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Homepage > Projects > Forum 2000 Conferences > 2011 > Program > A Globalizing World: State Sovereignty and Its Limits

A Globalizing World: State Sovereignty and Its Limits

Below you will find the description of all the events listed chronologically as they will take place.

 

A New Aid System for the Era of Globalization

Panel
In cooperation with The Sasakawa Peace Foundation
Monday, October 10, 2011, 14.30–16.00, Žofín Palace, Conference Hall
 
Participants: Jiro Hanyu, Motoshige Itoh, Wolfgang Michalski, Thomas Pogge, Tetsushi Sonobe
 
Increasing the volume of official development aid (ODA), the effectiveness of that aid, and the clear aid priorities (or lack of them) are hotly debated issues in the international community. It can be argued that abject poverty is a consequence of how we run the international system. Therefore, providing aid should be a global responsibility. Aid still plays a crucial role in tackling poverty and disparity in the globalization process, especially with regard to the extreme poverty in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The most necessary aid should assist those whose “basic needs‟ for food and nourishment, health and hygiene and elementary education are not met.
 
  • Is ODA appropriately directed to address the needs of the LDCs?
  • To what extent should emerging and developing nations provide assistance?
  • Should there be an international treaty, as in the case of climate change, on the provision of aid to the least developed countries?
  • Should this treaty place an obligation on all countries to provide aid?

 

Meeting Dissidents as a Democracy Support Tool: From van der Stoel and Patočka to Cuba, Belarus and the Dalai Lama

Debate
In cooperation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Monday, October 10, 2011, 14.30–16.00, Hotel InterContinental
 
Participants: Marek Svoboda, Frans Timmermans, Jiřina Šiklová, Vladimír Galuška, Ales Michalevic, Ivan Chvatík
 
When Max van der Stoel, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, met Jan Patočka briefly during his official visit to communist Czechoslovakia in March 1977, he created a precedent which was from then on followed by other Western officials visiting countries of the Soviet bloc. But until today, direct contact of democratic countries´ representatives with dissidents or opposition representatives while visiting repressive regimes is not always a given. The dilemma that many western heads of state regularly face whether or not to meet the Dalai Lama is just one illustration of the problem.
 
  • What was the impact of the van der Stoel meeting with Jan Patočka on the situation of Czech dissenters?
  • Why is direct contact between the representatives of democratic countries with dissidents often so problematic? Similar meetings must be backed up by clear policies and actions. Are they?

 

Responsibility to Protect I.

Panel
Monday, October 10, 2011, 16.15–17.45, Žofín Palace, Conference Hall
 
Participants: Gareth Evans, Jared Genser, Francis Deng, Cem Özdemir, Šimon Pánek
 
The responsibility to protect (RtoP) is the most significant development in the defense of human rights since the codification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust. According to the doctrine, all states have an obligation to protect their citizens from mass atrocities. Yet, six years and millions of preventable deaths after the adoption of RtoP at the 2005 World Summit, its implementation remains far from reality. Instead, RtoP is a frustratingly elusive promise.
 
  • What are the main challenges before RtoP can be conceived of as a true norm in international security and human rights?
  • Reflecting on recent events in Libya, Syria and beyond, how can misconceptions, ambiguities, and institutional and political challenges be most effectively addressed?

 

Development Aid and Good Governance

Panel
Monday, October 10, 2011, 18.00–19.30, Žofín Palace, Knights´ Hall
 
Participants: Mou-Shih Ding, Jan Urban, Frans Timmermans, Gérard Roland, Marcus Cornaro
 
The rule of law is one of the principal elements of good governance together with accountability, transparency, efficiency, responsiveness etc. Good governance is critical to long-term economic, social, and environmental development in each country. However, sometimes it is difficult to decide if development projects support elements of good governance or undermine them. Aid has a crucial role in fighting poverty but can increase the corrupt and unequal environment in recipient countries at the same time.
 
  • Can development aid really support good governance in the recipient countries?
  • How to decide what level of corruption within a country is still permissible for implementation of development projects?
  • Can the international community or individual donor decide which countries are suitable for receiving aid and which are not?
  • How does China´s foreign development policy and influence change the rules?

 

Still Failing to Protect: The International Community and Gross Human Rights Violations

Panel Discussion
In cooperation with Oxford and Cambridge Alumni Society Czech Republic
Monday, October 10, 2011, 18.15–19.45, New York University in Prague
 
Participants: Ondřej Ditrych, Francis Deng, Gareth Evans, Veronika Bílková, Pavel Barša
 
Recent events in Syria, Yemen, and to some degree Libya, demonstrate that pledges contained in doctrines such as RtoP (Responsibility to Protect) notwithstanding, the commitment of the international community to protect people subjected to violent oppression either by their governments or as a result of armed conflict remains in doubt.
 
  • Is the commitment of the international community to protect people from gross human rights violations an organized hypocrisy?
  • Should the norm of non-intervention become more conditioned, not only in theory but also in practice, on basic rules of good governance?
  • Does the ultimate responsibility for the conduct of political affairs, including those related to the preservation of human life, rest with individual states themselves? Or does the international community’s inaction ultimately undermine its legitimacy and therefore the very order it aims at preserving?

 

Responsibility to Protect II.: Challenges and Prospects

Panel
Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 10.00–11.30, Žofín Palace, Knights´ Hall
 
Participants: Howard Hensel, Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel, Pierre Lévy, George Andreopoulos, Jared Genser
 
Responsibility to protect (RtoP) has recently emerged as the latest variation in the discourse on human protection. Its opponents consider it a kinder, gentler version of humanitarian intervention. Its proponents argue that it is a very different concept which has reframed the way in which we should think and act in situations which merit protection initiatives.
 
  • What are the key features in the transition from humanitarian intervention to RtoP?
  • Who are the key actors, and what processes and actions could come under the category of protection?
  • Where are the intersections between the human protection discourse and emerging discourses on the “securitization” of ongoing and new challenges?

 

Economic Globalization and Human Rights

Panel
Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 16.15–17.30, Žofín Palace, Conference Hall
 
Participants: Aryeh Neier, Jiří Schneider, Ales Michalevic, Šimon Pánek
 
Economic globalization represents both an opportunity and a challenge to human welfare and rights. A wide range of issues, from property to politics to environment to welfare and rights, are being redefined. Their absolute protection is being questioned by economic globalization, the growing role of non-state actors such as multinational corporations, transnational economic organizations (e.g. the WTO), supranational political organizations (e.g. the EU), global human rights campaign groups and NGOs. The emerging global economic system, therefore, leads to the reconceptualisation of human rights and their protection beyond the nation state and its political and legal institutions.
 
  • How does economic globalization drive different societies and communities towards politics of human rights and freedoms?
  • What is the role of state and non-state actors in protecting and promoting human rights in world society?
  • How is international corporate accountability defined in this context?

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