The last of our webinar series will take the form of a panel discussion reviewing the Reykjavik Summit. We have invited lawyers, activists and thinkers to join us and reflect on the future functioning of the Council of Europe as well as the reality the organisation is facing as a result of the summit.
The meeting will take place on 26 June 2023 at 12 CEST/13 EEST.
Please register for the webinar here:
If you would like just to follow the discussion without active participation, this is the YouTube link:
Here are our discussants:
Oleksandra Vyacheslavivna Matviichuk is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil society leader based in Kyiv. Oleksandra Matviichuk attended the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, graduating in 2007 when she was conferred a LL.M. In 2017, she became the first woman to participate in the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program of Stanford University.
She heads the non-profit organization Centre for Civil Liberties. In 2007, Oleksandra Matviichuk was awarded the Vasyl Stus Prize, In 2015, Matviichuk became a laureate of the Norwegian 'Lindebrække Prize for democracy and human rights'. On 24 February 2016, 16 delegations to the OSCE recognized Matviychuk with their first Democracy Defender Award. The Centre for Civil Liberties was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Ales Bialiatski and the Russian organization Memorial. This was the first Nobel Prize awarded to a Ukrainian citizen or organization.
Zdeněk Kühn is a judge of the Czech Supreme Administrative Court (Brno) and a professor at the Department of Theory of Law at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague. He also works at New York University in Prague. He lectures at several universities abroad (USA, Hungary, Croatia, Great Britain, etc.). He is one of the most intellectually influential Czech lawyers.
Hanna Machinska is a Polish lawyer and academic teacher; with a PhD in law. Director of the Council of Europe Office in Warsaw from 1991 to 2017, Deputy Ombudsman from 2017 to 2022. In 1973 she graduated in law from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. In 1978, she received her doctoral law degree. She did her internships at the European Commission, the Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne, and at the universities of Maastricht, Aarhus and Florence. She was also an expert at the Office of the Committee for European Integration, a member of the Council for European Education of the Minister of Education, an expert on the Advisory Committee on European Law of the Minister of Justice and a member of the Advisory Legal Committee of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In September 2017, she was appointed as Deputy Ombudsman. She served in this capacity until December 2022.
Marzena Ksel-Teleśnicka is a forensic doctor and specialist working to prevent torture and inhuman treatment. For many years a member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CTP). Expert of the Office of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Poland. Vice-President of the Regional Chamber of Medicine in Kraków.
Jacob Öberg obtained PhD in European Law from the European University Institute in Florence, and since then been active as a senior lecturer in criminal law at Örebro University and as a postdoctoral fellow in law at Lund University. His research touches on a large number of topics such as constitutional EU law, EU criminal law and general issues of criminal sanctions and criminalization. He is regularly invited to present my research at international conferences (UACES, Virtue, European Society of Criminology) and to give guest lectures at other universities.
Road to Reykjavik: webinar series
The 4th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe which took place on May 16-17, 2023, in Reykjavik, Iceland, marking the first such meeting in 18 years. It provides a unique opportunity to discuss urgent issues such as the Russian aggression on Ukraine, the crisis of multilateralism, democratic backsliding, and emerging social problems. Although there are easy solutions to these challenges, dialogue is essential to mitigate their consequences.
The joint webinars hosted by the Riga Graduate School of Law, SWPS University, and the University of Cologne aim to foster international cooperation and address the most vital issues concerning the crisis of human rights protection in Europe.