- Civil Rights and Freedoms
- Immigrants and Refugees in Eastern Europe
- The Human Security within the Transnistrian Issue
- Workshop – Recent Minorities in Sibiu: Similar Problems, Similar Solutions
Civil Rights and Freedoms
coordinator/moderator: Dragoș Dragoman
contact: dragos.dragoman@ulbsibiu.ro
The last couple of years witnessed a sharp decline in the respect of citizens’ rights and the proper protection of their natural liberties. This is to be acknowledged all over the world, yet it is most striking in countries with a long tradition in fostering essential conditions for freedoms and rights to thrive. Whereas for decades the relationship between power elites and ordinary citizens has been a balance of prerogatives and duties that stemmed from the principle of representative democracy, the balance shifted roughly by favoring the concentration of executive power, monopolizing the public discourse and severely limiting citizens’ rights and freedoms. Not only independent opinions and free speech against the official narrative have been banned, yet other basic freedoms as circulation, peaceful assembly and public participation under the form of protest have been limited or suspended. The speed and scope of those limitations represent a warning for the immense accumulation of power in the hands of a state bureaucracy, which impedes the natural ability of ordinary citizens to formulate opinions, to freely express, assemble, organize and balance state coercion.
The panel welcomes papers on the logic and pace of recent limitations in civic rights and freedoms, on power state dynamics, on sensitive issues for citizens’ initiatives for protest, on the capacity of both ordinary citizens and more articulated secondary organizations to step out and defend civic rights and freedoms and on the legal actions taken by them. However, the range of issues is not limited to the previous enumeration and all other papers dealing with the protection of civic rights and liberties are equally welcome.
Immigrants and Refugees in Eastern Europe
coordinators/moderators:
Iuliana Neagoș, contact: iuliana.neagos@ulbsibiu.ro
Andreea Dragomir, contact: andreea.dragomir@ulbsibiu.ro
A prominent source of threat to human security in general and in particular to Eastern Europe is represented by the continuous waves of refugees and immigrants, a phenomenon of maximum complexity, affecting the European status quo. It has strained the unity of the European Union, also posed difficult questions about global inequality and sparked debate about the differences between Western and Eastern Europe. In various policy fields, migration has become a top priority, including foreign, security and development policy, directly related to all elements of human security.
This panel aims to discuss the actual tendencies within the popular destinations in the regional migration flows on Eastern Europe, including the distinction between political migrants and economic migrants, according to the perspective of international law treaties. Recent displacement crises-from Syria or Afghanistan, and most recently Ukraine, have imposed huge tensions on the humanitarian protection regime.
The conflict in Ukraine has caused destruction of the civilian infrastructures, civilian casualties, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, assistance and protection. Into neighboring countries, millions of refugees have crossed borders, and many more have been seen forced to move inside the country. In this extremely complex context, an institutional refugee response should be carried out.
The Human Security within the Transnistrian Issue
coordinators/moderators:
Marius Șpechea, contact: marius.spechea@ulbsibiu.ro Mihai Melintei, contact: mihai.melintei@ulbsibiu.ro
In general, the analysis of conflicts focuses on the elements of the military and economic dimensions of security and less on the aspects related to civilian life and human security, a dimension that is directly disturbed by the conflict or the situation of its non-regulation.
This panel aims to bring to the attention of researchers concerned with the resolution of conflicts in their essence, specific elements of human security. Thus, religious life and freedom of conscience, the activity and concerns of civil society, the level of satisfaction of food needs, freedom of movement, access to education and health and its level, minority rights or access to justice are the central elements of the proposed panel, thus providing an overview of societal realities in the context of the Transnistrian case.
In this regard, we look forward to the scientific contributions from researchers, professors, students, MA students and PhD students.
Workshop – Recent Minorities in Sibiu: Similar Problems, Similar Solutions
coordinator/moderator: Nicoleta Annemarie Munteanu contact: nicoleta.munteanu@ulbsibiu.ro
Sibiu is well known as a multi-ethnic, multicultural community, with a tradition in terms of ethnic minorities, where Saxons, Hungarians, Roma and Jews were predominant up to certain moment in history. A less visible category, representing 0.65% is that one made up by other minorities, some of a recent nature, such as: Bessarabians, Arabs, Ukrainians, Chinese. At an early stage in the development of organizational structures, compared to the traditional minorities in Sibiu, recent minorities are trying to make their voices heard, but at the same time, face certain problems that hinder their activity and the possibility of support and help its members.
Our workshop aims to facilitate the knowledge of these issues with the help of representatives of these recent minorities, to identify solutions that may have a common denominator, to pave the way for mutual cooperation, to inspire the construction of joint projects, starting from the premise that most negative situations they face, are similar. The result of the workshop will turn into a policy paper, designed following the debates, which will be sent including to authorities with attributions in this field.
The workshop is organized in collaboration with:
Arab Cultural Center in Sibiu – https://centrulculturalarab.com/
Bessarabian Youth Organization in Sibiu – https://www.facebook.com/OTBSibiu/
Sibiu Ukrainian Center – https://www.facebook.com/uasibiu/
Chinese Community in Sibiu