On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Conference, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Slovakia organized an international conference in November 2015. The main topic was human rights in the historical-political context of Central Europe and the significance of the Helsinki process for the present. The conference was held under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Andrej Kiska, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. The president was represented at the conference by his chief adviser Martin Bútora. The event took place at the headquarters of the Academy Istropolitana Nova in Svätý Júr. Academia made a significant contribution to the success of the event.
The conference was also attended by Prince Karel Schwarzenberg, former chairman of the International Federation of Helsinki Committees, an important Czech politician and social activist. The members of the individual discussion panels were high-quality, as they featured personalities from November 89, as well as younger experts in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The panelists debated the current challenges facing liberal democracy in Slovakia and Europe.
As part of this project, the Helsinki Committee also published its own publication: The Helsinki Conference (1975) and its human rights aspects. The author is the former chairman of the organization Kálmán Petőcz.
The patronage of the conference was taken over by: Andrej Kiska, President of the Slovak Republic
Support: Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic
You can read the conference program here.
