61st Anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
September 3-5, 2008
NGOs representatives and other civil society partners met at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris France, for the 61st Annual DPI/NGO Conference, Reaffirming Human Rights for All: the Universal Declaration at 60. The conference aimed to discuss ways and means to contribute to the awareness of human rights today set forth in the Universal Declaration 60 years ago in Paris.
Of particular note, Robert Arsenault, President of the International League for Human Rights, emphasized the importance of raising specific cases at such human rights conferences so that human rights violations are related to individual persons. Mr. Arsenault brought particular attention to the cases of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, stating: "If we look at the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who ought to have been paroled by now, we might have an opportunity to see Russia’s interest in having the [Russian] President’s words match his deeds.”
- Watch the full webcast here
(Mr. Arsenault talks in defense of Messers Khodorkovsky and Lebedev at 24 min and 10 sec)
