Imagine a world where inequality is like a dark room, shrouded in obscurity and injustice. In this room, the rights and dignity of countless individuals remain hidden from view, denied the light they deserve. This lack of transparency, this absence of a window to let in the illumination of human rights, perpetuates a cycle of oppression. Now, consider the concept of “windows” as not just openings in walls but as metaphors for transparency and openness in society. These metaphorical windows can be powerful tools to shed light on inequality and uphold human rights.

The exhibition presents work created by senior-level graphic design students in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Dayton.

Opening remarks by Natalie Hudson, Executive Director, Human Rights Center; University of Dayton Provost Darlene Weaver; Serges Alain Djoyou Kamga, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, South Africa.

"Reinvigorating the Right to Development Agenda to Meet Today’s Global Challenges": Address by Bonny Ibhawoh, Expert-Rapporteur, UN Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development

Remarks by the Director of Programs, University of Dayton Human Rights Center

The ongoing Black Lives Matter, Rhodes Must Fall, Indigenous people, and Black women/feminist movements among many other subaltern formations are clear signifiers of the unfinished struggles for liberation, reverberating within Global Africa. The unfinished struggles include the abolitionist, anti/decolonial, Black womanist/feminist, Indigenous people, civil rights movements and initiatives aimed at delivering development for dispossessed and destituted peoples. At the centre of the unfinished struggles has been overlapping historical (a people denied of history, dismemberment & Black condition), existential (coloniality of being & antiblackness), material (dispossession & destitution), epistemic (cognitive empire & coloniality of knowledge), and identity (self-definition & selfdetermination) concerns and questions. These are constituent elements of initiatives aimed at reworlding the world from the vantage point of Global Africa. This keynote address revisits the fundamental unresolved concerns and issues of the Black/African struggles for liberation and reflects on the trajectories of liberation struggles as it simultaneously critiques notions of human rights, discourses of development, and limits of decolonization of the 20th century as they continue to fail to deliver Black lives which matter.

In this session, we take participants through a simulation to understand what a world of 10 billion people will look like, from the number of people to the limited resources, and how we either allocate limited resources or innovate around maximizing resources. The simulation will ask participants to make tough decisions around food, energy, resource scarcity, and ultimately, the ethical question of curtailing population growth.

At the heart of inclusive development is a commitment to centering marginalized voices and prioritizing justice and equity as critical forms of resistance to colonialism and neoliberalism. In the midst of decolonization, how can alternative models of development move us closer to human dignity and human flourishing? For this opening plenary, we have invited eminent scholars and practitioners from across the globe to give us insight into the dynamics of decolonizing development, including exploration into redistributive models, rights-based economies, and financial institutions for achieving Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Ebony Heritage Singers are the University of Dayton's Gospel Choir, led by the Rev. Dr. Donna M. Cox

• Roundtable: Gender and Rights: Global Contestations
• The Role of African Regional Human Rights Bodies in Addressing the Negative Impacts of Climate Change (co-hosted by the Hanley Sustainability Institute)
• Unveiling the Complexities of Inclusive Development in Africa
• The Role of Social Media in Advancing Social Justice and Human Rights in Africa
• (Un)Sustainable: The Impact of Development Projects on People and the Environment in Africa (co-hosted by the Hanley Sustainability Institute)
• EmpowerArt: Igniting Change through Creative Activism
• Roundtable on Community-Engaged Approaches to Development

From contesting democratic deficits and police violence to campaigning for environmental and economic justice, Black political leaders and grassroots activists are driving many of today’s most visible human rights movements. This second plenary delves into the crucial theme of generating power through resistance and movement building, particularly through the lens of modern Pan-Africanism. As Africans and people of African descent organize and mobilize in new ways, we want to examine the opportunities and challenges in this work. Particularly critical to this discussion is the role of new technologies in countering anti-rights movements, as well as the increased democratic fragility evident in many parts of the globe.

Banolo Makgale, Moderator

• Roundtable: Disrupting Forced Labor and Forced Child Labor: Case Studies and Responses
• Roundtable: Impact of Peace Corps on Development in Host countries
• Responding to Oppression
• Roundtable on High School Student Experiences
• Roundtable: Transforming Gender Norms in Rural Mali by Opening Spaces for Action
• Rights for Tenants and the "Unhoused": Progress and Lessons Learned in Dayton

Featured pre-keynote performance: St. Benedict’s Multiethnic Choir

A conversation between Amara Enyia and University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences Dean Danielle Poe.

Today, Africans and people of African descent are connecting in unprecedented ways. New international mechanisms are making space for collective visioning and action; new manifestations of the impacts of racial capitalism, climate disaster, and the politics of “development” are spurring broad participation in movements for change. As African heads of state finally catch on to the calls for reparations that have emanated from civil society and grassroots organizations for years, they are now engaging with their counterparts in the Caribbean and elsewhere to develop a global reparations strategy. At the same time, the rising influence of China and the Russia-Ukraine war have exposed an opportunity for Africans and people of African descent to chart a path toward self-determination and challenge the status quo of unipolarity and the legacies of imperialism. In confronting this complexity, this keynote will consider what is the mandate of this moment and ask how we should take account of these many factors as we chart paths forward in our respective spheres.

(More from the keynote address is available in the downloadable document in this record.)

• Roundtable: Achieving Social Justice through Social Economic Rights Litigation
• Green Colonialisms’ Effects on Pastoralist Women in East Africa (organized by the human rights practice program at the University of Dayton)
• Roundtable: STEM for Justice and Empowerment
• Socio-Economic Rights: Challenges and Opportunities
• A human rights-centered approach to the implementation of the f the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
• Roundtable: Advancing Access to Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America: Innovative Strategies and Methods

This poster session provides an opportunity to encounter research findings and insights for social change from student researchers and advocates at the University of Dayton. The session represents work from the following classes: ANT 325 Anthropology and Human Rights, ENG 346 Literature and Human Rights, SPN 472 Human Rights Narratives in Latin American/Latinx Culture, SEE 490 Experiential Study in Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment, INS 499 Capstone in International Studies, HST 336 History of Africa I: Pre-history to the 19th Century, and HRS 497 Capstone in Human Rights Studies.

From hurricanes and floods to droughts and wildfires, the human and environmental toll of climate change can no longer be ignored. These signs of the times demand courageous, bold, and well-resourced solutions to the world’s energy demands. Of course, the differential human rights impact of energy transitions on diverse populations cannot be ignored nor underestimated. This plenary brings together sustainability experts and activists to explore challenges and opportunities for ensuring that the transition to a clean energy future is just and equitable, particularly for advancing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7. The session creates space for varying regional perspectives from Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean, and will focus on actionable pathways to a just, inclusive, and equitable energy system.

This session is co-hosted by the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute (HSI), moderated by Bob Brecha.

• Roundtable: Cooperative thought and practice: building structures for human dignity
• The Post of the Postcolonial?
• Place, Identity and Migration
• Breaking the Silos: Intersections of Gender and Climate Change (co-hosted by the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute)
• Gender-Equitable Approaches to Inclusive and Sustainable Development
• Global Education Seminar (GES): University of Dayton Faculty Reflections on travels through Post-Apartheid South Africa (co-hosted by the University of Dayton's Global and Intercultural Affairs Center)
• Partnering for Impact in International Development

Established in 2021, the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent builds on at least twenty years of global work from the 2001 Durban Declaration and Programme of Action through the Working Group and Decade on People of African Descent. The Permanent Forum was invited by the General Assembly to develop a declaration of rights as a concrete step toward the implementation of the ideas initiated through the Durban process. This session brings together two elected members of the Permanent Forum to share the progress on the draft declaration and discuss the outlook for this new international mechanism.

Human rights require tremendous work, grit, and sacrifice. It also involves passion, artistic expression, and celebrating human life and diversity. This evening, we will take time to find the joy in our work through an immersive exploration using art and culture to delve into the intricate themes of belonging, identity, memory, and healing. Through engaging activities, participants will have the chance to share their stories and contribute to a collective journey toward empowerment and transformation.

• TINO, hip-hop artist
• Dayton Poetry Slam (Ayesha and Shay)
• David Tinashe Hofisi
• MC: Te’Jal Cartwright

• Roundtable — Human Rights: A Community Conversation on the Importance to Declare Dayton a Human Rights City
• Book Launch: Sexual Harassment, Law, and Human Rights in Africa
• Revitalizing Education for Inclusive and Transformative Outcomes
• Roundtable: Activism in the Popular Imagination
• Tech and Human Rights
• Exploitation of Migrants and Tools for Protection

• Fortifying the Truth in a Post-Truth World
• SIRA: Community-Driven African Filmmaking to Address Harmful Practices
• Human Rights in Practice: Connect, Reflect, and Lead the Way to a More Just World
• Writing for Public Engagement
• Lessons Learned for Dayton: A Debriefing for Local Leaders and Activists

Moderator: Havana Glover