What if everything started with local action?
Human rights are not just an abstract ideal. They are essential, accessible, and above all: positive. That is the message of this year’s United Nations campaign. Essential, because they are part of our everyday lives ; we feel their impact daily. Positive, because human rights don’t just protect us; they also bring joy, happiness, the freedom to be ourselves, and safety in our lives. Accessible, because defending them is not extreme: it simply means extending the values you already uphold. And this approach encourages everyone to take action.
From major global challenges to local action
Persistent discrimination, violations of dignity at work, unequal access to education and healthcare, exploitation in supply chains, threats to freedom of expression… Faced with the scale of these issues, it’s easy to feel powerless especially among younger generations.
Management research refers to these issues as “grand challenges” and studies how different actors/ organizations, public authorities, and citizen collectives/collaborate to address them. Three characteristics stand out: their interconnected nature (everything is linked), their fluidity (they constantly evolve), and their paradoxical character (there are no simple solutions).
Cultivating a sense of agency: a key educational challenge
In the face of overwhelming global challenges, one concept becomes crucial: the sense of agency.
Agency is the feeling that we can act here and now. It’s understanding that our actions matter. It’s the opposite of helplessness. And it’s precisely what higher education in management must cultivate. For a school like ICHEC, developing this capacity in our students is essential, notably by creating an environment where they can be themselves, ask questions, doubt, and experiment.
Why? Because without this sense of agency, two risks emerge: withdrawal and passivity or, for some who desperately seek a sense of meaning and action, a drift toward conspiracy thinking or extremism.
Speaking of authenticity, kindness, or psychological safety is not naïve: these are basic conditions for participation. They also relate very concretely to everyday human rights: the right to be heard, to be treated with dignity, and to participate in collective life without fear.
The strategy of small wins
A practical pathway: the “small wins strategy.” Instead of aiming directly for large-scale change, this approach encourages identifying what feels wrong locally, naming what isn’t working, breaking problems down into manageable actions, and creating momentum through collective initiative.
Modest local actions that, piece by piece, generate systemic change. Polluted rivers coming back to life thanks to local initiatives. Communities transforming through small actions that reach a critical mass. The culture of a bank evolving through the creation of a green bond.
Training managers who serve human rights
Business schools have a key role to play. Training responsible managers means teaching them that serving human rights in their future careers starts with recognizing their own agency. Concretely, this means developing skills for a more sustainable future: exercising critical thinking, imagining desirable futures, learning to make decisions, to take initiative, to communicate, and to collaborate in contexts of uncertainty.
Human rights in everyday practice
Because that is the essence: serving human rights within an organization is not just about referring to a legal framework; it’s about embedding dignity, participation, equity, and sustainability into daily work. Human rights are practiced locally, day by day, through every managerial decision, entrepreneurial project, and professional interaction.
Wherever they go tomorrow, today’s students can contribute to human rights through concrete actions within their sphere of influence, provided they are first given this fundamental sense: the power to act.
This is exactly the spirit behind the newly launched civic minor in the second year of the bachelor program. By inviting students to work on real social challenges alongside field actors, it creates the conditions for engaged learning: analyzing complex situations, mobilizing tools, collaborating with diverse stakeholders, and experimenting with feasible solutions. The minor links principles like dignity, participation, equity, and sustainability to concrete practices.
It also shows that well-structured local action can contribute to broader transformations. And that management education, when grounded in real-world challenges, becomes a lever for bringing human rights to life every day, wherever our students will make an impact.