The Road to Rights named finalist of the first ever United Nations SDG Action Awards!
The Road to Rights has been announced as a finalist of the United Nations SDG Action Awards under the Mobilizer category. The Awards recognize the most outstanding and innovative efforts to inspire action on the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of goals adopted by countries to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all, as part of a new sustainable development agenda.
The Awards are powered by the United Nations SDG Action Campaign. Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 21 March 2018, during the second edition of the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development, the world’s annual gathering to catalyze action for the SDGs, happening in Bonn, Germany (21–23 March 2018).
Our initiative; “The Road to Rights” is a unique platform where ideas are pumped from the youth. We as a youth-led organization work to educate. and empower the younger generation through human rights education and 2030 agenda. We believe that understanding of basic values would lead to a society where people respect and love each other, especially respect everyone’s independence. If the SDGs are achieved, eventually human right will be preserved. With that objective, we are strongly working on incorporating SDGs into different types of institutions, as we believe institutionalizing SDGs would bring strong impacts. We are also working on building the capacity of the younger generation from different parts of the country. So that they will be able to take their own actions mobilizing their own resources. We educate,inspire, and empower people while addressing problems based on gender, peace, and environment. We are also strongly working on using tools to promote SDGs such as Sport, Art and ICT. Our initiative has changed the lives of many and what we believe has caused this is our actions inspiring others. The best example we could give for this is the postman’s deed. A postman named Chaminda, who got inspired by our SDG work to the community, took the actions to promote Goal 4, supporting 60 children for their education in a rural village in Piliyandala. He started mobilizing people while he was distributing letters door to door. He used his profession as a platform to be an advocate.
Moreover in 2013 we were able to conduct the My World 2015 Global survey to collect data for drafting of the SDGs, mobilizing youth from all around the country, making sure that every voice been counted! Further with that ignition we initiated campaigns to mobilize SDGs through rights based activities in each sector from arts to sports, as we believe Rights can make a bigger impact in fostering SDGs. In 2016 with the support from our chapters we conducted the biggest youth summit gathering 500 youngsters from all around the world, where we strongly addressed how youth could make an impact through SDGs in their community. In 2017, we brought the SDG Media Zone to Sri Lanka with the support of many youth networks and conducted the biggest festival for SDGs, especially addressing Goal Number 16 stating the importance of Peace and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka. As a result of that event we were able to launch My Rights My Goals National Campaign to educate young people as well as school children about 2030 agenda and strengthen them on taking actions in their own communities. Implementing Human Rights education and SDGs in to the Tourism Curriculum of University of Colombo was also one of our highlighted results.
The SDG Action Awards draw attention to the need to learn from change-makers from across the globe and celebrate the most impactful and innovative achievements contributing to the global sustainable development movement.
The first edition received over 740 nominations from 7 continents and 125 countries, ranging from Zambia to Fiji, from Benin to Norway, from civil society and grassroots initiatives to public sectors and municipal government projects, as well as private sector engagements. Finalists are being carefully reviewed by 12 prominent figures within the global SDG community.
ABOUT THE GLOBAL FESTIVAL OF ACTION
The Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development is the world´s annual event to celebrate, empower, and connect the global community driving Action for the Sustainable Development Goals.
Organised by the UN SDG Action Campaign with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Festival connects an inspiring mix of business leaders, activists, UN representatives, academia, governments, innovators, global organisations, and the media from across the globe. Taking place in Bonn each year, the Festival provides a dynamic and interactive space to showcase the latest innovations, tools and approaches to SDG action and connect organizations and individuals from different sectors and regions to exchange, build partnerships, and make the impact of their solutions scale.
For more information, please visit the page of the festival, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. The official hashtag for the event is#SDGglobalfest. The hashtag for the UN SDG Action Awards is #SDGawards.
