Festivals and festivities

Last week I went to five events that were part of the Human Rights Festival, which coincides with the UN Human Rights Day. This week I went to a sixth event that didn’t make it onto the calendar. At these events, researchers, activists, politicians, and historians:

1. Discussed racism in the Republic targeting people of Afro-Caribbean descent.
2. Reviewed two seminal documents in the history of human rights in Ireland. One was the Easter Proclamation of 1916, which proclaimed Ireland’s independence from Great Britain. The second was the Ulster Covenant of 1912, in which Protestants united against home rule for Ireland. Each document had aspirational language and were liberal for their time, yet each gave rise to very conservative governments.
3. Compared war stories from fighting for environmental causes in Ulster. Apparently there is mining for gold in the Sperrins that has created multiple rounds of litigation.
4. Discussed the future of the Human Rights Act, which the UK adopted in 1998 and PM Cameron is now denouncing, wanting to assert UK independence from EU jurisprudence.
5. Compared notes on the state of business and human rights in Ulster. This was my favourite because it is the most on point for my research and job search. It produced a few contacts that I will follow up on when I return.
6. Debated the possibility of passing a Bill of Rights in Northern Ireland. The UK does not have a constitution or a bill of rights. The latter was promised as part of the Good Friday Agreement, but has never gotten past the discussion stage. This was a very interesting discussion for a post-conflict society to dive into.
   12-15