Participants

Miroslav Bohdálek
Coordinator of Cross-border Projects, Kulturbüro Sachsen e.V., Germany

Mr. Bohdálek has worked for Kulturbüro Sachsen e.V. since 2005 as a Coordinator of Cross-border Projects e.g. Dangerous Liaisons – Right-wing extremism in Czech Republic and Germany. He coordinates the research project Hate Crimes – Forgotten Victims that will be completed with this conference. A project report will be released in June 2010. He studied Journalism and International Relations at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Zuzana Candigliota
Lawyer, League of Human Rights, Czech Republic

Zuzana Candigliota started her cooperation with the League of Human Rights in 2007 as a volunteer in the Legal Advisory Centre for Patients after she had participated in the “School of Human Rights”. Currently she works at League as a lawyer on the Fair Hospital project. She focuses on human rights in healthcare, especially the promotion of the right to self-determination and free will in healthcare delivery, mainly in the areas of obstetrics and compulsory vaccination of minors. She is about to finish her studies at the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in Brno.

Oldřich Černý
Executive Director, Forum 2000 Foundation, Czech Republic

Mr. Černý is the Executive Director of both the Forum 2000 Foundation and the Prague Security Studies Institute. From 1993 to 1998, he served as Director General of the Czech Foreign Intelligence Service; from 1990 to 1993, he served as National Security Advisor to President Václav Havel. Prior to the Velvet Revolution, he worked as a freelance translator of British and American literature and films (1980–1989); and as an editor (1971–1978). Mr. Černý received an M.A. in English and Czech from the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University.

Gregory Czarnecki
Project Coordinator, Campaign against Homophobia, Poland

Mr. Czarnecki received his Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democratization from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, with additional coursework in both Thailand and Poland.  He interned for the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe before beginning his work on “Monitoring LGBT Discrimination in Poland“ as a Project Coordinator for the Campaign against Homophobia.

Michal Frankl
Head of the Shoah History Department, Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic

Mr. Frankl studied Political Science and Philosophy at Charles University in Prague, achieving his Ph.D. in Modern History. Since 1996 he has participated in different research projects at the Terezin Initiative Institute. In 2008 he became the Head of the Shoah History Department in the Jewish Museum in Prague. His research interests include modern anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and refugee policies of modern states.

Maria Grjasnow
Sociologist, Project Advisor, Network for Democracy and Courage, Germany

After having completed her studies of Sociology, Psychology and Intercultural Communication in Jena, Edinburgh, Lyon and St. Petersburg, Maria Grjasnow worked for several anti-racist NGOs and research institutes at a German and European level. Currently, she is Project Advisor at the Headquarters of the Network for Democracy and Courage (NDC) which organizes anti-racist school project days to inspire young people to participate actively in democracy. Consisting of numerous youth organizations, initiatives and voluntarily engaged young people, the NDC is active in Germany, France and Belgium.

Franz Hammer
Officer for Community Work, Kulturbüro Sachsen e.V., Germany

Franz Hammer studied Cultural and Media Pedagogy and has been working in political education in Saxony since 2005. He is currently working as Officer for Community Work at Kulturbüro Sachsen e.V.

Karel Holomek
Roma Activist, The Association of Romanies in Moravia, Czech Republic

After 1990, Mr. Holomek spent two years as a Deputy for the Civic Forum on the Czech National Council. Currently, he is the Chairman of The Association of Romanies in Moravia, the Honorary Chairman of the Society of Professionals and Friends of the Museum of Romani Culture, the Director of the International Roma Center attached to the Helsinki Citizen's Assembly, a member of the government's Commission for Human Rights, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Romani magazine Romano hangos.

Lucie Horváthová
Anthropologist, Programme Manager, Romodrom, Czech Republic

Ms. Horváthová studied Social Anthropology at the University of Pardubice. She worked as coordinator of human rights conferences held during the Czech Presidency of the EU, such as the National Project Coordinator of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All in the Office of the Government, as an adviser on Roma to city officials and as lecturer of the Roma language. She implemented the project "Roma dances and singing" in the volunteer programme Make a Connection. In 2006 she graduated from a three-month internship at the European Commission and studied at the University Paul-Valéry in Montpellier, France.

Dominique John
Political Scientist, Opferperspektive (“Victims’ Perspective“), Germany

Political scientist; since 2002, Mr. John has worked with victims of extremists’ attacks in Brandenburg, Germany. He has helped to set up a network of organizations to support victims of extremist attacks in East Germany. Since 2007, he is the Manager of "Opferperspektive Brandenburg".

Klára Kalibová
Lawyer, In IUSTITIA, Czech Republic

Ms. Kalibová is a lawyer, analyst and a founder of the civic association In IUSTITIA, a counselling centre for victims of hate violence, the first in the Czech Republic. She regularly publishes and lectures on hate violence, racism and far right movements. In 2009–2010 she was a Fulbright Masaryk scholarship grantee and spent several months working with leading NGOs addressing extremism and anti-Semitism in the US.

Michael Kocáb
Government Commissioner for Human Rights, Czech Republic

Was the leader of a Parliament commission negotiated the repatriation of Soviet soldiers from Czechoslovakia. He was an external counselor of President Václav Havel in 1993–2003 and organized meetings of President Havel with representatives of the Government and public life. 2009–2010 he was the Minister for Human Rights and Minorities. Nowadays he works as Government Commissioner for Human Rights.

Kati Lang
Adviser for Victims of Hate Crimes, Opferberatung, The Regional Centre for Education, Integration and Democracy, Germany

Ms. Lang has been engaged as an NGO activist in the field of human rights, democracy development and anti-racism for over ten years. Since 2008 she has been working as a legal adviser for victims of hate crimes in the federal state of Saxony. In 2009 she started researching hate crime legislation and its legal implementation in Germany at the Faculty of Law, University of Dresden. She receives a scholarship for her research from the German Trade Union Foundation “Hans-Böckler-Stiftung”.

Agnieszka Mikulska
Ethnologist, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland

Ms. Mikulska is Manager of “Minority Rights Programme” at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and Coordinator of the Polish National Focal Point of the RAXEN Network. She deals with the issue of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity or religion. She is a national expert (together with D. Hall) in a network of socio-economic experts in the non-discrimination field managed by Human European Consultancy.

Viktória Mlynárčiková
Programme Manager, Open Society Foundation, Slovakia

Ms. Mlynárčiková worked as a consultant at CEC Government Relations, an independent public affairs agency in the EU’s new Central European member states. She is a Programme Manager at the Open Society Foundation in Slovakia and is also an administrator of an NGOs´ and experts´ platform, which is dealing with the theme of hate crimes.

Dana Moree
Researcher, Lecturer, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Czech Republic

Ms. Moree lectures on Multicultural Education at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University in Prague and also works as trainer of Intercultural Education for the PONTES Institute. Over the past two years she has published, for example, two books – Abenteuer Kultur and Wertekiste. She is also the Editor of the multicultural education site Czechkid.

Olga Pechová
Psychologist, Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University, Czech Republic

Ms. Pechová teaches at the Psychology Department of the Philosophical Faculty of Palacký University. She cooperates with various Czech and foreign NGOs in the field of sexual minorities. She conducted research in 2008 on experiences with discrimination, harassment and violence based on sexual orientation in the Czech Republic. She is a member of the Council for Sexual Minorities of the Government Council for Human Rights.

Serhiy Ponomaryov
Scholar, LGBT Rights Activist, Gay Forum, Ukraine

Mr. Ponomaryov is currently a Ph.D. student at Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University, Ukraine, he holds two M.A. degrees: one in Political Science (from Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University, Ukraine) and one in Public Administration (from Iowa State University, USA). His academic interests include minority rights and anti-discrimination law in general, with a particular focus on LGBT rights. He has long been actively involved in LGBT rights activism in Ukraine working for Gay and Lesbian Center “Nash Mir” and “Gay Forum of Ukraine” as a Legal Research Analyst. Co-founder of the LGBT Charitable Fund “Libra” (2008) in Mykolayiv, Ukraine.

Ralf Possekel
Head of Programmes, Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”, Germany

Mr. Possekel received his doctorate in Philosophy and studied History in Moscow. He taught at Humboldt University in Berlin, the Universities of Bocum and Potsdam. He has published various books and articles, and as Head of Programmes for Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”, he oversees programmes like Europeans for Peace, which funds international youth projects, as well as the Anti-Slavery Lecture series.

Aleš Rumpel
Director of Queer Film Festival Mezipatra, Czech Republic

Mr. Rumpel is a Director of Czech Queer Film Festival Mezipatra, where he has worked since 2003. Since 2006 he has been a member of the team of International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival One World. In 2010 he prepared the programme section Tolerant – Intolerant which focused on the subject of neo-Nazism and nationalism. For the Institute of Documentary Film he put together presentations of projected Czech documents. Since 2010 he is a member of a governmental Working Group for Sexual Minorities.

Zdeněk Ryšavý
Executive Director, Romea, Czech Republic

Mr. Ryšavý is an IT businessman and Executive Director of Roma media and educational organization Romea. He is a Project Coordinator for the ICenter, a project of lifetime education support that promotes equality in the labour market, especially for minority groups like Roma. He is interested in human rights, Roma people, xenophobia, racism, and politics.

Martin Šimáček
Head of the Agency for Social Inclusion, Office of the Government, Czech Republic

Since 2009, Martin Šimáček has been the Head of the Agency for Social Inclusion, the governmental body to support Czech cities and villages in the process of integrating people, especially Roma, who are threatened with social exclusion. Šimáček used to work (2001–2009) for the non-governmental organization People in Need, latterly as the Director of the Middle Bohemia branch. He has also worked on integration projects for People in Need in Slovakia, Great Britain and Georgia. He also worked for the Ministry of Education in the section of social programmes in schools (2008–2009).

Jan Swierszcz
Social Psychologist, Campaign against Homophobia, Poland

Mr. Swierszcz works for various NGOs in the field of anti-discrimination and multiculturalism, primarily as a trainer. For Campaign against Homophobia he is responsible for educational activities, support in research on LGBT topics and coordination of major projects.

Petr Uhl
Journalist, Czech Republic

Co-founder of Charter 77, Mr. Uhl was imprisoned for non-violent activities against normalization (1969–1973), and for human rights activities (1979–1984). He was a Federal Parliament Member (1990–1992), Director General of the Czechoslovak News Agency (1990–1992) and Expert of the United Nations Human Rights Council (commission) in Geneva (1991–2001). He was Human Rights Commissioner of the Czech Government (1998–2001), President of the Anti-Torture Committee of the Czech Government Human Rights Council (2002–2007), and member of the EUMC (now EU Fundamental Rights Agency) in Vienna (2004–2007). 

Jan Urban
Journalist, Czech Republic

Jan Urban is a journalist and university teacher and was one of the leading dissidents during the communist régime. In November 1989, he helped to found the Civic Forum and led it to its victory in the first free elections in June 1990. Pursuing his career in journalism, he served as a war correspondent in Central America and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993–1996). He made two documentary films including one on the Kosovo conflict. During 1999–2000 he was a member of the International Independent Expert Commission on Kosovo. From 2003–2006, he worked in Iraq on heritage preservation projects. He is a Professor at the University of New York in Prague.

František Valeš
Lawyer, Czech Republic

Mr. Valeš is a lawyer and an expert on extremism for several non-governmental organizations, and has participated in various research activities as well. For some time, he operated at a counselling centre for victims of hate violence. He is a member of the Czech Helsinki Committee.

Alexander Verkhovsky
Director, SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, Russia

Alexander Verkhovsky graduated from the Moscow Oil and Gas Institute with a degree in Applied Mathematics in 1984. In the late 80’s he became a member of the democratic organization, "Civil Dignity", and then Editor-in-Chief of the samizdat independent newspaper, Panorama, in Moscow. In the early 90’s, he became Vice President of Panorama Information and Research Center and since 2002, he is the Director of SOVA Center for Information and Analysis. Since 1994, Mr. Verkhovsky’s main areas of research have been political extremism, nationalism and xenophobia in contemporary Russia, religion and politics in contemporary Russia, and the relationship of the state and religious organizations. He has been a prolific author of books and articles on these issues, including his most recent, Inappropriate Enforcement of Anti-extremist Legislation in Russia in 2009 (2010).