Viviana Fernandez at the 2022 conference of AHRI in South Africa

Research
HRREC
Conference
Human rights
South Africa

By University of Ottawa

Human Rights Research and Education Centre, HRREC

Viviana Fernandez at the AHRI Conference 2022 in South Africa
HRREC Assistant Director, Viviana Fernandez, participated in the 2022 conference of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) held from September 1 to 3, in the University of Pretoria’s Future Africa campus.

The conference took place in a hybrid format with around 70 people participating in person. The theme of the conference was on technology and the future of human rights and researchers from all over the world presented their work in three tracks: 1. Surveillance and vulnerability, 2. Survival and sustainability and 3. Democratic participation and accountability. The main conference was preceded by a doctoral workshop held at the Centre for Human Rights. Participants in the workshop discussed methodology, with a focus on technology and human rights research, after which seven doctoral candidates presented their papers for discussion.

The AHRI Executive Committee, of which Viviana is a member since 2021, also met on 1 September. The conference concluded with the adoption of the AHRI Pretoria Declaration on Technology and Human Rights, which is a declaration that acknowledges the dynamic relationship between technology and human rights. AHRI was established in 2000 by seven human rights institutes in Europe and has grown to include more than 80 university-based human rights institutes across the world. HRREC has been a member of AHRI since 2014. The 2022 conference was the first time that AHRI held its annual conference outside Europe.