Is the war in Ukraine about democracy? (in ENG)

Is the war in Ukraine about democracy? (in ENG)

Many argue that the war in Ukraine is a battle for democracy, about fighting for our freedom, and against autocracy.

During this conversation, with among other Director Morten Kjaerum, we will discuss the illiberal trends of Europe and what signs we can see that democratic space is shrinking as well as the impact of the war in Ukraine in this regard.

Also, what can we do to fight the autocratisation in Europe?

Participants:
• Christina Geijer af Ekström, Presenter
• Morten Kjaerum, Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden since 2015
• Marta Siciarek, Migration expert at Association of Polish Cities and co-founder of Human Rights Cities Institute
• Zuzana Zalanova, Director of Europe Office at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, has been promoting human rights, good governance, and civic engagement in various capacities in Europe and Central Asia.

More about the participants:
Marta Siciarek is a migration expert at Association of Polish Cities and co-founder of Human Rights Cities Institute. Marta has over 15 years experience in the field of migration, integration, antidiscriminaton and inclusion. She has worked across sectors, founding Immigrants Support Center in Gdansk and coordinating metropolitan and regional policy on migration in Pomerania region.

Marta is a co-author of the first integration policy at city level in Poland – Gdansk Immigrants Integration Model (2016), author of Minimum Standard in Integration for Gdansk Metroplitan Association (2018) and a chair of Immigrants Support Center (2012-2018). In 2019 she joined the Human Rights Cities team coordinated by EU Fundamental Rights Agency and participated in developing FRA’s Framework for reinforcing rights locally. This cooperation informed Marta’s approach to policy making and the need for mainstreaming migrants’ rights into all sectoral policies. Marta Siciarek studied Chinese at Warsaw University and Sichuan University and cross-cultural psychology at SWPS University of Social Science and Humanities.

Morten Kjaerum has been Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden since 2015.  In 2013 he was awarded an honorary professorship at the University of Aalborg, Denmark. Mr Kjaerum was the first Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna, Austria from 2008 to 2015 and he was Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) from 1991 to 2008 and developed it within 17 years from a small organisation to a large internationally recognized institution. He started his career in the non-governmental sector at the Danish Refugee Council.

Appointed by the UN Secretary General, Mr. Kjaerum is Chairperson of the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation (VFTC) in the Field of Human Rights and of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Trust Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance. He is currently also Chair of The Board of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).

Mr. Kjaerum was the Chairperson of the Network of Directors of EU Agencies 2014-15. He was a member (2002-2008) of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). From 2004-08, he was chair of the International Coordinating Committee for National Human Rights Institutions.

Arrangör:
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute
Kontakt: Christina Geijer af Ekström – christina.geijer_af_ekstrom@rwi.lu.se
www.rwi.lu.se