Seminar: Human and Civil Rights – Israeli Participant

Date: 28 November – 10 December, 2010, International Academy for Leadership, Gummersbach, Germany

Participant: Ms. Hila Amit

The 12-day seminar entitled ‘Human and Civil Rights’ took place in the period from November 28th – December 10th, 2010 and comprised 25 participants from 19 countries. The seminar was organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty and was conducted at the International Academy of Leadership (IAF) at the Theodor Heuss Academy, in Gummersbach, Germany. I was sent as a member of an Israeli Human Right’s organization: Physicians for humans’ rights-Israel and by the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Jerusalem branch.

What I benefited the most was the opportunity to meet people from very diverse background and have the ability to discuss with them their personal stories. It was interesting to hear about the manifestation of human rights’ violation in other countries then my own. By the end of the two weeks I was able to better understand the situation in my own country, based on the stories that were shared. My main motivation was to discuss these topics with my fellow participant after the hours the seminar took place. Sadly, during most of the seminar itself, discussions were held on a much general understanding of liberal ideas, and there was no time left for actual personal views and presentation of one’s activities in their respected countries.

What I regret the most is the fact that I wasn’t able to communicate with all participants on the safe level. Having participants from a variety of countries is a very important thing, but it created a need for translation and interoperation during all sessions of the seminar, which made everything longer and still hard to understand, sort of “lost in translation”. Also, as I said, the most meaningful conversation took place in the evening, which meant that I couldn’t even discuss most issues with the majority of people. There was a group of 10 members, Russian speakers and Arabic speakers, which barely could speak a word English. In addition, some other participants as well, from China and other countries, did not have a translator and their English was too broken that I couldn’t go into a meaningful discussion with. I think it’s important to bring together people from all over the world, but it shouldn’t be over-looking the main object of the seminar.

One of the purposes of the seminar was to discuss human and civil rights in relation to liberalism. The IAF was established by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a foundation very well known for its liberal politics, and almost all participants considered themselves as liberals. As the seminar proceeded, what confused the participants the most was not the human and civil rights issues but the principles of liberalism. At one point, one of the participants even said that he had been considered himself a liberal but if liberalism was what it was implied during the discussions then, he was not a liberal at all. This confusion about the principles of liberalism was always a part of the discussions throughout the seminar. Not being very clear on and not being able to agree on the principles of liberalism always made it harder for the participants to discuss secularism, universality of human rights and other issues related to human rights. Upon the insistent request of the participants, even though it was not part of the program, a presentation on liberalism was given by one of the moderators, Mr. Arno Keller. After the presentation, I came to think that the reason of the confusion was that people valued different aspects of liberalism with different degrees.

This became clearer to me while discussing the human rights violations and their economic and social effects. The discussion was divided into three sub-topics: the right to education, the right to work and the rights to association and peaceful assembly. Most of the participants, including me, believed that it was the State to ensure that citizens were practicing their rights to education, to work and to association and peaceful assembly. However, during the presentation on liberalism we were told that in a liberal system, it was the individual responsibility to ensure the practice of these rights. The State was expected only to make sure that people are given equal rights. In this case, it can be seen that many of the participants did not value individual responsibility as much as the moderators and this created a disagreement while discussing the human rights violations and their economic and social effects.

For conclusion, to put aside what I had mentioned about the communication difficulties, I would say I had a very inspiring and motivational experience, I am very happy I had the chance to participate. I am still In contact with some of the participants and I do share with them my view of on going political world-wide issues. It a great opportunity for members of the NGOs community around the world, and I feel very lucky for given that opportunity.

Hila Amit

Tel-Aviv, Israel