EFHR invites you to the conference “Integration and exclusion: The linguistic rights of national minorities in Europe” organized by SNPL (Association of Polish Scientists in Lithuania)

The biggest international scientific conference in the region devoted to the linguistic rights of national minorities entitled “Integration and exclusion: The linguistic rights of national minorities in Europe” will be organized by the Association of Polish Scientists in Lithuania on 27 November 2015 in “Artis Centrum Hotel’, 23 Totorių Street, Vilnius. The conference will be held in English, with a Lithuanian translation also provided.

This is one of a number of conferences concerning the protection of the rights of national minorities that has taken place in recent years. A previous conference, organized by EFHR, entitled “Protection of National Minorities Rights: Five Years Trends”, took place on 23 October 2015 in Vilnius City Municipality.

Is it possible to guarantee the implementation of the linguistic rights of national minorities while respecting the national language? How can we control the resulting tension? How, in accordance with international standards, should the state policy in this field look? What is more important – protecting the linguistic rights of minorities, or protecting the national language? These and many other questions will be answered by distinguished European and world experts and scientists.

During the conference talks will be given by: the Chair of the Advisory Council of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, Professor Francesco Palermo; world-renowned linguistic rights expert, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Moncton, Canada, Fernand de Varennes, Ph.D.; long-standing member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) Professor Lauri Hannikainen, University of Helsinki, Finland; personnel from the Science Centre of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), Flensburg, Germany: Eva Chylinsky, Ph.D., Hanna Vasilevich, Ph.D.; a representative of the Science Centre Institute for Minority Rights of the European Academy (EURAC) in Bolzano, Italy, Sergiu Constantin; Member of the Latvian Parliament and of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Boris Cilevics; Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain, Professor Eduardo J. Ruis Vieytez; Katarzyna Łasak, D.Sc. from the University of Gdańsk; scientists from Lithuania: Elżbieta Kuzborska, Ph.D and Katarzyna Miksza, Ph.D. The topic of linguistic rights in the EU will be discussed by Łukasz Wardyn, Ph.D. Representative of the Bureau of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva (Switzerland) Belen Rodriguez de Alba also confirmed her participation.

The goal of the conference is to familiarize society with international and European standards in the field of the protection of linguistic rights of national minorities and explain the experience and policy of particular countries, particularly European ones. The conference is especially intended for politicians, lawyers and officials engaged in the issue of minority rights, but students, scientists and anyone interested in minority rights and state policy in that area is encouraged to attend.

The European Foundation of Human Rights is a partner for this conference. EFHR would like to invite everyone interested in human rights and the protection of the linguistic rights of national minorities to attend the conference and broaden their knowledge on this subject matter.

Places are limited. Registration is compulsory. To register, send an email to the Academic Secretary of the Association of Polish Scientists in Lithuania – Elżbieta Kuzborska, Ph.D. kuzborska@gmail.com. Applications will be accepted until 22 November 2015. The programme of the conference is available to download below.

EFHR