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75th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. Mission to Geneva of the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Giorgio Silli.

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The Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Giorgio Silli, is paying a visit to Geneva, to participate today in the High-Level Event on Human Rights to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights at the Palais des Nations.

The Undersecretary, who already had a bilateral meeting with the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, will also participate on 13-14 December in the 2023 Global Refugee Forum.

Alongside the High-Level Event, Undersecretary Silli has proceeded to the institutional opening of the contemporary “Art and Human Rights” exhibition, held at the Palais des Nations from 4 to 15 December under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic. The exhibition, conceived in the framework of the campaign promoted by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and by the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations in Geneva, in collaboration with Associazione Genesi and with the support of the Italian Institute of Culture in Zurich.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is “one of the major achievements of the international community”, as affirmed by Undersecretary Silli in his speech, where he highlighted that today’s anniversary is not just a celebration, but it is also a call for a more effective fight for the promotion of human rights worldwide. Being universal, human rights “require relentless commitment from the Governments and the whole international community”, and the exhibition underlines challenges and ambitions to their promotion in a world where tensions, conflicts and violations are unfortunately on the rise. And “contemporary art”, added the Undersecretary of State, “goes beyond linguistic barriers”.

The same concept was also highlighted by the Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva, Tatiana Valovaya, who stressed that “art is the ideal language to promote human rights”, as well as by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, who expressed her gratitude to Italy for organizing the exhibition. The opening ceremony was also attended by the President of Associazione Genesi, Dr Letizia Moratti, who underlined that art “being able to imagine new horizons, can help us to rethink how build a better future with regard to human rights”. This is particularly true facing nowadays’ global polarization on various matters.