PRESS RELEASE

 Education for Justice Initiative and Ius Gentium Conimbrigae Human Rights Centre to Cooperate on Portuguese Language Resources

Coimbra, 16 October 2019 - UNODC's Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration has today signed a Letter of Cooperation with the Ius Gentium Conimbrigae Human Rights Centre. The agreement aims at promoting the translation and the dissemination of the Programme's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative educational resources and tools in the Portuguese-language countries of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

The agreement was formalized during the 4 ^th Coimbra International Conference on Human Rights, organized by the Centre with the participation of some 300 academics and government representatives from around the world, in which the range of E4J educational resources was presented.

Marco Teixeira, the Global Programme's Senior Programme Officer, stressed the importance of expanding the reach of E4J's wide portfolio of material: "Portuguese is the language spoken by over 280 million people in nine countries and four continents, and we are committed to working closely with our partners to include such a widespread language in our Programme's resources, in addition to official United Nations Languages."  

Jónatas Machado, Executive Director of the Centre, welcomed UNODC's inclusion of Portuguese material in its outreach: "The IGC/HRC understands education as a fundamental tool in the promotion of human rights, in the prevention of crime, and in the development of a culture of lawfulness. We are very proud of the opportunity given us by UNODC and are committed to cooperate in the translation and dissemination of these tools among the Portuguese-speaking countries."

The importance of strengthening cooperation between the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries and United Nations specialized agencies was acknowledged at the United Nations General Assembly's 73 ^rd Session, in Resolution A/73/L.111.

The Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration promotes a culture of lawfulness by supporting Member States achieve a positive and sustainable impact on crime prevention, criminal justice, corruption prevention and the rule of law. Education for Justice, one of its four components, has developed a wide range of educational resources and tools at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels to support educators and students better understand and address issues related to rule of law.

For further media enquiries, please contact: 

Kevin Town 

UNODC Public Information Officer
Telephone: +43 699 1459 5575
Email: kevin.town [a] un.org