Guests: Erik Tabery, editor-in-chief of the weekly Respekt, Jiří Pehe, political scientist and commentator, Jaroslav Šebek, historian focused on the history of Czech political parties at the Institute of History at the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Chaired by Andrea Procházková.

The debate is organised by Názorování in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library and the Paseka publishing house.

Which philosophical questions most interested Havel? Where is his legacy seen today? What was the so-called Kampademie, and who were its members? Whom did Václav base himself on, whom was he most inspired by, and whom does he inspire today? What is the invited guests’ relationship to Václav’s philosophy? How did the dissent and communism influence him and them?

The book will be “baptised” by Lenka Bradáčová, while Dáša Vokatá and Oldřich Kaiser will provide musical accompaniment.

Renata Klusáková will moderate the evening and host a talk with the two women.

12.30 – 14.00
The Migration Crisis and the Western Balkans: Stability vs. Democracy

Since 2015 the migration crisis has brought to Central Europe not just a change of social and political context; more than anything else, it has also pointed to the far-ranging problems of the Balkans states. These are deep-seated problems, reminiscent of authoritarian regimes far removed from democratic government. A central role is played by omnipresent corruption and the centralisation of decision-making powers in the hands of a narrow group of rulers, blurring the boundary between what is regarded as legal behaviour and an accepted grey zone.

Debate participants: Michal Vít, researcher, Europeum, CR, Zora Hesová, research analyst, Association for International Affairs, CR, Marie Heřmanová, project coordinator, Open Society Fund, ČR, Natalia Žaba, journalist, translator, Balkan Forum, Serbia.

The event is being held in cooperation with the Europeum Institute for European Policy.

14.30 – 16.00
Disinformation, Populism vs. Fact-Checking

Russia is in many regards testing the ground in Ukraine, and the battle against Russian propaganda remains one of contemporary Ukraine’s main problems. However, just as dangerous is the populism of Ukrainian politicians. How is Ukraine dealing with these challenges? And what has been the Czech Republic’s response?

The event is taking place in cooperation with Association for International Affairs.

17.00 – 18.30
The Rule of Law in Europe Under Pressure

In a period of growing political nationalism and incomplete transformations, cross-border cooperation between pro-democracy minded actors is more important in the post-communist region than elsewhere. The discussion will explore current trends in the area of reinforcing the rule of law and in particular strategies for supporting those efforts at the national and international level.

The event is taking place in cooperation with the CEELI Institute.

15.00 – 16.30
Is the CR focused toward the West, or toward the East? Internal Politics, International Orientation, Economy, Media

In some sections of society in the Czech Republic, there is a growing inclination toward the Russian and Chinese authoritarian regimes, while mistrust of classic liberal democracy and scepticism toward traditional politics is also on the rise. Efforts have been made to oligarchise politics and to bring together political, economic and media power. Can this explosive mixture threaten the democratic foundation of the Czech Republic? And if so, how can it be withstood?

19.00 – 20.30
Media and Politics: Who Controls Whom?

Alongside the executive, legislative and judicial powers, the media is usually regarded as the fourth estate in society. Is that still the case? How has the situation changed since influential business-political groups started buying up media outlets? And does public service media have a chance of maintaining its independence and critical distance?

Guests: Hana Marvanová, lawyer, Svobodu médiím!, Adam Černý, chairman, Czech Syndicate of Journalists, Martin Vadas, former editor-in-chief, Czech Television, chairman, FITES, Jan Payne, neurologist, university teacher, Svobodu médiím! Moderator: Daniel Raus, journalist, writer.

The event is being held in cooperation with Svobodu médiím!, a platform advocating media independence and plurality.

The shortlist of this year's Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

• Murat Arslan (Turkey) The nominee, in detention since 2016, is a well-known and reputed judge. President of the now dissolved Association for the Union of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV), he has always been a supporter of the independence of the judiciary. 
• Hungarian Helsinki Committee A non-governmental human rights organisation founded in 1989 and based in Budapest, it carries out a broad range of activities in the area of human rights with a particular focus on access to justice and the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons.
• Father Georg Sporschill (Austria) A Jesuit who has devoted his life to the care of the most vulnerable, notably children. He has set up an association (Elijah) which carries out numerous projects in Austria, Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova and  Romania.

Previous Laureates of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

• 2016 Nadia Murad (Iraq) A young, brave Yazidi woman, who managed to flee ISIS in northern Iraq. Today a human rights activist, she brings the plight of the Yazidi community, in particular the forced sexual enslavement and human trafficking of women and children captured by ISIS, to the forefront of international attention.   
• 2015 Lyudmila Aexeyeva (Russia) is a veteran human rights defender in her native Russia. In her youth, she gave up a promising academic career to join the Soviet dissident movement, going on to become a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Forced to emigrate to the US in 1977, she returned to Russia in 1989 to continue her work, becoming President of the International Helsinki Foundation and later joining the Russian President’s Commission on Human Rights. She has worked relentlessly for the protection and promotion of the rule of law.
• 2014 Anar Mammadli (Azerbaijan) is a renowned Azerbaijani human rights defender who has made a marked contribution to the respect of human rights and free elections in his region. He is founder and chairman of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS), which since 2001 has monitored votes in Azerbaijan. In December 2013, Anar Mammadli was charged with “abuse of office” and in May 2014 was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. 
• 2013 Ales Bialiatski (Belarus) From the start of the 1980s, Ales Bialiatski, a young Belarusian writer and graduate of the Gomel University Faculty of History and Philology, joined the national democratic movement. While the world was still divided by the Iron Curtain, he became a founding member of the Belarusian Popular Front. Helping to create a young writers’ association that he chaired for several years, Ales went on to join the Belarusian Writers’ Union. Later, he organised the first demonstrations against totalitarianism.This commitment led to his imprisonment in 1988, marking the start of a long series of arrests and harassment. In 1996, in the face of the increasing repression of the Lukachenko regime, Ales Bialiatski created the Human Rights Centre Viasna. In 2007, just three years after joining International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Ales Bialiatski was elected its Vice-President, the first representative of the former Soviet countries to be elected to the FIDH International Board.  

The list of invited speakers includes

José Maria Aznar (Spain), Irwin Cotler (Canada), David Eubank (USA), Marcel Gauchet (France), Marcel Gauchet (France), Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (Germany), Olga Lomová (Czech Republic), Joshua Muravchik (USA), Martin Palouš (Czech Republic), Grigorij Pasko (Russia), Rosa María Payá (Cuba), Tomáš Pojar (Czech Republic), Peter Pomerantsev (United Kingdom / Russia), Adam Roberts (United Kingdom), Eva Romancovová (Czech Republic), Karel Schwarzenberg (Czech Republic), Jiří Šitler (Czech Republic), Martin Veselovský (Czech Republic), Annie Yang (China), Lubomír Zaorálek (Czech Republic)

Many people today are suffering from a crisis of identity. The open world appears ever more complicated, there is a surfeit of information and people are losing their grasp on it. Is this the cause of a falloff in trust in traditional institutions and democracy? And how is this connected with growing calls for strong leaders? Come and debate these issues.

The event is being held in cooperation with the Institute for Christian Democratic Politics and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

Symposium held on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Zdeněk Urbánek – a poet of the type of Jiří Orten or Ivan Blatný, an essayist, singular prose writer and distinctive translator of Anglo-American literature, including William Shakespeare, one of the first signatories of Charter 77, a recipient of the Righteous Among Nations honorific and a good man.

The book will be presented by Orly Castel-Bloom and Hana Ullmanová from Charles University’s Faculty of Arts.

Introduction by Michael Žantovský.

Interpreting into Czech provided.

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Garamond publishing house and the Embassy of the State of Israel.

In reality it is necessary to go back a further 10 years, to a period when the neo-Stalinist regime underwent a gradual liberalisation that led to fundamental social and cultural changes. The emerging generation defined themselves in opposition to the establishment in a different way. Among the most visible, and loudest, of them was the literal explosion of rock bands and the (then) shocking fashion among young men for wearing long hair. Not just Western music, crossing the Iron Curtain via radio receivers, but literature and above all literature, in particular of the beatnik variety, left an indelible mark on the mentality of the young. Efforts to reform the domestic economy and outstanding achievements in the field of cinematography (the New Wave) took place against the backdrop of turbulent period internationally. These and other aspects of the 1960s will be the focus of a conference at which the speakers will include Petr Blažek, Barbora Bothová, Jan Blüml, Petr Kopal, Ladislav Kudrna, Josef Rauvolf, František Stárek Čuňas, Michal Stehlík and Martin Valenta.

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.

Confirmed guests: Jan Čižinský, mayor of Prague 7, Jan Snopek, representative of Platform for Social Housing, Martin Freund (Žít Brno), informal member of the Brno local authority, member of the Commission for Housing of the Brno city council and chairman of the Committee for National Minorities ZMB and Adam Fialík, head of IQ Roma servis programme.

The evening is being co-organised by the Václav Havel Library and the Committee of Good Will – Olga Havlová Foundation.

A Harvard University graduate, she explores Canadian literature and national identity in her academic work. She is the author of numerous short stories, novels, poetry collections and children’s books.

Among her works are the psychological novel Life Before Man (1979), The Robber Bride (1993), The Blind Assassin (2000), the social sci-fi Oryx and Crake (2003), Hag-Seed (2016) and the short story collections Bluebeard’s Egg (1983) and The Tent (2006).

Her best-known work is the “speculative” novel set in the near future The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), which this year was turned into a TV series.

Margaret Atwood is the recipient of numerous Canadian and international awards, including the Man Booker Prize for 2000.

The evening with the author is taking place in cooperation with the Franz Kafka Society and on the occasion of her receipt of the international Franz Kafka Prize.

Michael Žantovský will host the event.

Simultaneous interpreting provided.

The discussion with Ivan M. Havel and the publication’s author Jana Wohlmuth Markupová’s will be helmed by Miroslav Vaněk, director of the Institute for Contemporary History.

The Václav Havel Library in cooperation with the Karolinum publishing house.

Zdeněk Velíšek’s book Oni zblízka, my pod drobnohledem (Them Up Close, Us Under the Microscope) was mostly written in 2016, when the flood of refugees entering Europe reached a climax and, simultaneously, the responses of European nations and governments to the unexpected situation began to differ. Here in the Czech Republic all we perceived was a crowd, rarely faces. In particular when fences were erected between “us” and “them”. We were unable to respond to the sense of threat either by highlighting the experience of migrants on our territory or with information regarding their nascent integration in neighbouring states. Next to nothing was written about that, prompting the author to set off for nearby countries to gather knowledge at first hand and then pen a testimony about immigration and integration that might not be definitive but would be objective. Aspects of the book serve as a warning. Others show that migrants are not changing the identity of Europe and are not visibly striving to Islamisize it.

On the occasion of the publication of the book, which is subtitled A testimony about migration and integration, Zdeněk Velíšek and his guests will share their experiences and views.

Górecki will also discuss with political scientist Ondřej Ditrych the reasons that Central Europe ought to try to understand the Caucasus and how Czech and Polish relations differ in the post-Soviet space.

Wojciech Górecki is a journalist, historian and analyst. He has worked at the Polish Embassy in Baku, was a member of an EU expert team investigating the circumstances of the war in Georgia and works at the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW). He has published several books of journalism centred on the Caucasus. A Toast to the Ancestors has come out in Czech on the Dokořán a Jaroslava Jiskrová — Máj imprint in a translation by Michala Benešová and Barbora Gregorová.

The publication of the book received support within the Czech-Polish Forum project, financed by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In cooperation with the magazine Demokratický střed.

Another in a series of discussions presenting contemporary Polish reporters organised by the Polish Institute in Prague and the Václav Havel Library.

What were the living conditions of society and the church under the one-party rule that gave rise to the Charter 77 social movement, which found among Christians many sympathisers and signatories, several spokespersons and a great many selfless servants? Meeting with dissident and (in 1980–1981) Charter 77 spokesman Miloš Rejchrt.

The evening will also feature the presentation of the book Cesta církve – VIII. díl (The Path of the Church – Part VIII), which delivers documents on Christians’ contribution to the Charter movement and the changes that finally led to the transformation of society and the non-violent Velvet Revolution in 1989.