| | | | | | On behalf of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs – oiip and the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs - BMEIA, I cordially invite you to the following Panel Discussion:
30 years after the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights: HUMAN RIGHTS IN A MULTI-ALIGNED WORLD: HOW TO COUNTER CHALLENGING NARRATIVES AND RESTORE UNIVERSALISM?
Thirty years ago, the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna on 25 June 1993 solemnly reaffirmed that the “universal nature” of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all “is beyond question”. The Vienna Declaration also emphasized “the importance of ensuring the universality, objectivity and non-selectivity of the consideration of human rights issues”.
In recent years, though, this universalist approach has been challenged, with competing local and regional understandings and standards and more “elastic” set of norms likely to prevail. An uncertain, changing, and war-torn multipolar order has made human rights increasingly controversial as a “Western concept”, threatening their hard-won legitimacy. Certain major and “middle” powers reject any one-size-fits-all template to guide countries in establishing democracy, underscore the importance of state sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, and abstain from progressive interpretations of human rights obligations. In an increasingly dysfunctional multilateral system, alternative fora like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are the laboratory for new narratives, concepts, rules and standards.
What is the impact of this multi-polar, multi-aligned and re-balanced international order on universal human rights? How can a certain revisionism throughout the world prove a model of authoritarian development, that does not bother much with values other than the maintenance of order? 30 years after the Vienna World Conference, how to win the battle of narratives and restore the universality of human rights?
Introductory remarks on the Human Rights Year 2023: Ambassador Ulrike Butschek Head of the Department for Human Rights and Minority Affairs, MFA Austria
Keynote Panelists: Ms Dunja Mijatović Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
Prof. Shalini Randeria President and Rector of the Central European University (CEU)
Mr Christo Buschek Independent investigative journalist (Der Spiegel, Paper Trail Media), 2021 Pulitzer Prize
Prof. Brian G. Carlson U.S. Army War College
Moderation: Dr. Loïc Simonet oiip
Date: Tuesday, 5 December, 2023
Time: 16:30 - 18:00
Venue: Austrian Institute for International Affairs Währinger Straße 3/12, A-1090 Wien
or
online via Livestream
Places are limited. Please register only if you will be attending in person. (Unlimited online participation is possible.)
Registration for presence participation
The event will be held in English. It will be followed by a light dinner reception.
Best regards, Petra Podesser Österreichisches Institut für Internationale Politik Währinger Straße 3/12 A-1090 Wien Tel. +43 1 581 11 06-12 [email protected] www.oiip.ac.at | |
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