Programme

Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami and Yiddish are the five legally recognised national minority languages in Sweden. Despite different laws guaranteeing national linguistic minorities’ rights, Sweden is a poor performer in terms of education and access to media in national minority languages. In this panel, we address the challenges and good practices related to education and media consumption in national minority languages in Sweden.

Do we need to strengthen the right to education?Everyone has the right to education: it is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, worldwide, 244 million children and youth are not getting an education for social, economic and cultural reasons. For many, the cost of education remains a significant barrier, disproportionately affecting children and adolescents from low-income families, girls, children with disabilities, as well as other vulnerable school-age populations. Conflicts of various kinds and the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the global education crisis.In many conflicts around the world, attacks on education are extensive. Armed groups deliberately target schools, teachers and students. Attacks on schools disrupt the education system and violate children's rights: in addition to putting children at risk of injury or death, they affect students' access to education and displace families. Stronger protection for education in conflict has never been more important.

Afrikagrupperna invites you to an international seminar with guests from Rural Women's Assembly from Southern Africa. The seminar aim to discuss alternative educational plattforms, reimagine methods and highlight examples from a feminist perspective in Southern Africa.  According to the State of Climate in Africa 2021 report extreme weather and climate change undermine human health and safety, food and water security as well as socio-economic development. Although African countries only account for around 2-3% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, the continent is disproportionately affected by the effects. Droughts, floods and other natural disasters constantly recur on the African continent, forcing people to leave their homes. In 2019 alone, over 2.2 million people were affected by the cyclones Kenneth and Idai in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. In dealing with climate crises and injustice, movements and infomal actors are in the frontline demanding the change. Movements are fundamental actors for change, where the people most affected drive their own actions, speak for themselves and lead others in the communities. Movements have created safe spaces for people to push for change and have impact when redefining the capitalistic exploitative system that excites and has been contributing to environmental destruction and human rights violation. Afrikagruppernas guest from Southern Africa, The Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) is a self-organised movement or alliance of national rural women’s movements and grassroots organisations of peasant, unions and federations across nine countries in Africa. RWA aims to strengthen rural women in the defence of their commons (Land, sea, water, seeds and ecosystem) by building voices through education and movement building. This panel will be moderated by Afrikagruppernas Secretary General, Louise Lindfors. Panellists: Reinette Heunis, Small-scale farmer, Rural Women’s Assembly and small scale farmer, South Africa
Rejoice Chikauda, Head of Policy and Communications at National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM), Rural Women’s Assembly, Malawi. 
Flaida Macheze, Rural and international development professional, Rural Women’s Assembly & UNAC, Moçambique 

Conflicts, ethnic disputes and rampant inflation in Ethiopia particularly affects the children. Around 3 million do not have access to school education and as many as 16 million are exposed to exploitative child labour. The majority are girls. Hear about how education, from pre-school, apprenticeships, parenting and self-help groups to academic education at doctoral level, enables life-changing opportunities for women in Ethiopia.

India's economic growth has been unequal, with rural women undervalued and falling behind. Women farmers are often paid inadequately or not at all, and social stigma and abuse further limit their opportunities. Grameena Mahila Okkuta is working to change this by educating women about their rights, including tools to demand fair compensation. Okkuta includes men in their discussions and advocates for policy changes. Their efforts have led to women gaining better access to work and receiving fair compensation, as well as a reduction in instances of abuse and child marriage. This seminar will explore Okkuta's effective strategies, providing attendees with a deeper understanding of the context and inspiring new solutions for similar challenges

Clinical Legal Education (CLE) ─ A new educational method to Sweden! Law students use their knowledge for the benefit of civil society at the same time as the students benefit from working directly with lawyers in rights organizations. In addition to CLE strengthening the work with human rights in civil society, future lawyers learn about human rights and current challenges to their realization in Sweden. Students, lawyers and teachers tell more!

In this mini seminar we will bring together five human rights practitioners and current students on the Erasmus mundus master’s programme in Human rights policy and practice from around the world to discuss what peace means from their experiences. They will define the barriers for different communities in accessing this right and provide examples of implementation in Iran, India, Indonesia, and other international contexts. In the end, they will reflect on how everyday actions of individuals and communities build pathways for global peace.

Is there a way to support academics who face reprisals from oppressive governments? Yes – more than 600 universities worldwide unite in the Scholars at Risk network to host researchers prevented to express themselves freely. Standing up for the academic freedom worldwide, the network has arranged temporary placements for more than 300 researchers each year. 

In our daily work we, in the do-good sector, are fighting old structures of injustice and abuse, but have we left the colonial heritage and structures behind us in our own work?In this micro-workshop we explore and reflect together on our ways of working from a de-colonization perspective.We will also share our own struggle to de-colonize at IM, and our efforts to, shift powers in everything we do.Come, join, contribute and learn

The presentation, which aims to inspire, and create discussion about, sustainable job creation, is given by the non-profit association Doing Good (former Sätt färg på) , which has created work and training opportunities for young people in socio-economically (soc.ek) vulnerable areas, and refugees in Western Sweden, for more than a decade.
The association, which is run by a dussin experts, has successfully hired 200+ individuals between 2022-2023 from the target group and IT/climate trained thousands more. All hires have been made within internally created eco-tech jobs  
The presentation is relevant for all organizational and project-running actors who wish to streamline their processes to enable the right to work and education and contains psycho-social and decolonizing reflections.

Afrikagrupperna invites you to an international seminar with representatives from Rural Women’s Assembly in Southern Africa. The conversation aims to discuss the need for a just transition in the food and energy system with reflections on why there is a need for change, what is a just transition and how can this transformation happen? 
According to the IPCC report from 2023 it has never been more clear; we are living in the midst of the climate crisis. The consequences for people and nature are acute and we need environmental and climate justice now. We are losing our biodiversity in an alarming rate, about 75% and 66% of land and marine environments, respectively, are extremely affected by human factors. This is due to unsustainable lifestyles and misuse of natural resources. We need a well-functioning ecosystem which is fundamental for our survival. The majority of people live in unjust societies with an uneven distribution of resources and massive environmental destruction. 
This is due to the unsustainable economic system that gives power to corporations and companies to continue violating human rights through extractivism, intensive industrial agriculture, and food production. For us to meet future challenges, less human rights violations and environmental destruction, we have to change the way we relate to nature and how we use our natural resources. There is a need of a transformative sustainable system that works to achieve a just society. This seminar explores people's movements and pathways to a just transition with examples from Southern Africa, Asia and Europe. The speakers will connect a just transition to education, workers' rights, mobilisation and will address concepts such as green washing and corporate responsibility.    Afrikagruppernas guest from Southern Africa, The Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) is a self-organised movement or alliance of national rural women’s movements and grassroots organisations of peasant, unions and federations across nine countries in Africa. RWA aims to strengthen rural women in the defence of their commons (land, sea, water, seeds and ecosystem) by building voices through education and movement building. This panel will be moderated by Afrikagruppernas Secretary General, Louise Lindfors. Panellists:Flaida Macheze, Rural and international development professional, Rural Women’s Assembly & UNAC, Moçambique Reinette Heunis, Small-scale farmer, Rural Women’s Assembly and small scale farmer, South Africa

Education must never be seen as a luxury for children - it is a human right and an essential pillar on which the well-being of society relies. However, not all children enjoy this right and children with disabilities in particular are left out of education systems worldwide; where 9 out of 10 do not access education. How do we work to ensure that every child is given the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed?

There is a growing recognition of the human rights dimension to mental health. At the same we witness a rapidly emerging global mental health crisis. Mental health is essential for the well-being, overall health and life-quality, as well as for the peace and prosperity of our societies. Marie Dahl from Sweden is the Director of the global resource center MHPSS Collaborative and will present some of the main challenges and opportunities.

The panel addresses the conditions for academic freedom from a global perspective. Academic freedom is a set of principles that enable and protect the free exercise and dissemination of research and education. While restrictions on academic freedom are characteristic of authoritarian states, recent years have shown that academic freedom have deteriorated in democracies. What can and should be done to strengthen academic freedom?

Conflict-induced predicaments, coupled with insecurity and displacements caused by climate change related disasters, have compelled the withdrawal of children and youth from educational pursuits. In alternative scenarios, children find themselves trekking considerable distances to reach school. In nomadic communities the people are constantly on the move with families, children, and livestock in search of pasture and water. For many, the prospect of education remains elusive, as evidenced by soaring out-of-school rates, pervasive dropouts, and a considerable loss of learning.

Se när en av de största skolstrejkerna i modern amerikansk historia utspelar sig i realtid och lyfter fram berättelserna och ledarskapet hos några av kvinnorna som ledde den, från fackliga ledare till klasslärare.

As the second term of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to an end, the world is observing the country’s fast movement towards authoritarianism. While it is often questioned whether the Indian-held area of Jammu and Kashmir has ever been included in the Indian democratic project, most observers agree that during Modi’s regime the political repression of Kashmir has further intensified. Since August 2019 the rights of Kashmir Valley inhabitants have been suspended in the name of security logic. The Indian Government and several pro-Hindutva organisations have argued that the Indian state has a duty to intervene to ensure that the rights of LGBTQ Kashmiris are upheld.This session will explore how the Indian regime is using a language of LGBTQ-rights to legitimise the abrogation of Articles 35A and 370 and how Kashmiri queer activists are challenging the Indian discourse.

Today, crises and emergency situations create a host of challenges that impact human rights profoundly. The importance of proliferation and implementation of human rights is contingent on the continuity of education in general and human rights education specifically, even in dire humanitarian situations. The panel will discuss how these issues are addressed with a focus on the conflict in Ukraine.