Programme

THE SWEDISH FORUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
14-15 NOVEMBER 2011
KULTURHUSET STOCKHOLM

Welcome to the Swedish Forum for Human Rights - the biggest annual forum about human rights in the Nordic countries! We at the Swedish Forum for Human Rights aim at reaching as many people as possible and therefore provide several interesting seminars and lectures in English. Below you can find the complete list of English items in our programme.

We hope you will find the programme of the Swedish forum for Human Rights valuable and interesting!

MONDAY 14TH OF NOVEMBER

1. Monday 9.30 Hörsalen
Opening Ceremony

Letters to Europe
Dejan Anastasiejevic, Mahi Binebine, Azouz Begag, Easterine Kire Iram och Salem Zemia.

Welcome speech and practical information
Pelle Haneaus

Welcome speech by hosts and organizers
Participants: Ewa Samuelsson, Assistant Vice Mayor for Social Affairs, Anna Wigenmark, Human Rights Forum  

Panel discussion
Migration, citizenship and human rights
Panelists: Barbara Hendricks, Anna-Lena Lodenius, Fateh Azzam, Liz Fekete

Özz Nujjen

Tribunal 12
Oskar Ekström

4. Monday 11.00 Studio 3
Pakistans blasphemy laws – challenges for foreign policy
Earlier this year Pakistan's minister for minorities was murdered for opposing blasphemy laws. What impact do blasphemy laws have on Pakistani society? This and other religious freedom violations cause tremendous suffering internationally and contribute to refugee flows. How can Europe respond?

Panelists: Marvin Parvez, Director, Church World Service, Pakistan
Katherine Cash, Advocacy officer, Swedish Mission Council.
Moderator: Göran Gunner, Researcher, Church of Sweden Research Unit
Organizers: Svenska missionsrådet, Svenska kyrkan, Teologiska högskolan Stockholm

11. Monday 11.00 AnnaRella Scandic hotell
Business and human rights – corporate responsibility and accountability
Business activities can impact virtually all human rights. But victims of abuse do not always have effective legal and other remedies to safeguard their human rights, particularly in less developed countries. What are the responsibilities of states in regulating and holding businesses accountable for their human rights impacts, at home and abroad? What are the social responsibilities of large and smaller companies to prevent and address risks of human rights violations throughout their operations?

The 'business and human rights' debate is at crossroads as the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, Prof. John Ruggie, concluded his landmark 6-year mandate. What clarifications and common ground has he achieved in this polarized area? What are his concrete recommendations for governments and companies? What will be the implications and follow-up of this UN mandate in the years to come?

Panelists: Dr. Claire Methven O’Brien, Senior Adviser, Human Rights and Business, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Dr. Catia Gregoratti, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Political Science, Lund University
Moderator: Dr. Radu Mares, Senior Researcher. Raoul Wallenberg Institute.
Organizer: Raoul Wallenberg Institute

13. Monday 13.30 Hörsalen
Turning point Middle East
During the revolution in Egypt we saw women and men standing united at the barricades to demand democracy. We have seen similar scenarios during the other uprisings in the Middle East. But what happened afterwards? Have women gained more power in the decision making structures after the revolutions and are women’s rights better protected?

Panelists: Leyla Al Ali, Association Najdeh in Beirut, Libanon, Nawal Yazeji, Damascus, Syria, Lena Ag, Secretary-General, Kvinna till kvinna

Moderator: Jesper Bengtsson, editor-in-cheif OmVärlden

Organizers: Kvinna till kvinna

14. Monday 13.30 Studion
Statelessness – black spot in the debate about citizenship and human rights

Around the world there are millions of people who are not recognized as citizens of any country. On paper they don’t exist anywhere. They are people whithout a nationality. They are stateless. They are excluded.
As we mark the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, what progress has been achieved and what challenges remains? The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, mandated to assist States protect the stateless; will provide an overview of the causes, the consequences, and the solutions.

Panelists: Pia Prytz Phiri, UNHCR Regional Representative , Jorunn Brandvoll, UNHCR Statelessness unit, Geneva, Barbara Hendricks, UNHCR Honorary Goodwill Ambassador, Juni Berglund, UNHCR

Moderator: Hanne Mathisen

Organizer: UNHCR

25. Monday 13.30 AnnaRella 3 Scandic Hotel
Responsibility to protect
How does the population of Southern Sudan, Burma and other conflict areas protect themselves from human right violations and harsh violence? Each year, the Church of Sweden and other organizations, carry through several studies concerning which methods the civil population in conflict areas use to protect themselves. In which ways has the international community, international organizations and NGOs succeeded in supporting and offering these groups protection? This seminar aims to evaluating the efforts to protect the civil population to develop better humanitarian efforts in the future.

Participants: Henrik Fröjmark, The Church of Sweden  
Organizer: The Church of Sweden

38. Monday 16.30 Klarabio
Convergences
Convergences is a selection of video art and documentary short films inserted for the first time into annual Swedish Forum for Human Rights conference. The works in Convergences will be shown within and parallel to the conference structure in a total of five spaces within Kulturhuset. Convergences is located in Hörsalen, Studion, the balcony of Studion, the Klara Bio and the library at Plattan, where an installation of a small model Million Project apartment will be situated and will showcase the award winning High Rise project, a fully interactive, 360° documentary which takes the viewer into the lives, stories and apartments of individuals living in High Rises in 13 cities around the world.

Convergences Curator: Lara Szabo Greisman

39. Monday 16.30 Panorama
Women in Afghanistan – second class citizens
The situation and position of the women in Afghanistan has often been the focus when justifying both military and humanitarian international interventions in the country. Afghanistan’s constitution clearly states that men and women have equal rights. It simultaneously states that no afghan law can oppose the Islamic sharia law. This implies a contradiction; the Islamic family law does not secure equal rights and legal protection for women. Are women in Afghanistan second class citizens, who’s rights are negotiable and are second priority to international security interests?

Panellists: Maria Leissner, ambassador for democracy and member of the board for the Swedich Afghanistan Committee, Ann Wilkens, former ambassador in Afghanistan/Pakistan and chair woman for the Swedish Afghan Committee
Moderator: Johanna Fogelström, Swedish executive for the Swedish Afghan Committee
Organizers: The Swedish Afghan Committee, the Church of Sweden

40. Monday 16.30 Lava
Climate Refugees

Which protection does the human rights gice to those who has been forced to migrate as a result of climate changes, such as desertification, rising sea levels and drought? Iqbal Uddin shares his experiences concerning how RDRS Bangladesh. RDRS Bangladesh mobilizes local grassroots organizations in Bangladesh to increase the awareness concerning how global climate change will affect Bangladesh and increase the possibilities for the locals to define how they want to solve the problems that are at risk at arising and that might force people to migrate.

Panellists: Iqbal Uddin, Advocacy Coordinator, RDRS Bangladesh and Sophia Wirsching, Advisor Migration and Development, Human Rights Desk, Bread for the World

Moderator: Gunnel Axelsson Nycander, the Church of Sweden
Arrangör: the Church of Sweden

47. Monday 18.45 Hörsalen
Seminarium "The state of democracy in the Middle East with particular focus on developments in Iran"
Panellists: Shirin Ebadi, laywer, Hans Dahlgren, ambassador for human rights, Payam Akhavan, professor international law McGill University, Parvin Adalan, journalist from Iran, Cecilia Asklöf, chair woman The International Commission of Jurists – the Swedish Section Moderator: Brian Palmer, fil dr Uppsala University

TUESDAY 14TH OF NOVEMBER

49. Tuesday 09.00 Hörsalen

A Suitable Enemy: How Islamophpnia threatens human rights
Key note speaker: Liz Fekete

50. Tuesday 10.30 Hörsalen
Migration, asylum and human rights in the MENA region
The current political development in MENA has had great impact on the situation for migrants in the region. What are the responsibilities of the EU and other stakeholders regarding these migrants and asylum seekers? How are their human rights protected and implemented? These and other issues are discussed.
Panelists: Professor Gregor Noll, Faculty of Law, Lund University, Mr. Fateh Azzam, Regional Representative for the Middle East, OHCHR, Rickard Lagervall, Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, and Dr. Olof Beckman, Human Rights Studies, Lund University.
Moderator: Hanna Johnsson
Organizers: Raoul Wallenberg Instututie and Human Rights Studies

52. Tuesday 10.30 Studio 3
The Criminalisation of Migration
More and more often, migration is expressed in terms of threat and security. Migrants and asylum seekers are put in detention within the EU and att he same time people helping migrants might face penalties. The criminalisation of migration is discussed from a juridical, political and philosophical point of view.

Medverkande: Liz Fekete, Executive Director of the Institute of Race Relations, London, Jan Flyghed, professor in criminology, Stockholm university
Arrangörer: THS and Gothemburg University

Moderator: Elisabeth Abiri, Gothemburg University

72. Tuesday 14.30 Studio 3
Residence permit in your own country – being Palestinian in Jerusalem
A conversation concerning the situation in Jerusalem today. Opposing international law, Israel takes a stronger hold on Jerusalem every day. Palestinians are evicted from their homes in east Jerusalem, replaced by Israeli settlers. Approximately a fifth of Jerusalem’s population consists of Palestinians in lack of citizenship; they have a temporary residence permit which they can loose at any time.

Participant: Zakaria Odeh, Director, The Civic Coalition to Defend Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem

Moderator: Jessica Lindberg Dik the Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden
Organizer: the Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden

79. Tuesday 14.30 AnnaRella 3 Scandic

The dream of America attracts migrants around the World

Arriving at a new place often mean shortage of human contacts, regardless of if we move of free will or not. Regardless if we arrive at Baghdad, Borås or Bollnäs. Embrace is a project at Kulturparken in Växjö that focuses immigration and emigration, similarities and differences. The dream of America and the dream of Sweden.
The exhibition Embrace will open in the Emigrant’s house in Växjö, the 14^th of November 2011. Embrace stands for humanism, empathy, tolerance and care. We want to engage everybody that aims at seeing similarities instead of differences.

Participant: Lixuan An, kurator Embrace
Organizer: Kulturparken, Växjö

80. Tuesday 16.00 Hörsalen
Closing ceremony
Key note speach
The Human Rights of Non-citizens: View from the Middle East

Fateh Azzam, Regional Representative for the Middle East
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights