Events

The Jefferson Institute assembled a group of twenty one civil society activists spanning a region from Belarus to Kyrgyzstan to attend the 2011 HDIM in Warsaw.  The majority of participants are established human rights defenders active in the use of new media who are in the position to train their up and coming colleagues and provide a much needed NGO voice to the OSCE discussion on themes of fundamental freedoms, rule of law, tolerance and non-discrimination, election observation, and various humanitarian issues.

At the conference, where the focus was on the role of civil society in the protection of human rights, several participants conducted lively and productive interventions. Avetik Ishkhanyan, from the Helsinki Committee in Armenia, raised the issue of the increasing difficulty of holding peaceful protests and demonstrations in Yerevan despite the adoption of a law that allowed for freedom of assembly earlier this year. Dmitri Makarov and Dmitry Kabak questioned the safety and privacy of new media activists at a side event on Fundamental Freedoms in the Digital Age organized by the US delegation. 

On the margins of the conference, several of the participants participated at a peaceful protest calling for the release of the recently imprisoned Belarusian human rights defender, Ales Bialiatski.  His brave work in assisting victims of political repression in Europe’s last dictatorship was cut short by his imprisonment on alleged charges of tax evasion.  His status has been a dominant theme of the conference and one that the participants have emotionally adopted as their cause.

The activists that were brought to participate have already left their imprint on the conference and judging from these early days of the HDIM, appear set to continue with their inspiring and often provocative contributions.