Civil Society Alliance members welcomed Mia Hasenson-Gross, Réné Cassin at our drop in session on 8 February 2023.

René Cassin was a French-Jewish jurist, law professor and judge. He co-drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), to which the UK is a signatory, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968. You can read his 1968 Nobel speech here.

The René Cassin charity’s small, proactive team campaigns for change in defined human rights areas – through a combination of advocacy, policy analysis, public campaigning and education. They help building the capacity of activists to promote and protect human rights, including through their successful Human Rights Ambassador programme. René Cassin’s voice is one of authority and credibility, drawing on experience to compare historical with contemporary events.

Rene Cassin works to protect and promote the rights of vulnerable individuals and communities – particularly on issues that resonate with the Jewish experience. These include:

1. Hostile Environments – treatment of immigrants, asylum seekers, modern slavery, exploitation of minorities, unlimited detention and safety issues. This can be within the UK or internationally.

2. Discrimination and hate – promoting and supporting solidarity with Travellers, Roma, women refugees and asylum seekers, Uyghurs. Mia highlighted a little-known fact that the worst levels of hate crime in the UK are towards disabled people.

3. Women’s Rights – across the world women face increased domestic violence, unpaid care duties and high rates of unemployment. Although women make up the majority of front-line workers, they are underrepresented in national and global policy-making spaces

4. Socio-economic Rights – Article 25 of UDHR is pertinent here. Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, nearly 8.4 million adults and children living in the UK struggle to access the food they need.

2023 marks the 75th Anniversary of the UDHR. Article 30 alludes to rights not to suffer acts of aggression - like invasion, attack, and occupation. On the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, Rene Cassin and the Coalition for Genocide Response are hosting an online event on 23 February, when two legal experts will explain how Putin can be held to account. Sign up for the event here.