Wearing Human Rights, a virtual conversation.

This conversation panel took place on the 26th of May 2021. It featured Chilean-Arab Lawyer and independent fashion researcher Martina Barroeta and was moderated by Mexican Cultural Manager and activist Cristina Peregrina. This event was the first of our free Wearers from Everywhere virtual series, a sequence of conversations with wearers from all over the world highlighting their perspectives on relevant dress-related topics. Wearing Human Rights will digged into the freedom of dress as a civil and political right and what happens when this right is transgressed. This was a conversation about the groups that are especially vulnerable when it comes to dressing practices: How does policy affect the lives of people who dress according to their religious beliefs, especially in Western countries? Should the government be responsible to provide appropriate garments for disabled people? What are the tensions between freedom of dress and the use of uniforms? What’s the role of clothes in the journey of the immigrant? What happens when dress becomes an obstacle for refugees to integrate into their new home countries? Why should we all be concerned about this? You can watch Wearing Human Rights on our YouTube channel! About our guest speaker Martina Barroeta Zalaquett is a Chilean-Arab independent researcher dedicated to the analysis and study of the intersections between clothing, fashion and human rights since 2017. She holds studies in Law at the University of Chile. She founded the first Chilean platform on critical fashion studies, Fashionerd.cl. (2019). She has published articles on the right to body privacy of prisoners, the criminalization of certain garments by the States and the human right to adequate clothing. Marti hosts the Fashionerd podcast and is currently giving a virtual course on Dress and Human Rights from her platform. About our moderator Cristina Peregrina is a Mexican cultural manager and activist studying an MA in Arts, Policy & Cultural Entrepreneurship. She has done training on cultural diversity with the IFCD and on Human Rights advocacy in immigration contexts, a seminar on minority rights and conflict transformation with Sehir University, and a course on gender studies at Colmex (Mexico). She has worked as a research intern for a commissioned investigation for the Human Rights organization CEJIL and in the International Cooperation area of the Mexican Embassy in Morocco, as well as working as a volunteer for several Mexican human rights organizations. About Wearers Festival Wearers Festival is a permanent multidisciplinary art festival that celebrates and explores the diversity of London and the UK through the dress codes of its communities.