Human Rights Day Symposium 2026
301 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis,
MN
55455
Symposium Schedule
2:30 - 3:45 PM: Student Poster Session, Mondale Commons
4:00 PM: Keynote Address with Jo Becker, advocacy director of the children’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, Cowles Auditorium
Each year, the international community observes Human Rights Day on December 10, honoring the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This landmark document set forth a vision of equality, justice, and dignity for all. Since 2024, the Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies have begun holding an Annual Human Rights Day Symposium to commemorate this occasion.
This inspiring event brings together our human rights community, faculty, and students to explore the progress, challenges, and future of the global human rights movement. The symposium spotlights efforts to defend human rights and aims to foster collaboration and dialogue around human rights. Participants engage with emerging research, exchange ideas, and examine both the advances and ongoing challenges in protecting human dignity worldwide.
The symposium includes a poster session with presentations of student work, and a keynote address from a leader in the human rights field. The student poster session showcases projects, policies, research, and creative engagement on critical human rights issues. All interested students are welcome to apply to participate in the poster session. This year, we welcome Jo Becker, advocacy director of the children’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, to deliver the keynote address. A reception with refreshments will follow.
Registration is not required, but will help us with planning. RSVP here.
Sponsorship
This event is made possible through the generous support of The Ohanessian Endowment Fund for Justice and Peace Studies of the Minneapolis Foundation.
Jo Becker is the advocacy director of the children’s rights division at Human Rights Watch. As the founding chairperson of the international Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, she helped campaign successfully for an international treaty banning the forced recruitment of children under age 18 or their use in armed conflict. Her advocacy also helped lead to a groundbreaking 2011 treaty ensuring labor rights for domestic workers, which number 50-100 million worldwide. She has conducted field investigations on children’s rights in Burma, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and the United States. Based on her expertise on the issue of child soldiers, she has addressed the United Nations Security Council, testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, conducted trainings for US and African military officers, and testified as an expert in a Dutch war crimes trial.