Discover the Highlights of Just Governance for Human Security 2018!

A call to action has been sounded for global citizens to stand up and take responsibility in addressing the social and economic issues which threaten communities worldwide by working together to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Just Governance for Human Security (JGHS) has sought to respond to this call. For five days over 230 delegates from 75 nations gathered at the Caux Palace – Conference and Seminar Centre to explore their own role in meeting the SDGs.

Raghad Al Saadi was one of this year’s speakers at the Just Governance for Human Security conference. Raghad and her family were displaced by the different armed conflicts in her home country, Iraq. When she moved to the United States, she started developing a project to bring more safety to refugee women and children.

In July 2018, for the second year running, the humanSecurityX certificate track programme ran in parallel to the forum on Just Governance for Human Security (JGHS). Its core aim: for participants to gain a deeper personal understanding of human security and its application – moving from talk to action.  

Wounds inflicted upon generations past and present across the globe cannot be overlooked. They leave their scars and often remain unhealed, perpetuating conflict. More than ever, healing is needed to break cycles of violence and to build global change.  This was a central focus at the recent Just Governance for Human Security (JGHS) event of the Caux Forum.

Seven years ago, Shalisa Hayes’s son, Billy Ray, was shot in cross-fire while attending a party with his friends in Tacoma, a city south of Seattle, USA. Shalisa reacted to this tragedy by creating a community centre in her neighbourhood and an association called MOM (Mothers of Magnitude). She first came to Caux in 2017. This year she was back for the Just Governance conference.

The first women's retreat organized by the Just Governance for Human Security (JGHS) team focused on women as drivers towards positive change in their communities. Fifteen women attended the retreat, which was held in April in Caux, Switzerland.

For the second year in a row, 14 people from Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA) came to the Caux Forum to hold a dialogue on healing the wounds of the past and working for better race relations in their community, as part of Just Governance for Human Security 2017.

When Christian Picciolini joined the white supremacist skinhead movement at the age of 14, he never would have imagined that he would grow up to reverse what he had helped build in the 1980s and 1990s. He now works to counter racism and extremism.

Over five days, 250 participants from 55 countries convened at the Caux Palace in Caux, Switzerland, to address extremes of all kinds. They included diplomats, NGO representatives, business leaders, academics and citizens concerned with human security. The event took a holistic approach to human security, focusing on its six pillars: good governance, sustainable living, inclusive economics, care for refugees, healing memory and food security.