Welcome to the 5th International Human Rights Forum of the Human Rights Chair of the Association of Universities of the Montevideo Group (AUGM).

This year, the 5th Forum will focus on “Human Rights and Climate Emergencies” and will be held from December 2 to 4, 2025, at the Federal University of Rio Grande – FURG.

We look forward to seeing you!

Prof. Dr. Renato Duro Dias

General Coordinator of the 5th Forum

Rationale for the theme and the choice of FURG

The role of human rights in implementing international commitments on environmental law and climate change increases the effectiveness of national responses to climate change, taking into account traditional and local knowledge. Likewise, this recognition must be supported by capacity-building measures as well as education and awareness-raising on climate change among all social actors, especially in island and coastal states. (Resolution 07/2021, Climate emergency – scope and inter-American obligations in the field of Human Rights, OAS), the Pact for the Future (UN Resolution A/RES/79/1, 2024) and the 2030 SDGs.

To define preventive policies that are relevant to territorial development, it is necessary to assess its current and evolving situation. Therefore, to anticipate and/or correct imbalances among the different components that interact within the territory, it is necessary to carry out a historical and situational analysis that allows for an integrated and dynamic assessment of the relationships between the physical environment and society (UNDP, 2010). These records involve a special chapter within the universities that make up the regional collective, given that in recent years they have experienced different climate emergencies. By way of a brief and by no means exhaustive review, we recall the floods that directly impacted AUGM member institutions: the National University of the Littoral (2003); the National University of La Plata (2013); FURG (Federal University of Rio Grande) in 2024; and, most recently, the National University of the South (Bahía Blanca) at the beginning of this year.

It is important to highlight that we are still living under the effects of a natural catastrophe that occurred during the months of April and May 2024 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, when floods of devastating proportions struck the state, a pressing matter within the scope of Human Rights as a legal phenomenon. FURG played a fundamental role in this context.

According to Bulletin 01/2024 of the Extreme Events Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande – FURG, there are two elements that hinder forecasts: (i) extreme events, unprecedented for an entire generation, lack known environmental parameters for reference; (ii) public agencies do not have observational systems that are sufficiently complex and diverse to allow more advanced models to make this type of prediction. (FURG, Extreme Events Committee, Bulletin 01/2024).

Phenomena of this kind have been increasingly frequent and bring with them a significant threat to a wide range of rights, including the rights to life, food, housing, land, and health—in other words, the right to a healthy and sustainable environment. It is worth stressing that in emerging countries, such as Brazil, the measures taken by both the federal government and subnational entities (states and municipalities) are often palliative or merely temporary, given how incipient are the actions that truly involve other actors from organized civil society.

It should be emphasized that there is an urgent need for public policies that address the demands of populations most vulnerable to extreme climate events. Today we have benchmarks for the application of international commitments on environmental law and climate change, seeking national responses that take into account traditional and local knowledge, such as Resolution 07/2021, which addresses the climate emergency and the scope of inter-American obligations in the field of Human Rights of the Organization of American States; the Pact for the Future, UN Resolution A/RES/79/1 (2024); and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. These principles are understood as foundational in terms of respect for the human rights of every person affected by extreme climate events.

Working methodology for organizing the 5th Forum

Working Group: Renato Duro Dias (General Coord.), Elisa Girotti Celmer (FADIR), Sheila Stolz (PPGDJS), Vanessa Hernandez Caporlingua (PPGEA), Ana Furlong Antochevis (SECAID), Simone Grohs Freire (PROGRAD/Rector’s Office), Diego de Lemos Avila (Reinter), Nicole Feijó (Reinter), Daiane Dias (PROPESP), Dione Iara Silveira Kitzmann (AUGM Academic Committee on Environment)

AUGM representatives (UDELAR, Uruguay; University of Valparaíso, Chile; UNL, Argentina; UNB, Brazil; and UNE, Paraguay)

General Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Renato Duro Dias – PPGDJS, PPGEA, CRDH FURG and FURG’s institutional representative on the AUGM Human Rights Chair

5th FORUM – EXTENSION PROJECT EXT – 2826

Background

The Human Rights Chair of the Association of Universities of the Montevideo Group successfully fulfilled its strategic plan for the first three years of its brief existence (2020–2023) and is now developing the plan for the 2024–2026 period. Among the multiple actions it has been promoting, undoubtedly one of the priority objectives should be the consolidation of one of its most prominent activities: the International Human Rights Forums. This initiative makes it possible to present the identity and ethos of a group of researchers who embrace integration as a tool to promote a culture of human rights.

Brief history of the forums

The 1st International Human Rights Forum, on December 7, 2021, was held in a virtual format, as it was shaped by the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The coordination of the event was delegated to Professor Claudio Nash (University of Chile). The Chair succeeded in convening expert panels on the theme “Human rights, democracy and a culture of peace: new challenges for protection systems,” with authorities and members of the Chair and international guests. The debate addressed the main challenges posed by the global pandemic context in the field of human rights, with an emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 2022, the 2nd annual Forum, “Human rights and democracies,” was held on December 6 and 7 at the University of Chile (UC), with characteristics very different from the previous one. Professor Claudio Nash and the university team hosted the Chair’s first in-person meetings after the pandemic (including those responsible for AUGM’s Executive Secretariat). The meeting focused attention on two keynote lectures delivered by the former President of Uruguay, José Mujica: the inaugural address, “Human Rights and contemporary democracies,” and the second day’s “Dialogue of student organizations.” In parallel, the event hosted the First Regional Meeting on Human Rights of the CUECH Network (Consortium of Chilean State Universities).

The 3rd Human Rights Forum took place at the Federal University of Goiás (Goiânia, Brazil), from December 4 to 6, 2023, with the thematic axis: “Human rights, development, and Latin American integration.” The Chair’s representative at UFG, Ricardo Barboza, was responsible for the organization together with a team of faculty and students who simultaneously organized the “XIV Thinking Human Rights” Congress. Within this framework, the Chair held its second in-person meetings, with ten representatives present and members of AUGM’s Executive Secretariat. The event featured two lectures (Opening and Closing), four roundtables with participants from the Chair and UFG’s academic committee, and two working groups that met on different subthemes of the Congress.

In 2024, the 4th Human Rights Forum was held in Bernal, Argentina, at the National University of Quilmes. Structured around activities coordinated with social movements and amid a period of budget cuts and funding constraints in education in Argentina, the forum brought the community closer to the university. Highlights included the opening lecture by Dr. Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni, as well as the distinguished presence of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an important movement of women who resisted the Argentine dictatorship. In total, there were four panels and several outreach activities.