October 20, 2023 at 11.15-12.00 in room no. 1.9 of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Siedlce, the inaugural lecture on our project took place. It was titled "Human rights - a worn-out anachronism or an unused challenge" and was delivered by Professor Arkadiusz Indraszczyk.
During the lecture, information about the goals and methods of implementing our project was provided, as well as a few words about the Jean Monnet Programme. However, the main content of the lecture was to provoke reflection on the validity (or not) of promoting human rights in the modern world. The speaker presented how past societies, starting from Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, through the period of the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Ages of Light and Enlightenment, fought for their rights and tried to establish them in the legal systems of that time. It was noted, that since the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789, the process of introducing human rights into constitutional orders began, which lasted until the 1920s, when, after World War I, most constitutions of European countries guaranteed the implementation of the basic, political human rights. The speaker emphasized the time after World War II when the United Nations and the Council of Europe began to create extensive human rights protection systems, and today we are dealing with a well-functioning human rights system/systems in the domestic and international area. So why continue talking about them? According to the speaker, firstly, human rights around the world are either violated or not respected, secondly, new conditions of human life are emerging, for example the emergence of the Internet, which require the construction of new human rights, thirdly, some human rights can be interpreted differently than for example, a hundred years ago, and some - especially in the field of social and economic rights - are difficult to implement and interpreted very differently. Finally, the speaker stated that to maintain and develop human rights, it is necessary to: develop democracy, maintain common values at the international level, and educate on the importance of human rights for the life of a modern citizen.
