WUS100 Global Conference in Vienna from September 21-23 is coming up
The WUS100 Global Conference on the Human Rights to Quality Education is being held at the University of Vienna from September 21-23, 2021. It is organized by World University Service (WUS) Austria together with WUS Germany and WUS Canada in cooperation with the University of Vienna, the Central European University (CEU) and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. The background for holding the conference by the three WUS committees, planned originally for last year, is that the creation of the predecessor of WUS – “European Student Relief” – emanated from an international relief operation in favor of students and teaching staff of University of Vienna in 1920, now 101 years ago. The action quickly spread to other distressed Austrian and European universities.
Until today World University Service is devoted to realizing the human right to education worldwide for which purpose numerous programs are addressing the human right in the context of refugee education, education of other vulnerable groups like women, girls or minorities, but also assisting academics and universities under threat with countering the shrinking of civic spaces and supporting academic freedom and finally also promoting education for sustainable development, quality assurance in education, and global citizenship.
All these issues will be discussed at the University of Vienna in a high-level program bringing together key actors and experts from international organizations, NGOs, and academia, but also students from a variety of countries. The conference will be opened by statements from the Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen, the Austrian Minister of Education, Science and Research Heinz Faßmann and the Austrian Minister of Justice Alma Zadić, Vice-rector Christa Schnabl for the University of Vienna and the new rector of the Central European University, Shalini Randeria. The conference will also hear keynotes from the Assistant High Commissioner of Protection, UNHCR, Gillian Triggs, presently engaged with the refugee crisis in Afghanistan and beyond, of the Director of Special Procedures in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Peggy Hicks, the Head of Migration and Development of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Cécile Riallant, the Head of the Department of Education of the Council of Europe, Sjur Bergan, and the Minister of Education, Science and Technology of Kosovo, Arbërie Nagavci. In the panels and working groups Robert Quinn from Scholars at Risk (USA) will speak as will Erhard Busek, former Austrian Vice-chancellor and Minister of Education, David Croisier from the European Commission, Patrizia Jankovic from the Austrian UNESCO Commission, and speakers on the situation in Belarus, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Altogether there will be some 40 experts contributing to the different topics. The program together with other details can be found at the conference website.
The conference will also be accessible online. One highlight will be the presentation of the Festschrift, the WUS centenary publication, in the afternoon panel of 22nd September to which more than 80 former WUS-collaborators have contributed, starting with Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile. The conference will end with the adoption of the Vienna Declaration on the Human Right to Quality Education, which will draw on the experience of the past and provide guidance how to address the challenges for the human right to quality education in the future.
