International conference in honour of the laureate of the 2021 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

Where: Prague Crossroads, Zlatá 1, Prague
When: September 29, 2021, 12:30 – 18:00

The Covid Dilemma: Rights against Responsibilities

(with a special event on the human rights crisis in Afghanistan)

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented public health crisis, killing millions, infecting hundreds of millions, and affecting the whole of mankind. In parallel, it has brought into sharp relief the social dilemmas, inequalities and choices faced by mankind. Many of them relate to fundamental human rights that have constituted touchstones of modern liberal democracy. During the acute crisis, the rights of the individual increasingly came into conflict with the interests of society as a whole. The vast differences in access to effective vaccination between highly developed and developing countries threaten to exacerbate existing inequalities and lead to humanitarian crises in parts of the world. The resulting debate in the media and on social networks, which inevitably includes falsehoods, hoaxes, fake news and disinformation, raises new questions about possible limits to unbridled free expression and with it the specter of censorship. The above, and other, dilemmas illustrate the absence of a universally accepted framework for weighing our rights against our responsibilities. For some time, human rights and their definitions have evolved with scarce regard for the responsibilities involved. In Václav Havel, with his unassailable life-long record of fighting for human rights, we can also find a rigorous advocate of an inseparable relationship between rights and responsibilities. The Conference held on the occasion of the 2021 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize will provide a forum for the discussion of these pressing questions.

While we are contemplating the human rights aspects of the Covid-19 pandemics, a full-scale human rights crisis that cannot be ignored, has been unfolding in Afghanistan. A special event reflecting as much as possible the situation on the ground at the time of the conference will be held with the participation of Czech and international experts.

Conference Programme

12.30 – 13.00 Registration

13.00 – 13.10 Conference Opening

Michael Žantovský – Executive Director, Václav Havel Library

13.10 – 13.20 Keynote Speech

Jared Genser – Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University; referred to by the New York Times as “The Extractor” for his work freeing political prisoners and for having founded Freedom Now (USA)

13.20 – 13.40 Interview with the 2021 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize laureate

The laureate will be announced in a ceremony held at the beginning of the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on September 27, 2021.
Chair: Michael Žantovský – Václav Havel Library

13.40 – 14.30 Panel I: Discussion with 2021 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize finalists

Panelists:
Tatsiana Khomich, sister of Maria Kalesnikava – one of the opposition leaders in Belarus and a member of the Coordination Council sentenced to 11 years in prison
Reporters without Borders – a leading international non-governmental organisation that safeguards the freedom of expression and information
Scholastique Rukuki, sister of Germain Rukuki, a human rights defender whose campaigning has been focused on torture and the death penalty
Chair: Tereza Engelová – Journalist and moderator

14.30 – 14.50 Coffee Break

14.50 – 16.00 Panel II: The Covid Dilemma: Rights and Responsibilities

Panelists:
Jan Kysela – Constitutional lawyer, Faculty of Law, Charles University
Petr Mikeš – Supreme Administrative Court Judge
Danuše Nerudová – Economist and the Rector of Mendel University
Marek Orko Vácha – Head of the Department of Medical Ethics and Humanities, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University
Chair: Lenka Zlámalová – Analyst and commentator, Týdeník Echo

16.00 – 16.20 Coffee Break

16.20 – 17.30 Panel III: Special event on the human rights crisis in Afghanistan

Keynote: Fatima Rahimi, Afghan-Czech journalist and a psychotherapist in training (recording)
Panelists:
Václav Pecha – Head of the civilian part of the Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team mission in Logar, Afghanistan, in 2008–2009
Jiří Přibáň – Professor of Law, Cardiff University (United Kingdom, Czech Republic)
Tomáš Vlach – Journalist and humanitarian worker, co-founder and long-term participant of the humanitarian mission of People In Need in Afghanistan
Chair: Jakub Szántó – Journalist and moderator, Czech Television

17.15 – 17.20 Closing remarks

Karel Schwarzenberg – Politician, human rights defender

17.20 – 17.25 Invitation to glass of wine and concert

Michael Žantovský, Václav Havel Library

Concert: Jakub Doležal Quartet

Jakub Doležal – saxophone, keyboards; Marek Leždík – bass; Jiří Šimek – guitar; Jakub Šindler – percussion

Programme expected to end at 18.20

* The discussions will be held in Czech and English with a simultaneous translation from/into both languages.