Amnesty
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 9, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
An amnesty may be criminal, premediated or based on a desire for fundamental change. The new Czechoslovak president Václav Havel declared an amnesty on 1 January 1990. Later referred to as the great amnesty, it became associated with a rise in crime. However, it was intended to help society come to terms with a regime regarded as unjust to all as well as to allow a transformation of the repressive penal system.
The amnesty and the extent to which it was used to change criminal justice will be discussed by philosopher and journalist Fedor Blaščák and lawyer Lenka Marečková, co-authors of the book Amnestie (Amnesty), published on the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in an attempt not to defend the amnesty but to lay out the facts and place them in context, and John Bok, who along with Lenka Marečková and other dissidents helped calm unrest and revolts in prisons at the turn of 1990.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with publishers Slovart.