17 goals for a better world – no. 16 - Peace, justice and strong institutions

This time we will explore in more detail goal no. 16, Peace, justice and strong institutions, which is to: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Protect human rights!

This goal can be approached from two angles in the BME context: ensuring the internal safety of the University as an institution with transparent processes and the equality of its citizens before law or the University’s internal rules on the one hand, while examining the work done for society and the shared goals on a larger scale is equally important on the other. BME endeavours to do its best effort to achieve the subtargets of this goal on both levels.

Every BME citizen is entitled to the respect of their human dignity, to exercise their right to personal development and to self-determination, to exercise their religion, ideological or other conviction and to identify with a national or ethnic minority. If these principles can be realized in our own, daily lives, we have already taken significant steps towards an inclusive, egalitarian, accountable and peaceful society.

The Department of Asset Protection and Institutional Security is in charge of ensuring safety on campus. Their three main activities include occupational health and safety, fire- and asset protection, with specialists of these areas providing professional assistance in safety issues affecting the university, in line with the applicable sectoral legislation and internal regulations. The department relies on the support of the university dispatch service, which monitors and manages the University’s strategic protection, alarm and intrusion detection, fire alarm and access control systems as well as the surveillance camera network.

Transparency of the work done at the University is provided in its annual reports. These are available to all for several years back at the University’s website under the title Facts and Figures on BME.

The University’s Rules of Organisation and Operation and its Equal Opportunities Plan are also available at the website, and their purpose is to regulate BME’s operation, to ensure equal treatment and to promote equal opportunities. The University has also set up an Equal Opportunities Committee to oversee these in the area of employment.

The University’s organisational structure contains detailed information about the activities of the advocacy organisations, student councils and other organisations securing and controlling the University’s operation. These data, rules and decrees are easily available to all.

BME’s foreign language programmes enjoy an increasing popularity every year. More than 12% of the total number of students are foreign citizens from all over the world from Columbia to Mongolia or from Kenya to Azerbaijan. Having earned an internationally recognised degree with professional expertise and methodology renders them more able to participate in the work of the institutions of global governance in their home countries and internationally as well, always representing the peaceful and democratic approach learnt and adopted in their Alma Mater. 

“Universities with their strong autonomy are important partners of governments, companies and the civil society in their work for the shared goals. Such partnerships and cooperations have a key role in promoting and implementing the sustainable development goals in Europe and internationally alike.” (EUA European University Association).

BME engineers can be relied upon in catastrophes as well. Professionals of the BME Faculty of Civil Engineering supported the 2019 rescue and lifting of the Danube river cruiser, Hableány with their expertise in engineering issues. During the two weeks of their involvement, BME’s hydraulic engineers and naval architects proved repeatedly that using engineering solutions in practice could greatly contribute to the successful rescue and recovery operations of the authorities. BME’s experts were also involved in the damage assessment caused by the 2023 earthquake in Turkey and securing rescue from the depths, together with the Istanbul Technical University, member of the EELISA community. Two experts each of the Faculties of Civil Engineering and of Architecture contributed to the assessment of the stability of the damaged residential buildings, to the securing of the local environment of the ruin and to the assessment of the condition of the remaining infrastructural works. The cooperation of the BME Faculties of Electrical Engineering and Informatics and of Mechanical Engineering resulted in the prototype of an invasive and non-invasive ventilator with a record speed during the Covid-pandemic. The university was originally commissioned to urgently develop a life-saving device for potential emergencies. The device designed here has a host of other advanced features as it offers ventilation profiles beyond the traditional methods that are less stressful for both the patients and their lungs.

The nuclear energy training program of the BME Faculty of Natural Sciences, built around a singular infrastructure, the training reactor, has contributed to generations of professionals, who promote peaceful and inclusive societies with their work. Education helps to prevent the destructive use of nuclear materials and technologies, as well-informed professionals are better prepared to participate in disarmament and non-proliferation efforts and to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technologies in areas like medicine, energy or agriculture. In addition, BME professionals also offer consultation in the operation of Hungarian nuclear facilities and in extreme cases provide professional and up-to-date information to the public about nuclear threats in war situations.

In the past couple of years the university has produced countless subject-related, student’s and research projects, patents and publications about sustainability goals, while two subject-related and two student’s projects and three publications have come out on SDG16 itself.

DF, KK (BME Committee on Sustainability)