Naveed Rahman - Labcitoyen 2017
The best thing about LabCitoyen was undoubtedly the opportunity to learn from and share experiences with such a diverse range of participants coming from over 40 countries. Whenever I talked to someone it had almost always something to do about our cultures, our ways of life, our realities back home. The experience was therefore most instructive and inspiring and I thank the Alliance Française de Dhaka, the Embassy of France and Institut Francais for making it all possible.
I was in Paris representing Bangladesh, my country, as the LabCitoyen Laureate 2017 from 2-10 July. LabCitoyen is an annual program of Institut Français which brings together young human rights activists from all over the world to learn from each other’s experiences and to promote the French language as a medium of both local and global activism. This year, the fifth edition of LabCitoyen had for its theme ‘Human Rights in the City’, an important area of contemporary human rights discourse.
The program was quite intensive; we had expert sessions in the mornings, followed by group sessions where important actors in a wide range of sectors related to the theme would present their engagements. The participants then divided into smaller groups and tried to design projects and solutions to particular problems. At the end of the day, all participants reunited again and rapporteurs from each group presented their day’s work for the others. Apart from the expert sessions and workshops, we were taken on a number of visits to interesting projects providing creative solutions to human rights issues in the city. All this may seem very demanding, but it was not the case as we were completely free in the evenings to rest and unwind and explore the beautiful city of Paris on our own. Needless to say all the participants profited heavily from this and took every opportunity to bond. There were even other highlights in the week, including going to see a poignant documentary on refugees and participating in the awesome OuiShare Fest 2017!
The best thing about LabCitoyen was undoubtedly the opportunity to learn from and share experiences with such a diverse range of participants coming from over 40 countries. Whenever I talked to someone it had almost always something to do about our cultures, our ways of life, our realities back home. The experience was therefore most instructive and inspiring and I thank the Alliance Française de Dhaka, the Embassy of France and Institut Francais for making it all possible.
