Over the years, the Fundamental Rights Forum has brought together a diverse range of participants to tackle some of the most important issues in modern times.

Explore here some of the themes and highlights from previous events.

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Fundamental Rights Forum 2021

In 2021, over 3,000 people joined the Forum in Vienna and online, for over 145 different sessions across 6 locations.

From 11 to 12 October, the event brought together people from diverse backgrounds –thought leaders, decision makers, civil society, artists, businesses, young people, faith and non-confessional communities, and many more.

They were all united by one ambition – to build a vision of hope.

The event culminated in five main takeaways:

  • WAKE UP– we need to acknowledge that no system or organisation is permanent and infallible; changes may well happen.
  • JOIN UP– we need to bring everybody who cares about human rights to engage and work with each other on our common concerns.
  • WISE UP– we need to improve our tools, get better at data gathering and making a business case for our claims.
  • CATCH UP– we need to meaningfully engage with the digital world and new technologies, especially artificial intelligence.
  • LISTEN UP – we need to work in partnership with rightsholders, including young people, to promote and protect human rights.

Watch the highlights videos for more.

Fundamental Rights Forum 2018

The second Fundamental Rights Forum took place from 25 to 27 September 2018. Over 700 human rights actors attended the event, exchanging knowledge and ideas across 6 major themes: disinformation, technology, culture; inclusion, rightsholders, and rebuilding trust.

The Forum also offered plenty of networking and interaction opportunities, such as:

  • A Living Library allowed participants ‘to borrow ‘books’ from a library of human experiences and hear about their incredible stories, enhancing their testimonies with the power of human interactions.
  • The Virtual Zone provided participants with hands-on experience of the latest tools human rights defenders use to adapt to the digital age.
  • The Sports and Humans Rights sessions demonstrated the power of sport to promote common values and human rights.

Watch the video recordings of all sessions for more.

Please accept the cookies to watch the streaming online.

Please accept the cookies to watch the streaming online.

Please accept the cookies to watch the streaming online.

Fundamental Rights Forum 2016

The inaugural Fundamental Rights Forum ran from 20 to 23 June 2016. It offered 27 workshops, 6 panel debates and 10 ‘connect.reflect.act’ talks on 3 major themes: inclusion, refugee protection, and the digital age.

Each day gave a different perspective to allow an in-depth analysis of the various themes: innovation, rights-based governance, empowering rightsholders, and fundamental rights-compliant sustainable growth.

Over 400 contributors from 28 countries and 130+ speakers and international experts swapped ideas, shared their expertise and explored out-of-the box scenarios to come up with a concrete action point for the future.

Check out the event highlights and brochure for a better sense of this Forum.

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