Human Rights Research Network

The International Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Conference ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75: Rethinking and Constructing its Future Together’ has now ended! Thank you to everyone who has attended this event and made this enriching experience possible!

This website will continue to function as an archive of the conference where you can find relevant information.


The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was celebrated on 10 December 2023. Since its adoption, the Declaration has been read in multiple ways. Some have been inspired by it, others have found it wanting. At this conference, Ghent University took stock and looked forward, embracing a resolute engagement with human rights in their multiple contemporary dimensions.

The conference put special emphasis on stepping out of our comfort or habitual zones and creating spaces for debating and learning from different perspectives. We invited contributions from scholars, practitioners, policy makers and artists who cross or are willing to cross boundaries and build bridges between academic disciplines, theory and practice, and political action and artistic engagement. Activists, policy makers, artists, and students were warmly invited to participate alongside both emerging and established academics.

The conference was an initiative of the UGent Human Rights Research Network (HRRN), which brings together researchers at Ghent University working on human rights in different disciplines. The network stimulates interdisciplinary collaboration and fosters the societal impact of academic research in close cooperation with societal stakeholders. At this conference, we want to reach out to those who wish to contribute to the collective reflection on and construction of human rights knowledge and praxis.