The Diplomat
The State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno Bau, and the State Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Juan Fernández Trigo, have assured that the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union will defend the inclusion of digital rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and have advocated the promotion of education as a “vehicle for transmitting the values of democracy”.
The two State Secretaries participated this past Wednesday in the High-Level Dialogue on Human Rights Education for Democratic Citizenship: A Common Agenda for the European Union and Latin America, held at the Casa de América in Madrid and promoted by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) with the collaboration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European External Action Service (SEAEX). The meeting took place a few days before the EU-CELAC Summit of Heads of State and Government was held in Brussels and coincided with the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the beginning of the Spanish Presidency.
During the event, the Secretary General of the OEI, Mariano Jabonero, expressed his concern about the institutional weakening and deterioration of democracies and warned that, in addition to competent institutions and responsible political actors, solid democracies require “active, high-intensity, law-abiding citizens”.
In this regard, Jabonero stressed the decisive role of education and listed the initiatives being developed by the OEI to raise awareness about education in values, human rights and the promotion of democracy in Ibero-America, among which he highlighted the Ibero-American Program for Human Rights, Democracy and Equality, presented six months ago at Casa de América; the OEI’s Ibero-American Institute for Human Rights Education, created in 2013 in the Colombia office, and the Oscar Arnulfo Romero Ibero-American Prize for Human Rights Education, launched in 2015 in collaboration with the SM Foundation.
For her part, Ángeles Moreno Bau affirmed that human rights constitute “the core of the EU-Latin America relationship” and assured that, during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, emphasis will be placed on updating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as digital rights. “A pleasure to inaugurate this dialogue in the framework of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said the State Secretary through her official Twitter account. “We reflected on human rights education, democratic values as a tool for strengthening citizenship and formulated proposals for a common agenda,” she added.
During one of the dialogue tables, Fernández Trigo warned that “education is a vehicle for transmitting the values of democracy and a transcendental right to develop people and increase the quality levels of coexistence”.
