Rethinking Humanitarianism – Online Seminar

The Seminar on “Rethinking Humanitarianism” organised by Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece took place online during the months of November-December 2021. The Seminar was implemented in both Greek and English and it was organised around two wider discussions:

Rethinking Human Rights and Democracy (academic coordinator: Andreas Takis)

This subject area purported to explore and address the growing tensions between liberal and democratic elements within actual European polities. These tensions are directly related to current national policies enacted by European states, as well as to a widespread urge for institutional reshaping. Both tend to reshape the landscape of the protection of fundamental rights therein. Such developments have been noted especially in the fields of immigrants’ and refugees’ reception and integration, minorities’ protection and religious tolerance, women’s rights, yet also in more politically sensitive contexts, such as freedom of speech, freedom of (electronic) press, freedom of association, etc. Political theorists and scientists have been hotly debating the last fifteen years on the gradual emergence of new models of governance permeating or even taking over national institutions in the name of the people, national values or the common good and/or in view of a crisis situation. These new models, under the names of “illiberal democracy”, “liberal despotism”, etc., do not merely present themselves as deviations from the established western liberal democratic set up, but rather bear witness of the intensifying tension between liberalism and democratic ideology. The pandemic has simply accelerated procedures and accentuated theoretical and political debates. This makes exploring and debating the prospect of bridging and keeping liberalism and democracy closely connected an imperative for safeguarding fundamental rights in Europe. In this light it would also be of interest to take stock of where a seminal mark for the Council of Europe, the European Social Charter, the most wide-ranging instrument on social rights in Europe, stands. From the gender pay gap to the rights of migrants and unaccompanied children, from older persons’ rights to the right to strike, the Charter has proved a living instrument capable of engaging with a broad diversity of challenges faced by Europeans, and this year marks its 60th anniversary.

Whither refugee rights? (academic coordinator: Eftyhia Voutira)

Drawing from Barbara Harrel-Bond’s seminal book Imposing Aid, this subject area introduced a critique of the humanitarian regime that fundamentally changed how humanitarian organisations work. As international aid reaches operational, financial, and ethical limits, we come to ask which is the relevance of humanitarian principles and responses today? Why are refugee rights being demoted? By whom? And in what ways? Who is responsible for teaching refugee rights? In short, where did refugee rights go wrong?

Keeping in mind what took place in Afghanistan this summer, while most Seminar participants live in Greece, the test case of European responses to forced migration since 2015, are the pinnacles of preventing conflict, mutual and activist aid, decolonising aid and shrinking the scope of the aid sector, enough? From ‘decolonising aid’ to ‘networked humanitarianism’, from the make-up of NGO governance boards to reform of the UN Security Council and the UN Agencies, which are the drivers of change affecting international aid? What do the increasingly protracted and mixed nature of crises, the funding environment and the opportunities offered by digital, imply for the aid industry? What does the aid industry mean for those it is supposed to serve?

The presentations and discussions involved a range of excellent and highly recognized speakers, including high-profile academics and experts.

In particular, the speakers of the subject area “Rethinking Human Rights and Democracy” were: Yannis Stavrakakis, Professor, School of Political Sciences, AUTh; Andreas Takis, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, AUTh; Ifigeneia Kamtsidou, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law, AUTh; Konstantinos Papastathis, Assistant Professor, School of Political Sciences, AUTh; Cengiz Aktar, Political Scientist, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens; Leonidas Makris, Adjunct Professor of Political Theory, Democritus University of Thrace; Thomas Psimmas, PhD Philosophy of Law, Faculty of Law, AUTh; Petros Ioannidis, Political Analyst (www.aboutpeople.gr); Ilias Tsaousakis, Political Analyst; and Despina Syrri, Director, Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network of Schools.

The speakers of the subject area “Whither refugee rights?” were: Eftihia Voutira, Professor of Anthropology of Forced Migration, Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia; Katarzyna Grabska, Senior Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Norway; Visiting Professor, Institute of Ethnology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland; and Chris Dolan, Refugee Law Project, University of Makerere, Uganda.

Programme

Subject area: “Rethinking Human Rights and Democracy”

Subject area: “Wither refugee rights?”

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Live Online Discussions Programme

Subject area: “Wither refugee rights?”

Subject area: “Rethinking Human Rights and Democracy”