Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — SHAPE-SEA, in partnership with Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, kicks off a two-day National Seminar on Human Rights, Peace, and Sustainable Development from 26 to 27 May 2025. The event brings together regional experts, academics, students, and civil society actors to engage in meaningful dialogue and share early-stage research from emerging scholars, particularly from Vietnam and the sub-Mekong region.
The seminar coincides with SHAPE-SEA’s 10th anniversary, marking a decade of nurturing homegrown scholars and advocates across Southeast Asia. It serves both as a moment of reflection and a renewed call to strengthen and expand academic and civic networks dedicated to social justice, peace, and human rights. Distinguished speakers emphasize that human rights, peace, and sustainable development are not isolated academic concepts but guiding principles rooted in lived realities and applied across disciplines and sectors. The seminar provides interdisciplinary knowledge and capacity-building opportunities to around 60 Vietnamese and Southeast Asian participants.
With less than four years remaining to achieve the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals, this seminar offers a timely space for reflection and collaboration.
“Our work emphasizes that the SDGs, like human rights and peace, are not static goals but dynamic and evolving processes. A rights-based approach is crucial to addressing today’s interconnected challenges, and universities and research institutions in Vietnam have steadily increased their engagement in human rights and peace scholarship. As such, the seminar provides a localized yet regional platform to critically examine how these fields must evolve to meet the needs of our time,” said Dr. Vachararutai Boontinand, Executive Director of SHAPE-SEA — a programme hosted by the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP) and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
The two-day seminar explores the complex linkages between gender, the environment, and sustainable development, particularly in the Vietnamese context, while also addressing challenges and opportunities of the digital era. A key objective is to amplify emerging scholars’ voices from the Research Grants Programme 2024, providing space to share research journeys, highlight empowering factors, and exchange practical insights. Through dialogue and shared learning, the seminar fosters deeper understanding of how these fields can evolve in response to pressing regional and global issues.
Lecturers and experts from the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University, join as resource speakers, sharing their expertise alongside other distinguished voices and academic experts from the region. Their participation underscores IHRP’s role in forging regional partnerships and strengthening regional citizenship among Southeast Asia’s scholars and emerging researchers. A Stakeholders’ Dialogue engages representatives from SHAPE-SEA, AUN-HRE, SEAHRN, and local partners to explore sustainable pathways for collaboration, institutional support, and academic capacity-building. Moving forward, SHAPE-SEA aims to continue centering community voices and advancing structural transformation through education, research, and policy advocacy.
🌱 SHAPE-SEA Now & Beyond: Amplifying Voices, Co-creating Change
10 Years of Education, Research, and Advocacy
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