The key principle of humanism
Kyiv hosts an exhibit in memory of Andrei Sakharov. It offers another opportunity to ponder one’s legal consciousness and social responsibility.
Sakharov ranked with the world’s outstanding human rights champions during Soviet times, he was an internationally acclaimed thinker, and he left a mind-boggling intellectual legacy that remains to be perceived on a new qualitative level. This is especially true of the post-Soviet countries, particularly Ukraine, considering that people in this country haven’t read all of its books. Sakharov’s philosophical and Weltanschauung views have long taken roots in the European intellectual realm, as evidenced by the exhibit “Andrei Sakharov: Alarm and Hope,” organized in 2009 on the initiative of the Council of
Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg who said that the man inspired human rights champions all over Europe, and that even now Hammarberg was reminded of him when faced with a situation in the human rights domain, asking himself what Sakharov would have done about it.
Before opening in Kyiv, the exhibit made a successful tour of Stockholm, Helsinki, Paris, Warsaw, Lisbon, Moscow, Edinburgh, and other European cities. In Ukraine, it was opened to mark Human Rights Day 2011 (December 10). This exhibit is especially symbolic for Ukraine with its glaring breaches of human rights, particularly in view of recent social and political events. The exposition consists of a series of posters with Sakharov’s quotes concerning famine, inequality, dictatorships, totalitarian regimes, wars, local conflicts, nuclear threat, nuclear tests, intellectual freedom, and preservation of the environment. All these problems remain to be solved, just as solving them requires the presence of new, independent, brave, and intellectually strong personalities.
The roundtable “Reforms in the Human Rights Sphere: Changes for the Sake of Change or Rules of Life?” was held in the context of the exhibit “Andrei Sakharov: Alarm and Hope” at the EU Representation in Kyiv. Among the participants were experts, representatives of pertinent EU-funded projects, government agencies, civic organizations, and media.
Kiril ZHIVOTOVSKY, director of the public organization “European Choice,” said, “An exhibit has opened, dedicated to Andrei Sakharov whose efforts were aimed at overcoming that fear which was hammered into the minds of Soviet people. We are their descendants and we must also overcome this fear.”
Roman ROMANOV, director of the program “Supremacy of Law,” Vidrodzhennia International Foundation: “The development of any independent institutions requires people capable of thinking independently and defending their stands. I think that, apart from legislation, it is also important for a given society to demand an independent and unbiased judicial system, to be aware of the consequences of the judge’s dependent status. The same applies to other institutions. We are getting increasingly distrustful of precisely those entities that must be absolutely independent by definition, ones that secure stability and independence under any political regime.”
This exhibit will function at the EU Information Center, Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University, until January 14.
