Peace Institute Newsletter, January 2015

Welcome to the second issue of the Newsletter of the Peace Institute – Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia!

“In the name of the people: racism, populism and discrimination”

The public forum “In the name of the people: racism, populism and discrimination” took place in Ljubljana on 19 November 2014. Drawing a diverse national audience that included experts, students, NGO representatives, as well as police and governmental actors responsible for tackling discrimination and hate crime, the forum was an opportunity for a public debate about racism in contemporary societies.

Effective Activism – A Bilateral Exchange of Croatian and Slovenian Activists

More than 30 (mostly NGO) activists from Croatia and Slovenia with guests from Iceland, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia actively exchanged their experiences, knowledge and ideas.

“Anti-corruption in the media systems in South East Europe” - Conference

SEE Media Observatory gathered key actors to discuss potentials for building anti-corruption frameworks on national and regional level in order to systematically address corruption in the media systems, and protect and promote media integrity.

“Your turn to stop racism ”

The Peace Institute is an active part of the LIGHT ON project’s activation against racism across Europe. A video and other useful materials are now available online in five European languages, including a Training Manual on Investigating and Reporting Online Hate Speech, Anti-Racism Toolkit, Visual Database of Racist and Discriminatory Symbols and Images, and Glossary of Racist Terms and Expressions.

Work and the Challenges of Belonging: Migrants in Globalizing Economies

This book, edited by Mojca Pajnik, senior Peace Institute researcher, and Floya Anthias, professor at the University of East London, engages with migrant work in globalizing economies, both in the EU and worldwide, to explore the relationships between work and the complexity of migrant belonging in transnational spaces. Migrant experiences related to global labour market structures are understood in the context of transnational and national policy frames that largely determine the production of migrant work as poorly paid, precarious, and accompanied by low status and inadequate social protection.

Statelessness in Slovenia - What does National Law Say?

The Peace Institute was invited to the Symposium on Statelessness held by UNHCR and Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, to address the national legal framework on the prevention and reduction of statelessness. Neža Kogovšek Šalamon, PI Director, discussed legal issues and called for legislative amendments as well as for the Slovenia’s ratification of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Nation-wide Consultation Assembly regarding the establishment of a “Anti-Hate Speech Council” in Slovenia

The purpose of this cross-sectorial meeting among experts, NGOs and public bodies was to discuss the best avenues of addressing hate speech in Slovenia.

Human Rights Day: NGO press conference

On the eve of the International Human Rights Day (10 December 2014) a coalition of NGOs organized a press conference to warn about the negative trend in the human rights situation in Slovenia.

Neža Kogovšek Šalamon, Peace Institute Director, Re-elected as Pasos Board Member

Pasos – Policy Association for an Open Society – is an international network of policy centres and think tanks working in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. At the Pasos general assembly in Warsaw on 13 December 2014, Pasos delegates re-elected the Institute’s director as a board member for the second term.

Upcoming

• Regional EU award scheme for investigative journalism in Western Balkans and Turkey (project coordinated by the Peace Institute) will be launched in February/March 2015 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, to reward on behalf of the EU those journalists who have contributed through their work to transparency and reporting on societal issues related to abuse of power, corruption and organized crime.

• As a conclusion of project RAGE the Peace Institute, together with project coordinator The College of Social Science of University of Leicester and six European universities, is organizing an International Conference on “Populist Shifts, Rise of Extreme Right and ‘Othering’ in Europe: Challenges and Anti-discrimination Strategies”, EESC in Brussels, March 2, 2015. Contact: vt60@leicester.ac.uk.

• In February the Peace Institute will commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the erasure (which took place on 26 February 1992) by organizing a public event in Ljubljana. More details will be available here.

• Mojca Pajnik, PI senior researcher, will speak at an international conference “Domestic Workers in the Countries of Central Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union: Postsocialist Migrations and Inequalities”, Saint Petersburg, 24-26 April 2015.

• A press conference will be held on 29 January 2015 in Ljubljana to present and launch the “Council to Respond to Hate Speech” – an independent body of engaged individuals to open up public debate and thus contribute to countering hate speech.

About the Peace Institute

The Peace Institute is a private independent non-profit research institution founded in 1991 by individuals who believed in peaceful conflict resolution, equality and respect for human rights standards. The institute develops interdisciplinary research, educational and advocacy activities aimed at creating and preserving open society capable of critical thought and based on the principles of equality, responsibility, solidarity, human rights and the rule of law. The Institute operates in areas of social sciences, humanities and law, in five thematic fields: human rights and minorities, politics, media, gender and cultural policies. It acts as an ally of vulnerable groups and acts against discrimination in partnership with them.