European Congress on Human Rights is a project organized by the office of Marek Migalski, Ph.D., the Association Projekt Śląsk (Silesia Project) and the on-line portal Korespondent Wschodni (The Eastern Correspondent).
The 1st session was held on December 2010 in the Katowice “Eye of the city”. The conference was unusual in nature due to the fact that among the invited panelists were representatives of NGO’s from Belarus and Russia – Dzmitrij Salauyou from the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”, Andrey Kalikh from the Centre for Development of Democracy and Human Rights and Andrei Blinushov from the “Memorial”. During the congress the following issues were raised: the theoretical foundations of human rights, respect for human rights in the post-Soviet area as well as human trafficking.
There will be the second session of Congress as soon December 8th (Thursday). This time it will be held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Silesia. The second session of Congress will be entirely devoted to the problem of human rights in the post-Soviet area.
Within the Congress there will be three panel discussions:
1. Panel No.1 – 20 years after the collapse of the USSR – the situation of human rights in the post-Soviet area.
2. Panel No. 2 – Belarus – one year after the events on the Independence Square.
3. Panel No. 3 – Russia – an escape from democracy? – the situation after parliamentary elections in Russia.
The expert panels will be attended by analysts from the Polish research centres, among others, Katarzyna Kwiatkowska and Robert Cheda (Pulaski Foundation), Tomasz Sikorski (The Polish Institute of International Affairs) and guests from abroad: Lev Ponomariov, a Russian dissident and human rights activist, Vadim Klyuwgant – Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Ales Mikhalevich – Belarusian opposition leader, Presidential candidate in 2010, Dzmitry Salauyoy from the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”.
Side events:
1 – 8 December – The exhibition “Kazakhstan, is it you?” will be presented on the walkway between the rectory and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Silesia (the exhibitor is The Open Dialog Foundation).
7 December – at 10.00 a.m. in Villa Marchoł: workshops for high school students – meeting with a representative of the Belarusian organization “Viasna”, presentation of the movie about the presidential elections in Belarus – “Reality Show – Elections” ( courtesy of Belsat TV).
8 December, at 5.00 p.m., at the Faculty of Law and Administration – presentation of the movie about Mikhail Khodorkovsky entitled ”Khodorkovsky”.
We invite all interested persons to visit the Congress website www.ehrc.pl/ in order to register and by doing so confirm their attendance.