Fundraising for the ICU student-led project to translate and publish a book on the UDHR in illustration (Donation period ended)

Since our first students matriculating in 1953, all ICU students have signed the Student Pledge at Matriculation Ceremony to spend their ICU days abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It is an indispensable means to secure a campus environment that nurtures global citizens who respect diversity and differences in cultural values.

Under the guidance of President Iwakiri, aiming to substantiate the Student Pledge in their student life and enrich the university-wide understanding of the UDHR, which is the foundation stone of the Student Pledge, a project to translate and publish a book on the UDHR in illustration for trilingual version (Japanese, English and French) has been launched. With ICU faculty members as lectures, more than 40 student project members have been working toward publishing a trilingual version of UDHR while cultivating their learning about human rights and translation through seminars.

The book translated by the students is scheduled to be published around March 2022, and the University will distribute the completed books to incoming new students. Your contributions will be utilized for the purchase of books with gratitude.

By distributing this book, we strive to ensure that the Student Pledge, a tradition of ICU Matriculation Ceremony to realize the purposes and ideals of ICU, will be surely passed on to future new students with a profound understanding.

ICU Website " Student Pledge"
https://www.icu.ac.jp/en/about/#pledge

Outline

【Messages from Students】

Thank you very much for your interest in our project and reading about the project thus far. We would like to talk a little about our thoughts going into this project, now that we have been working on it for close to half a year.

This project is made up of 5 teams and a total of around 40 students. We all first heard about this project through ICU portal when President Iwakiri called for help on this translation project which he founded.

We all came into the project with different hopes. Some of us were interested in the idea of a translation project, some of us were interested in learning more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (especially those of us who signed the pledge at matriculation ceremony without really understanding what was being signed), some of us wanted to utilize our French skills, some of us wanted to do something “ICU-like” and some of us simply wanted to make new friends amidst this pandemic. Once learning more about this project in the introductory meeting and how the published copy would be handed out to new students, many of us felt strongly about partaking in a project that would directly benefit our ‘kouhais’ and their learning experience.

Regardless of our intention of joining the project in the beginning, we all feel that we have learned so much during the process. Translation itself is a challenge for many of us, especially with the pressure of having to make sure there are absolutely no mistranslations to ensure publishable-quality. The material is quite difficult, and we have spent a lot of time reading and learning more about different philosophers, concepts, and history. The learning experience has given us the opportunity to truly reflect on the fundamental goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the true value of having each ICU student sign a pledge.

For many of us this project has become somewhat of a passion project, and we would love to see the final product be handed down to new ICU students for generations to come.

Any contributions made to make this new tradition come to life would be deeply appreciated by us and we hope that you see the value of this translation by ICU students, for ICU students.

The ICU translation project team

Special Commemorative Gift：ICU Honey

ICU has been encouraging students to take the initiative in learning various global social issues, such as human rights and environmental problems while striving for what they can do in their situation.

Thanks to the rich nature on campus, some students are engaged in bee-keeping of Western and Japanese honey bees at ICU as a project derived from the course “ENV202: Environmental Politics and Philosophy: Nature, Food, and Agriculture.” Through the whole process from bee-keeping, honey harvesting to product selling, they have tackled many issues, such as confronting environmental problems, building a local community. Addressing the reality has deepened their learning, especially about what is meant by the SDGs Goal No.12, “Responsible Consumption and Production.”

In spring 2021, the students finally gathered 17 kilograms of honey, and now they have reached the stage where they can sell limited quantities of “ICU Honey” (raw honey harvested at ICU).

We would like to share some of this precious honey, the result of these students’ continuous efforts, as a donation gift to support the project to publish the book. Among those who kindly donate 10,000 yen or more, 30 winners will be selected by lottery to receive a special honey set.

We highly appreciate your cooperation.