The Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights

A multi-year project to provoke new efforts and energy across the field of human rights to build organizational strength and increase mutual solidarity.

As states retreat from their responsibilities to protect rights, the need for cross-cultural, intergenerational, multi-identity, and all-class participation in defence of human rights has become critical.

From now until 2025, the Bonavero is supporting the Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights to convene frontline activists, organizational leaders, scholars, and movement builders in complex conversations about the health of the human rights field. And we’re drawing on those conversations to produce a wide range of written and digital material exploring ideas about building respectful organizational culture, structuring governance and funding, deploying the language of rights, and establishing a rigorous practice of solidarity.

Engage

All are welcome to join the public programs of the Symposium by registering for public webinars, listening to our podcast, ‘Strength and Solidarity’, or dropping in on the conversations mediated on our blog.

Whether you are fighting to end the violation of your own rights, supporting the struggles of others, studying human rights, or simply seeking to learn more, we hope you will find our conversations helpful. If you’re a veteran of these struggles, you’ll be in good company. If you’re new to human rights movements, we have all felt the warmth that comes from being generously included in the conversation and community of veterans.  

Some conversations work best among modest-sized groups of people who share something in common. We may host discussions by region, and curate others around a common threat, challenge or rights struggle. These invitational discussions are reserved for people actively engaged in human rights organizations or movements. If you are engaged in that way, or would like to recommend a friend or colleague that is, please take a moment to express your interest in participating in an invitational event.