Mayor apologizes for missing HRC presentation, shares highlights of Kathmandu trip

Presenter: With more about her trip to Kathmandu and her audience with The Dalai Lama, at the Human Rights Commission March 17,  Mayor Kaarin Knudson: 

Kaarin Knudson: Thank you Chair Booker, and thank you to all of our commissioners for the opportunity to share some news with you. Today I want to share also that part of this work is why I wasn’t able to see the Human Rights Commission work plan update in person at City Council in late February because I was traveling to do this work. 

But thank you for all of your ongoing efforts and the extents of this volunteer capacity. It’s really important to our community, but it also is work that you all contribute on a daily and weekly basis, and it is very much appreciated.

But what I wanted to just share with you all and be sure to take a moment to emphasize, because I do think it is important work are two recent touchpoints that I’ve had that relates directly to international human rights work and work that is happening in other places in the world and places that our community has a long-time relationship.

One of those touchpoints was the opportunity to take a moment and a handful of days, and a lot of hours traveling. About 65 hours of traveling total to visit Kathmandu, Nepal and to celebrate the 50th year of our sister-city relationship with Kathmandu. 

I think many people might know Kathmandu is our oldest sister city relationship, and Kathmandu as a country has gone through a really extraordinary experience in their own democratic experiment in this past year, in 2025. 

Following the Gen Z uprising the Nepali parliament was dissolved, the government was dissolved, and it was just in the elections held on March 5, the week of my time in Kathmandu, that a new parliament was elected and a new prime minister was elected.

And that new prime minister is the former mayor of Kathmandu, Balen Shah. So a pretty exciting time in a country that has struggled in some ways and is really showing strong support for an anti-corruption government and candidate.

During that visit to Kathmandu, I was able to meet with their city officials, with their current mayor, Sunita Dangol, and her team of people. I toured multiple UNESCO cultural sites and city facilities with Kathmandu’s (essentially their) CFO, their director of international relations, and their administrative staff.

It was fascinating to spend that time in a place that has, gosh, over 90 languages spoken within the country of Nepal. Many of those overlapping within Kathmandu, and I think about 200 distinct ethnic groups, and obviously, very strong Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist influence within the communities.

But I was there during the celebration of Holi (The Festival of Colors), and that also was really fantastic to experience as a community member and a visitor, but also to see the ways in which that primarily Hindu holiday was really celebrated by the entirety of the community.

And it was a remarkable experience of cultural exchange. I did also as part of that delegation trip, seek out meetings with local NGO leaders who are specifically working with youth, in the areas of education reform at the elementary and high-school levels. And my hope is that some of these connection points can nurture the rekindling of a youth exchange between Eugene and Kathmandu.

High school youth exchange programs are currently quite robust between our sister cities in Japan (Kakegawa), and also Jinju, South Korea. And I think that there is a remarkable opportunity and a natural opportunity, to reconnect that between our cities in these coming years.

So while I was with the mayor of Kathmandu and her team, we celebrated Eugene-Kathmandu Sister City Day on March 1, 2026. And I shared with them a city mayoral proclamation, speaking to that 50-year relationship and our commitment into the future.

The other proclamation that I carried with me to India and Nepal was a proclamation prepared to recognize His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama with an international leadership and human rights award through mayoral proclamation from the city of Eugene.

In the days before I traveled to Kathmandu, I was incredibly honored to have an audience with His Holiness in Dharamshala, India, where the Tibetan government is in exile and the following day as a part of that trip. 

I also met with the president of the Tibetan government exile government in exile, Sikyong Penpa Tsering, and the head of their security council, both of whom who have worked for many years as a part of that government that has been, and people that have been largely displaced from their Indigenous homeland, now captured, utilized within maps by China and spoken to as a part of China and not as an independent country.

The purpose of that proclamation and that international human rights award was to recognize the many decades that His Holiness has dedicated to the work of human rights and nonviolence.

It was truly an honor to share our community’s appreciation with one of the great human rights leaders and moral leaders of this past 100 years. His Holiness The Dalai Lama is now 91 (or 92 years old if you’re using the Tibetan calendar) and has dedicated his entire life to the work of human rights and compassion and nonviolence.

And at a time when there is so much attention placed on leaders who are not holding these priorities in the foreground and on the front burners, it was a great opportunity to put our attention there and to celebrate that work.

I would just like to share with you that proclamation, as a reminder of one of the ways that we can celebrate leadership in human rights and to also just emphasize that this leadership is present internationally, but also nationally in all of our work to support human rights and to nurture non-violence and clarity around the importance of cultural understanding and dialogue and service of our broader, community goals and a future that we can be proud of.

So this proclamation reads:

‘Whereas with gratitude for a lifetime dedicated to cultivating openness, oneness, and compassion, we recognize His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and globally revered spiritual leader of the Tibetan people;

And whereas on July 6th, 2025, His Holiness The Dalai Lama celebrated his birthday, and this was also celebrated as a day of compassion globally and in the city of Eugene. And whereas His Holiness has dedicated his life to promoting peace, nonviolence, compassion, and universal responsibility, inspiring people of all faiths and cultures to embody warm heartedness and a spirit of oneness;

And whereas the Dalai Lama’s message of kindness, human dignity, and interdependence aligns with the values embraced by the city of Eugene, values that champion diversity, equity, justice, accessibility and well-being;

And whereas the people of Eugene recognize that Dalai Lama’s profound contributions to interfaith dialogue, cross-cultural understanding, and the defense of the rights of all peoples, including those of the Tibetan community;

And whereas we honor his holiness, his unwavering commitment to the betterment of humanity and the enduring hope his teachings instill in Oregonians and people around the world.

Now therefore be it resolved that I, Kaarin Knudson, mayor of the city of Eugene, Oregon, do hereby proclaim that His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama receive international human rights leadership award and encourage all people and members of the community in Eugene to celebrate this legacy of warmheartedness and contributions that advance compassion, nonviolence, and shared humanity.’

And this is dated to Feb. 25, 2026, which was the date that I was so honored to be with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to present this to His Holiness and to have it received, with such appreciation and care and gratitude to the community of Eugene.

And in that conversation, he spoke to appreciation for this award, for the work that continues in our community and also to the city of Eugene and our community as a place that goodness flourishes. And so offering that, observation to you all from His Holiness and just continued appreciation for how you support that flourishing.

Presenter: Chair of the Eugene Human Rights Commission, Dr. Silky Booker:

Dr. Silky Booker (HRC, chair): Thank you for sharing that with us, Mayor, I really appreciate your proclamation. I do have to say, like, America right now is definitely not living up to the words in that proclamation. But hopefully Eugene can be a front-runner in trying to live up to those words, expressed in that proclamation.

I would like to see human rights highlighted more in the community. I feel like a lot of times we are forgotten when it comes to issues that are directly concerning human rights. The Commission is often left out or not brought up or not invited to the table. So hopefully we could see changes in that.

And then I read in your interview that you said, ‘Leadership in human rights is so important, right now,’ and I’d just like to see human rights being used in leadership to address human rights in our city and throughout Willamette Valley, throughout Lane County, especially considering the fear and the turmoil and what’s going on with our families in terms of the detainments and kidnappings that are happening with ICE agents.

So I definitely hope we as a Commission in our city can live up to the words in that proclamation. And it was very powerful and I’m glad that we got to share that with Kathmandu, our sister city, and hopefully you had a discussion with them on challenges that we are facing in light of the climate of America right now.

And the fact that we are not living up to what we should be living up to in terms of fairness, community, togethers, discrimination, and racism that’s prevalent throughout our country. 

So, hopefully, my words to you and my ask to you is just to help us as a Commission be more visible and more accessible to the city, to see the work that we do and what we stand for so people know that we are a beacon and what we stand for, as your words, have so strongly expressed in the proclamation. 

So thank you for being here with us and sharing that with us.

Presenter: At the March HRC,  Dr. Silky Booker repeats his request to the City Council in late February, while the mayor was traveling to Kathmandu. As chair, he is asking the city to raise the visibility of the Human Rights Commission, and to include commissioners in human rights-related events.