Student Conference at the Senate officially launched International Days Against Racism

The meeting was officially launched by a student conference of the same name, which took place on Tuesday 21 March 2023 at the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic in the Wallenstein Palace in Prague. 

A Senate conference for students

Representatives of minorities, representatives of the state as well as ambassadors of human rights organisations spoke during the conference. The current situation of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic was also discussed.   

„The desire to be independent sometimes causes people to isolate themselves from society and only take care of themselves and their own needs. I am glad to see so many people have gathered here today who do not want to stand aside and who are interested in other people’s rights.” With these words, Joel Ruml, former Synodal Senior of the ECCB and chairman of the Human Rights Committee, welcomed the audience. It was in fact this Committee that came up with the idea to organise already the second edition of this Senate Conference for students from all over the Czech Republic.

Pavel Hošek, a religious scholar from the Protestant Theological Faculty of the Charles University, followed with his contribution to explain why we as Christians should be concerned with human rights at all. He quoted the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but he also used the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan. “The answer to the question ‘who is my neighbour?’, as offered in this story, has one advantage over the UN document: it is not abstract. It is written by life. We can picture the situation, put ourselves in the middle of it. We are not indifferent to what is happening in the story and how it will end. It is a story that can change people’s hearts.” This was Hošek’s suggestion on how to view the topic of human rights. 

Christianity, Hošek said, offers a treasure trove of such stories. Not only the Biblical ones, but also other stories of witnesses to faith throughout history, such as Mother Theresa. “In addition, the story of the Good Samaritan ends with Jesus’ call: ‘go and do likewise’,” stressed Hošek, pointing out that these stories set hearts on fire and motivate action, not as a lofty ideal, but as a very specific, meaningful life objective.

Civic activist David Tišer introduced the topic of multiple discrimination, using the example of Romani people who also belong to the LGBT+ community. “A Roma person who is discriminated against by the majority society can at least find understanding and seek refuge in their family or in the community they live in. But Roma people who are also part of the LGBT+ group are often rejected even by their closest family. If they come out as having a different sexual orientation, they are at risk of being driven away from their family, and even from the region that they had lived in up until then,” warned Tišer. 

Vítězslav Vurst, co-founder of the Michal Velíšek prize, also spoke during the morning session. The ADRA foundation gives this prize to non-professionals who suddenly found themselves in a borderline situation and regardless of the consequences for themselves, they saved somebody’s health or life. The prize was established following the story of an editor for Nova TV who was walking with his baby in a pram in Prague’s Charles Square in September 2005 when he saw a girl that was being attacked. He stood up to protect the girl and the assailant shot him.   

Vurst also emphasised an important fact that many child winners of this prize agreed on: when they were trying to help somebody and they ran out into a public space seeking the help of others, adult passers-by ignored them, refused to help them and continued on quite indifferently.

In the discussion that followed, it was also mentioned that the name of the conference is not only a call for the minority, “don’t be afraid, don’t hide, speak up for your rights!”, but also an appeal to the majority society: “be active in protecting the rights of others. Don’t stand aside, take a stand!”  

Those who did not stand aside

During the afternoon session, the contributions of the individual speakers all lasted under five minutes. The common topic was the endeavour to face danger and to stand up against human rights violations. The organisers focused on the stories of those who did not stand aside but stepped out of their comfort zone to improve something in their environment, to help somebody, to make a difference. 

Among those who took the floor were, in quick succession, protestant pastor Benjamin Roll, who, with the Milion chvilek organisation, once managed to gather over 300,000 protesters at Letná in Prague, awakening people’s interest in politics as a governance tool. There was also Anna Polcková, protestant pastor from Bratislava, whose congregation takes care of various minorities in Slovakia and represents a unique voice of help in this country. Another speaker was Jan Dubový, the rescuer whose ambulance journey to a Ukrainian war zone, where he saved a girl with a disability, resonated in the world media. 

Ladislav Bezděk, laureate of the Michal Velíšek prize, also spoke. He had defended an unknown woman in a parking lot. The attacker stabbed him with a knife several times in the neck and in the back. Bezděk was only able to find help after a long journey and after addressing several indifferent passers-by. Police officer Jan Beran told a similar story: in his spare time, he rescued two people from a burning house, one of whom was confined to a wheelchair. When he arrived at the building, a crowd had already gathered. However, nobody tried to help in any way. People were only watching, filming the scene with their mobile phones or calling their friends to inform them of the situation. 

Robert Netuka, nicknamed “Tukan”, is a poet of the //slam poetry// genre, he has Romani roots and comes from the north of Bohemia. He works for the Refugee Aid Organization and in his speech, he used both his poetic talent and his professional experience. He presented his “poem” written during the Syrian refugee crisis, which turned out not to be a crisis at all. 

Lenka Králová hosts a tv show called V Tranzu, where she talks with her guests about problems related to gender reassignment. She introduced some of the legal obstacles and socially sensitive issues during the conference. 

Jožka Miker, a former miner and determined fighter for human rights, spoke about his help to various groups in society - Roma, Ukrainian refugees, homeless people... Among other things, he talked about his persistent and ultimately successful fight for the abolition of the pig farm on the site of the former Roma concentration camp in Lety u Písku. 

In the next session, Štěpán Vymětal, a psychologist from the Ministry of the Interior, spoke about the psychological mechanisms at work when people are faced with a crisis situation. He provided some tips on what helps overcome our indifference and offer help, stand up for whatever is right. The President of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil, under whose auspices the whole event was held, delivered a similar message. He stressed that we must never listen to the voices of all those who will tell us something is impossible, not worth the trouble or not worth trying. Society moves forward precisely thanks to those who are not discouraged by scepticism and indifference.   

The winners of the second year of the student competition have been announced

Over 140 listeners, mostly elementary and high school students from all over the Czech Republic, were sitting on the Senate benches. The appeal “Don't stand aside...!” was also the topic of a literary and audio-visual competition jointly announced by the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, the Post Bellum organisation and the Albatros Foundation. The participants of the competition formed a significant part of the audience in the Senate because at the very end of the conference, the results were announced and the prizes were awarded to the winners. 

The contestants submitted essays, reflections, short stories, narratives, pictures or even poems. In the end, there were over fifty entries, from which the expert jury selected and awarded a total of 19 works in various age and thematic categories. 

An important part of this year’s event was the participation of Ukrainian refugees. “They’ve been living among us for over a year, they are our classmates, our colleagues, our neighbours. They often bring very sad and difficult stories with them, some of them start from scratch in our country. Despite all that, meeting with them is truly enriching. New friendships are born, they broaden our horizons and teach us to be humbler. As far as it is possible, we try to make sure that they do not stand on the side-lines but live a regular life. And we also keep reminding people that the war in Ukraine is also our cause. That it concerns us, and we cannot ignore the horrors that Russia is committing there,” the organisers explained the motives that led to the participation of Ukrainian students in the competition. 

Their task was to write a letter to their Czech classmates about what it’s like to live here, what they are experiencing and what they would like to tell their Czech friends. 

“Every child experiences the terrible events that are now happening in Ukraine in their own specific way. My daughter did not show any emotions at all, she just remained silent the whole time. After arriving in the Czech Republic, we tried not to remind her of the things that had happened to us, so as not to traumatize her even further. But the decision to participate in the competition was unanimous. Writing the entry gave us an opportunity to talk about everything, to understand our daughter’s feelings, yet in such a creative format… This means a lot to us right now! Thank you!”, one of the mothers wrote to the organisational team. 

Before the results of the competition were announced, security analyst David Stulík, who spent the last ten days before the conference in the war-affected eastern parts of Ukraine, described the current situation and the forecasts of possible developments.

The conference officially launched the International Days Against Racism

The meeting at the Senate marks the official beginning of the International Days Against Racism, which the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren is introducing to the Czech Republic. 

“At the end of the day, standing up openly and clearly against racism helps the whole of society. This way, even the groups that are marginalised can safely and fully participate in it and enrich it with its otherness,” says Mikuláš Vymětal, protestant minister for minorities and the main initiator of the idea of the Days Against Racism.

Similarly to Germany, where this international event comes from, he sees the topic of racism in the broader sense of the word. It is not only about discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin, but also, for example, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, membership of or respect for a minority group, etc. 

The Days Against Racism will consist of dozens of meetings all around the Czech Republic. Apart from thematic services held in congregations belonging to the ECCB and the Hussite church and in other places, there will also be meetings with guests, concerts, discussions, lectures, film screenings, and learning about the customs and traditions of other cultures and minorities. The whole programme can be found at protirasismu.e-cirkev.cz.

And why “against racism”? “It is not easy to talk about racism, but ignoring it means supporting it,” warned Vymětal.

The Conference was financially supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.

Jiří Hofman