Festival examines what the anti-apartheid picket can teach human rights defenders
Dr Gavin Brown from the Department of Geography will be giving a talk on Tuesday 8 December at 6.30pm as part of the Leicester Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, at the Secular Hall on Humberstone Gate in Leicester, exploring what anti-apartheid campaigning in the 1980s can teach human rights defenders today.
For four years in the 1980s, anti-apartheid activists established a Non-Stop Picket outside the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square which called for Nelson Mandela's release and expressed solidarity with those who opposed apartheid. The picket ran from 1986 until Nelson Mandela's release in 1990.
As part of Dr Brown's presentation, there will also be a photo exhibition outlining the history of the picket. The exhibition will chart the history of the Non-Stop Picket and some of the key events that occurred there over the four years of its existence.
It aims to draw attention to International Human Rights Day which is celebrated annually, across the world, on December 10; and to give people in Leicester a platform through which to engage with human rights issues at home and abroad through film, music and The Arts.
The festival will also be fundraising for groups and charities that provide support to men, women and children who have fled conflict and persecution and are looking for refuge.