Legal Settlement of Communist Crimes – conference programme | Platform of European Memory and Conscience

5 June, 2012
European Parliament, Brussels
Room PHS 7 C 50

8.30
Welcome and Greetings

8.45
Opening speech
Prof. Jerzy Buzek, MEP (PL), former President of the European Parliament

Audio recording (Sandra Kalniete, Jerzy Buzek); 17 MB, mp3

9.00 – 10.30
Crimes of Communism – why does Europe need to do more?
(The moral and legal obligation to provide international legal settlement for the Communist crimes)
Chair: Sandra Kalniete, MEP, Chairwoman, Reconciliation of European Histories group (LV)

Communism and its crimes – overcoming history dialectics – Dr. Ján Čarnogurský, former Prime Minister of Slovakia (SK)
Communist crimes without statutory limitations – Dr. Martin Alm, Department of history, Aarhus University (DK)
Prosecuting Communist crimes – Polish experience – Dr. Łukasz Kamiński, President, Institute of National Remembrance (PL)
Legal and political constraints in prosecuting the Communist crimes in Romania – Dr. Raluca Grosescu, Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (RO)
Initiative ”Declaration 2012“ – Dr. Zdeněk Boháč (90), leader of the initiative (CZ)

Audio recording (Sandra Kalniete, Ján Čarnogurský, Martin Alm, Łukasz Kamiński, Raluca Grosescu, Zdeněk Boháč, discussion); 88.6 MB, mp3

10.30-11.00 coffee break

11.00-12.30
Cases with European-wide relevance
(Crimes against humanity committed under the Communist regimes transcending national borders)
Chair: György Schöpflin, MEP (HU)

The Berlin Wall shootings as a precedent – Prof. Egils Levits, Judge at the European Court of Justice (LV)
Killings along the Iron Curtain – Miroslav Lehký, Ján Langoš Foundation (SK)
Forced assimilation of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria in the 1980s – Vasil Kadrinov, Faculty of Philosophy, St. Kliment Ohridski University, Sofia (BG)
Mass deportations of civilians and their qualification under international law – Prof. Lauri Mälksoo, University of Tartu (EE)
Mass killings, torture, mass graves in the EU – Dr. Jernej Letnar Černič, European Faculty of Law (Sl)

Audio recording (György Schöpflin, Egils Levits, Miroslav Lehký, Vasil Kadrinov, Lauri Mälksoo, Jernej Letnar Černič, discussion); 79 MB, mp3

12.30 – 14.00 lunch

14.00-15.30
International justice for the Communist crimes
(What could the new institution of international justice look like?)
Chair: Tunne Kelam, MEP (EE)

Transnational reinforcement of the prosecution of international crimes – Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Albin Eser, Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg, former Judge at the ICTY (DE)
Considerations on jurisdictional aspects of the International Criminal Court – Renata Vaišvilienė, LLM, Faculty of Law, Vilnius University (LT)
Coming to terms with communist crimes in the EU framework – dawn of a new court? – Prof. Frank Meyer, Institute of Law , University of Zürich (CH)
Seeking justice for international crimes abroad: the use of universal jurisdiction – Juergen Schurr, LLM, REDRESS (UK)

Audio recording (Tunne Kelam, Albin Eser, Renata Vaišvilienė, Frank Meyer, Juergen Schurr, discussion); 97.8 MB, mp3

15.30-16.00 coffee break

16.00-17.30
The next steps toward international justice – panel discussion
(What is needed to establish the new institution of justice? Which political steps to take?)
Chair: Göran Lindblad, President, Platform of European Memory and Conscience (SE)

Members of the European Parliament
Prof. Jan Rydel, Chair of the Steering committee, European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (PL)
Dr. Gabriel Toggenburg , LLM, Programme Manager – Legal research, equality and citizens’ rights department, Fundamental Rights Agency (AT)
Vincent Depaigne, JUST. C.1: Fundamental rights and rights of the child, Directorate General Justice, European Commission (BE)
Matevž Pezdirc , LLM, Secretariat to the Network for investigation and prosecution of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (NL)