struggle we had [00:53] carried uh, on for decades. [00:58] Uh, from a very young age, I assisted in [01:01] the family where I came from uh, in [01:03] publishing a political magazine called [01:06] Jiyan, uh, which means in English, a [01:09] Kurdish word means life. [01:11] That magazine covered topics related to [01:14] human rights, democracy, and different [01:16] other social topics. So, the topic of [01:19] human rights and democracy, two topics [01:23] where either one alone could land you in [01:25] prison for years in the best case [01:27] scenario, [01:29] or cost you your life in the worst. [01:33] I have spent around uh, 20 years of my [01:35] life under a dictator dictatorial [01:38] regime, and about a year uh, [01:41] in the grip of ISIS. [01:43] And since gaining my freedom, uh, I'm [01:46] experiencing in Europe the privilege of [01:49] living [01:50] here in in Western Europe, where usually [01:53] the democracy and human rights are [01:56] privileges that cannot be taken for [01:58] granted uh, given that millions of [02:00] people around the the world are deprived [02:03] of them. [02:05] So, I will come to the the year of 2024 [02:09] and specially in the month of December [02:11] when the dictator Assad run away but [02:15] that his dictatorship remains standing [02:19] albeit with a new flavor a flavor of a [02:21] jihadi terror regime [02:24] came to power [02:25] entirely unconcerned with the issues of [02:29] human rights and democracy. [02:31] It hasn't even once this dictatorship, [02:34] the new dictatorship, the ongoing [02:36] dictatorship, it hasn't even once [02:38] mentioned these two topics. [02:41] On the contrary [02:43] they view these concepts as [02:46] as an [02:48] abomination of the work of the devil. [02:51] Something that people should not even [02:52] mention in in the daily life. [02:56] Why do I mention all this? Because here [02:59] in Europe we speak freely about human [03:02] rights education. [03:04] And we often think about classrooms, [03:07] institutions, and international [03:09] conventions. [03:10] In other corners in the world [03:13] it's obviously not the case. [03:16] For example, take the MENA region as an [03:18] example [03:19] among 25 countries [03:22] all UN member states [03:25] only a small number have integrated [03:26] human rights education into their [03:28] educational systems. [03:30] Not more than [03:32] what we can count on one hand. [03:35] My own journey [03:36] as a youth educator made me see a huge [03:39] gap. Education about atrocities and [03:42] genocides that took place in the history [03:45] regarding that many young people grew up [03:48] with a very limited opportunities to [03:50] learn about the Holocaust, the Armenian [03:53] genocide, the Yazidi genocide, the Anfal [03:56] genocide against the Kurds, [03:58] and other mass atrocities that deeply [04:00] targeted the region [04:02] and its communities. And I was one of [04:04] these these youth who didn't have the [04:07] chance to learn in the school about it. [04:10] So, if young people do not learn how [04:12] genocides happen and how the propaganda [04:15] of that targets people and dehumanize [04:18] them, if the young people don't learn [04:20] about it, and how to look they they will [04:23] at the end look away, and that makes it [04:25] even worse. It becomes much harder for [04:28] them to recognize after that. [04:30] These patterns [04:32] when they appear [04:35] before our eyes, [04:37] I can share an experience about about [04:40] these patterns. I was myself a witness [04:43] to the Yazidi genocide in August 2014. [04:48] Back then, I saw how the Qatari and the [04:50] Turkish propaganda machines and networks [04:52] contributed to portraying an entire [04:55] community as less human, and therefore [04:58] as a legitimate target of violence. [05:01] Later on, the same happened on October [05:03] 7th. [05:04] I saw disturbing parallels in the way [05:07] in in in the way propaganda and [05:09] dehumanizing narratives were used to [05:12] portray civilians as legitimate targets [05:14] rather than as human beings entitled to [05:18] protection. [05:19] A big part of of what I have experienced [05:22] changed the way I now understand human [05:25] rights [05:27] and its education. Studying and talking [05:30] about human rights is something, and [05:33] being prepared to defend it is something [05:35] very different, totally different. [05:38] And that's where I believe human rights [05:40] education still has this gap. [05:43] Uh [05:44] we need to ask the the the the young [05:46] people [05:48] we we don't need to ask them only what [05:50] are human rights. We need to tackle [05:53] topics like what will you do when [05:56] people's rights are denied or what will [05:58] you do for those who are deprived of [06:00] their rights, those whose rights are [06:02] being violated. [06:05] Awareness alone is not enough. Young [06:07] generations need to learn how to [06:10] practice human rights. They need [06:12] opportunities to meet people with [06:14] histories are different from their own. [06:17] That means teaching them how to [06:19] recognize discrimination and extremist [06:21] propaganda. It means developing critical [06:24] thinking and media literacy. [06:27] It means giving young people [06:28] opportunities to engage with civil [06:30] society and communities beyond the [06:32] classroom. [06:35] And it means creating genuine platforms [06:37] where people from minority and [06:39] marginalized communities can speak for [06:42] themselves. Thank you.
