Helsinki at 50. Human Rights, Peace, and Security

Human Rights, Peace, and Security in Europe in the Perspective of Political Exile as a Non-State Actor in International Politics

This event is organised by the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with CEFRES.

Date: October 21–23, 2025
Location: Archive of Parliament of the Czech Republic (Komunardů 1634/44, Prague 7)
Language: English

Program

Tuesday October 21
Public debate with dissidents and exiles

  • Symbolic opening on the eve of the workshop
  • Preliminarily invited participants: Jan Kavan, Martin Palouš, Jana Stárková

Workshop
The workshop will take place on both days, 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. Each panel will consist of three presentations of papers (by 15 minutes for each one), followed by questions from a commentator (by 15 minutes for all papers). The discussion with other participants will close the panel.

Wednesday October 22

9:30 Greeting

9:45-11:15 Panel 1

  • Anna Mazurkiewicz: Helsinki Conference As a “Funeral Ceremony for 100 Million People of Eastern Europe”
  • Kacper Szulecki: Between Geopolitical Fantasies and Foreign Policy Blueprints: Central European Exilic Intellectuals and the Post-Cold War Order
  • Petr Orság: From Sceptical Sirens of Helsinki to an Awakened Volcano: Exile (Not Only) Communication Networks and Making the Invisible Visible

11:15-11:30 Coffee Break

11:30-13:00 Panel 2

  • Michaela Lenčéšová: Discussions on the Interpretation of Human Rights in Slovak Political Emigration
  • Una Blagojević: The Network of Yugoslav ‘Exiles’: Intellectuals and the Interpretations of Human Rights
  • Ana-Maria Cătănuș: Fighting Goliath: Revisiting the Story of the Paris-Based Ligue for the Defence of Human Rights in Romania

13:00-13:45 Lunch

13:45-15:15 Panel 3

  • Kristina Andělová: The Reflection of the Helsinki Accords by the Czechoslovak Socialist Opposition in Exile
  • Maroš Timko: The Spanish Communist Exile in Czechoslovakia Between the Prague Spring and the CSCE (1968–1975)
  • Tomáš Zahradníček: The Czechoslovak Social Democrats in Exile and Hesitation about Policy of Human Rights

15:15-15:35 Coffee Break

15:35-17:05 Panel 4

  • Lars Frederik Stöcker: “A Lifeline to the West: Exchange and Cooperation between Ants Kippar’s Relief Centre for Estonian Prisoners of Conscience and the Soviet Estonian Dissident Community”
  • Olga Rosenblum: Mediating between the West and Russia as a Political or Humanitarian Act: Discussions and Practices in Pavel Litvinov’s Circle
  • Tatsiana Astrouskaya: The Helsinki Process and Hopes for National Revival. Belarusian Émigré Publishing in London After 1975

Dinner

Thursday October 23

9:00 Opening

9:15-10:45 Panel 5

  • András Mink: 1956 Exiles and the Hungarian Opposition
  • Jakub Mikulecký: Prisons and Labor Camps Themes in Bulgarian Exile Literature (1970–1989): Traumatic Memory as a Discursive Instrument of Psychological Warfare
  • Gabriela Romanová: Charter 77 in Vienna

10:45-11:05 Coffee Break

11:05-12:35 Panel 6

  • Peter Jašek: Slovak Broadcast in West and Human Rights After the Helsinki Final Act
  • Ioana Macrea-Toma: What Does “Information” Mean in the Case of Human Rights Activism? Romanian Exile Actors as Knowledge Factotums
  • Jakub Tyszkiewicz: Jan Nowak-Jeziorański’s Role in Shaping a Pro-Polish Lobby in the U.S. During the 1970s and 1980s

12:35-13:30 Lunch

13:30-15:00 Panel 7

  • Jana Stárková: The Czechoslovak Political Émigré in Austria, 1968-1989
  • Mioara Anton: The Romanian Exiles in the United Kingdom in the 1980s: The Campaigns to Defend Human Rights and Stop the Systematization of Villages
  • Bernd Robionek: The Human Rights Issue in the anti-Communist Croatian Emigration

15:00-15:15 Coffee Break

15:15-16:15 Final Debate

Visit to OSCE Documentation Centre in Prague (Náměstí Borise Němcova 529/2, 160 00 Prague)

Dinner