It was a great experience to participate on the annual seminar of KIOS with the theme: DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS FOR DEVELOPMENT. This time KIOS had partnered with DEMO Finland to combine the voice and have even better impact. This was an unique approach to seek utility on the boundaries of the stakeholders. Democracy and Human Rights go side by side. The countries in focus from developing world were Nepal, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. Participants from the developed world included ministers and researches. One of the interesting sessions was Ensuring Human Rights in Finnish Democracy by Ms. Maija Sakslin, Parliamentary Deputy-Ombudsman. Many of the participants heard first time about such Ombudsman. This shows that Finland is attempting to walk the talk not only talk.
One of the countries in focus was Nepal and the delegates presented Children’s Parliament to Youth Vision. On the other hand Sri Lankan experience on denial of Human Rights for the minorities shook the conscience of the participants. The other country in Focus was Rwanda where the discussions focused on EQUAL participation and development for all.
During the closing part there were three workshops:
1. Youth’s right to participation and development–Best Practices
2. Women’s Right to Participation and Development–Best Practices
3. Global Economic Structures and Right to Participation–
I participated on the 3rd group. The session was raising concerns on the POLITICAL WILL of the country for example Finland to do sanctions for the countries who violate human rights. Company’s ethical practices were the major concerns!! The notion that I put on the discussion was the CREATIVE CAPITALISM (Please look into my previous post on this topic) There were opposing views just because the phrase was coined by Bill Gates and he is pursuing this in his new part of life after Microsoft. What fascinates me about this notion is that it is giving an alternative to donate the best creative workforce’s 5-7 percent of their time. ThinkITGlobal has enabled the voice of the common volunteers. Bills & Melinda Gates Foundation is focusing in preventive mechanism rather than cure and I subscribe to that notion fully. There has been concerns about the ethical practices for sure!!
Therefore, I passionately wait for next year’s Seminar!!
