#EmptyChairs at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development
In collaboration with the Women's Major Group and Swiss based artists Antje Schupp and Christoph Rufer, the #emptychairs campaign prepared an exhibition of the People's Chair. Unfortunately, we were not able to place our exhibition in the halls of the conference for the HLPF in 2022, but we distributed postcards to participants present at the venue.
The People’s Chair symbolises the critical role of civil society and rights holders in human rights spaces and processes. The People’s Chair exhibition is an output from a project undertaken In 2021, that explored the boundaries between theatre and protest / art and advocacy and produced a series of experimental outputs, including a theatre production-workshop in Zurich and a workshop in Geneva. The production invited audience-participants to imagine what a people-centred human rights system could or should look like by asking the question: if you had a seat in the People’s Council, what would you say or ask for? Audience-participants were invited to record their ideas on their chairs and to use them in a protest-art installation outside the theatre venue. The photographs presented in this exhibition provide insight into their hopes and imaginations for a people centred human rights system.
could not place our exhibition in the conference hallsThe United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), through its outcome on "The Future We Want", established the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in 2012.
The HLPF is the central United Nations platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level. It is the apex of the architecture for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda established by the 2030 Agenda and General Assembly resolution 70/299.
