Ten years ago, the Human Rights Week was established at THWS. Through this annual format, the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences creates a framework in which students and interested parties can approach various topics. An overview of this initiative and an outlook of the upcoming anniversary.
Published on 22 September 2023
The Human Rights Week at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS) takes place every year around the International Human Rights Day on 10 December. In this themed week, the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences offer over 20 different events on the topic of human rights. During this time, students can tackle tasks, questions, and dilemmas that result from the conscious commitment in social work to human right professions. Presentations, films, and panel discussions aim to question general and professional actions and decisions regarding human rights and to carve out potential improvements. "It is a way to critically reflect on our own actions", explains Professor Dr. Theresia Wintergerst of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences.
Collaborative programme design: Cooperation of lecturers and students
Since 2014, the Human Rights Week has been created in close cooperation between lecturers from various fields and committed students. The organisation team, consisting of Professor Dr. Theresia Wintergerst, Professor Dr. Ralph-Christian Amthor and Professor Dr. Oliver Bertsche, regularly meets with the students to include their suggestions and ideas and thus co-create the programme. "It is great that we can contribute our own topic suggestions that we also encounter in daily life. That way, there are always different and exciting topics that actually move us", says social work student Madleen.
The involved persons' motivation mainly stems from their passion for the topic of human rights, Wintergerst explains. "It is crucial to us that human rights are understood as a normative basis for society", she continues. The team wants to highlight the importance of human rights, provide information, spark discussions, and sensitise for the topic. "Human rights are always based on the experience of the terrible things humans can do and have done to one another", the professor explains. They shall provide a safe space to prevent such incidents.
Nazi past acts as a wake-up call
The Human Rights Week is based on the historical background of the General Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on 10 December 1948. This landmark charter was created in answer to the events of the Second World War and lays down fundamental rights and liberties for every human being. All over the world, institutions keep referring to the principles that were laid down 75 years ago. These principles contribute to creating a world in which all humans enjoy freedom of speech and religion and in which they can live free from fear and want. This involves the commitment to fundamental rights to justice, economic, social and cultural rights as well as political and intellectual liberty rights.
The Human Rights Week at THWS sensitises students for new questions and perspectives. "During that week we want to open a window to the world and invite the relevant topics into our faculty", Wintergerst says. These relevant relations on an international level and on a societal level broadened the students' horizons. "The Human Rights Week gives everyone the chance to look outside the box", Wintergerst says.
Stories that stick in your mind
In particular the exchange with mostly external lecturers enables students to develop their knowledge and perspectives and to gain new insights and inspiration. "The often-sad stories and fates stick in one's mind for a long time", says Madleen, student of social work.
The events stem from various areas of life and create a colourful programme each year. Special emphasis is placed on topics like rights of caring relatives, old people's welfare, disabled rights, and migration. The rights of people suffering from mental illness, for example regarding coercive treatment, or historical retrospectives on National Socialism are also highlighted every year. Over the years, more and more topics have been included. The last Human Rights Weeks offered events on debts and poverty or LGBTQIA+ topics like homophobia and transphobia.
The previous year, the philosopher Barbara Schmitz covered disabled persons' rights at THWS with her lecture "What is a life worth living". "All of the students had a very interesting background and an individual approach of the topic – they partly shared their own experiences", Schmitz remembers. "This created a hugely fascinating exchange that really enriched me and gave me food for thought afterwards." Such lectures would encourage her to bring her topic to the public, the philosopher says. "I then realise how crucial it is to especially bring the topic to places like universities of applied sciences where people have practical experience that they will apply in future." In these places you could have a particular impact.
Ten years of Human Rights Week
Wintergerst's organisation team plans to initially publish the journal "Der Würzburger Weg" in celebration of the ten-year anniversary. The journal will portray the journey and the importance of the event series. The document aims to show the public and THWS how human rights are understood at the higher education institution and how the themed week is approached, Wintergerst says.
The participants of this year's Human Rights Week can expect current topics like civil disobedience in the context of environmentalism, debts and poverty, migration, and mental illness. "These are all important topics conveying unsolved human-rights questions that we are faced with in our society, in Europe and in the world", Wintergerst says. "We want to take a look at these again this year."
