U. de La Serena and INDH agree to promote actions that promote the teaching of human rights

historical memory 1

The alliance between the state campus and the National Institute of Human Rights, the first of this organization with a university in the northern zone, will promote a series of actions and initiatives related to the protection, promotion and education in human rights.

An important cooperation agreement was signed by the University of La Serena and the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), institutions that agreed to jointly develop linkage and cooperation actions that allow them to promote the promotion and protection of the human rights of the people who live there. the territory of Chile. The above, through the planning of joint action programs, especially related to the areas of education, research and extension. 

Regarding the signing of this agreement, the first of its kind signed by the organization with a study house in the north of the country, the Rector of the ULS, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, indicated that this alliance with the National Institute of Human Rights will allow promote a series of actions and initiatives that will contribute to the promotion of human rights in the educational field and generate a culture of human rights. “As an educational entity, we are interested in promoting the growth of well-rounded people, who not only have a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes for good professional performance, but above all become people with socially acceptable ethical behavior,” he mentioned. the university authority in relation to the commitment of the institution and its community to the incorporation of human rights in university work. 

For his part, the person in charge of the Education area of ​​the INDH, Enrique Azúa, valued the will expressed by Rector Avilés and the work carried out by academics of this institution regarding the promotion of education in human rights and historical memory. “It is extraordinarily important and significant because it is the first university in the northern zone with which we have an agreement of this nature and constitutes a basis for establishing similar agreements with other universities, generating relations of cooperation, exchange, development of research, teaching and publications that allow us to link, in a comprehensive dimension of human rights and in the training of future professionals, a vision that provides a response from the university to the human rights problems that exist in the country today.”

historical memory 2Furthermore, the professional explained that “it is much easier to protect human rights and demand them when they are known; those who do not know their rights have a greater chance of having their rights violated or violated. That is why human rights education is so important, and that is why protection actions are so important, because they generate a culture of human rights that is a guarantee of never again.” 

The signing of this agreement took place at the University of La Serena during the International Seminar “Historical Memory as a Condition for the Future 2014”, in which the Rector, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, the representative of the INDH, Enrique Azúa, university authorities, the coordinator of the meeting and academic of the Department. of Education, Mg. Edgardo Carabantes, guest speakers, academics and students.

Seminar on Historical Memory as a Condition for the Future

The Seminar “Historical Memory as a Condition for the Future 2014”, organized by the Areas of Sociology and Philosophy, the Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education program and the Interdisciplinary Center for Latin American Studies of the ULS, aims to promote reflection and debate on the need to educate future professionals in education and other areas on the topic of historical memory, as a pedagogical device for training in human rights at the university, in the local and global context, as a peripheral region of a changing society , multicultural and complex.

“This space allows us to encounter the realities that circulate in our territories of conversations, from which we can build a society truly respectful of human rights, understood in the multiplicity of meanings, a clean environment, access to culture, the right to water, decent work, etc.,” said Professor Edgardo Carabantes.    

historical memory 3The meeting included presentations by Enrique Azúa (INDH) with “Memory and Education in Human Rights: Advances and Challenges in Higher Education”, and by Jaume Peris (University of Valencia) with “Testimony and Memory policies: contradictions, fissures and boundaries"; the results of the research “The awakening of memory” by Juan Pablo Páez, Nathalie Labbé and Pablo Silva; and the screening of the documentary “The Chilean Building.” 

Presentations are added to these activities. today Thursday in charge by Karen Cea, in charge of Education at Villa Grimaldi, with “Experiences, challenges and pedagogical achievements from a place of memory: the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park"; Rosa Salazar, from AJUV 11-21, Mexico, with “Historical Memory, paradigm of social and political participation"; the Panel "Imaginaries, discourses and treatments towards childhood" by ULS academics, Silvia López de Maturana, Rossana Godoy and Clara Tirado; the Commemoration Act of the Caravan of Death; and the Play “Lorca Desaparecido” (20:00 p.m. at the Municipal Theater).