Human Rights Day 2022
- Date
- December 08, 2022
- Time
- 11:30 AM EST - 1:00 PM EST
- Location
- Online via Zoom
- Open To
- Toronto Metropolitan University community members and general public.
- Contact
- Michelle Cho: mcho2@torontomu.ca
Human Rights Day is observed annually by the international community on December 10. It commemorates the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This year’s Human Rights Day theme focuses on the uses of human rights law, policy and advocacy to address, mitigate and prevent social and economic inequities in society, and to advance social and economic human rights to housing and health for all.
Lessons learned: Advancing social and economic human rights from Canada to South Africa
Moderator
Dr. Remi Warner, Director of Human Rights Services
Panelists
- Mohamed Shafie Ameermia (external link) : Robert Glidden Visiting Professor and Legal Consultant, Commissioner for Social Cohesion and Nation and Building and former Human Rights Commissioner in the Republic of South Africa.
- Leilani Farha (external link) : Global Director of The Shift (external link) and the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (external link) , where she helped develop the first UN Guidelines for the implementation of the right to housing.
- Dr. Lisa Forman (external link) : Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Canada Research Chair in Human Rights and Global Health Equity, whose research explores the contribution of the right to health in international law to remediating global health inequities.
Watch the event
Resources
Please find below a list of resources referenced by our moderator and panelists during the event.
Dr. Remi Warner
Dr. Remi Warner referenced the work of Samuel Moyn (Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University), which can be further explored in his book, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (external link) (2018).
Shafie Ameermia
Please see Shafie’s article on The Role of the SAHRC in Facilitating Access to Justice through Litigation. (external link)
Leilani Farha
As mentioned, Leilani Farha is the Global Director of The Shift (external link) , which recognizes housing as a human right, not a commodity or an extractive industry. The Shift restores the understanding of housing as home, challenging the ways financial actors undermine the right to housing. Using a human rights framework, The Shift provokes action to end homelessness, unaffordability, and evictions globally.
- Shift Directives (external link) : The Shift Directives are the first-ever comprehensive framework providing governments and investors with guidance to effectively address the financialization of housing in accordance with human rights law.
- Push - The Film (external link) , directed by Fredrik Gertten, is about the financialization of housing. Canadian participants can use this link (external link) and watch for free.
- PUSHBACK Talks (external link) : A podcast about cities, human rights, finance and housing, co-hosted by Leilani Farha and Fredrik Gertten.
- (PDF file) The Shift Directives (external link) : From financialized to human rights-based housing.
- UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing: (PDF file) Guidelines for the Implementation of the Right to Housing (external link) .
Dr. Lisa Forman
The Canadian decisions referenced by Dr. Forman during the panel can be found here:
- The Canadian Doctors for Refugee care decision (external link)
- (PDF file) The Nell Toussaint decision (external link)
Additionally, please find attached 2 articles written by Dr. Forman:
- A link to an open access special issue on COVID vaccine equity and human rights (external link) which Dr. Forman co-edited and wrote in.
- A piece on the indivisibility of rights during COVID, titled “Health and human rights are inextricably linked in the COVID-19 response (external link) ”.
