Toleration and Tolerance MODELS, METAMORPHOSES AND IMPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 18-20 October 2012 Villa Decius

Tolerance begins with each of us, every day

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General

The Toleration and Tolerance. Models, Metamorphoses and Implications conference is a joint initiative of the Villa Decius Association and the History of Ideas Research Centre of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

Organised as a part of the Villa Decius’ prestigious cycle of debates devoted to the Idea of Freedom (since 2005), this year’s conference will focus on the question of tolerance, its nature and contemporary practice.

Remembering that tolerance is not a law but barely permission for “the Other” to exist, that it cannot be imposed upon or forced to be adhered to, we will ask the participants of the conference how to promote and practice it effectively in our communities.

We will also address those critics of tolerance who question its very notion stating that it assumes the authority relationship between those who tolerate and those who are tolerated, and then search for alternative terms. Maybe such a term could be the notion of “respect”, which does not carry connotations of permission based on superiority or power. Yet, does not “respect” sound strange in the political discourse of the Western World.

The conference will close by looking to the future in the context of the contemporary scene, where increasing social, economic and financial tensions challenge the existing rules of co-existence and cultural values for the entire globalised world.

The programme of the conference combines debates and discussions with contributions from human rights experts, representatives of academic, political and cultural milieu, NGOs, public administration, media, and lectures by:

Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian feminist, writer and physician, leading activist for human rights, repeatedly persecuted and imprisoned for her activities. One of the most widely translated contemporary Egyptian writers. Visiting professor of many universities including: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Sorbonne.

Unni Wikan, Norwegian anthropologist (field work in Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Indonesia, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea). Her books were translated into several languages, including: Japanese, Arabic, Kurdish. A noble promoter of human rights and contributor to the debate on value conflicts in multicultural societies.

Josep Ramoneda, philosopher and writer. Founder and director of the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (till 2011). Regular contributor to El País and to radio SER. President of the Institut de Recherche et d'Innovation in Paris. Author of Apología del presente, Después de la pasión política, Del tiempo condensado, and Contra la indiferencia.

László Rájk, architect, designer. Lecturer at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. Former dissident, founder of Samizdat Boutique and co-founder of an underground AB Publishing House. Member of Hungarian Parliament (1990-96). Former advisor to National Committee of UNESCO. Since 2003 advisor to the European Commission.

Toleration and Tolerance

MODELS, METAMORPHOSES AND IMPLICATIONS

PROGRAMME

18 October

9.00-9.30 am

Registration

9.30-10.00 am

Welcome and opening of the conference

Prof. Aleksander Koj, Chairman of Villa Decius Association 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksander_Koj

Magdalena Sroka, Deputy Mayor of Krakow

Jacek Krupa, Member of the Board of Malopolska Region

Małgorzata Bywanis-Jodlińska, Director General of Malopolska Regional Office

10.00-10.45 am

Opening lecture: Creativity, Revolution and Women. Justice, Peace and Tolerance. Freedom and Dignity

Nawal El Saadawi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawal_El_Saadawi

11.00-12.30 pm

Debate 1: Tolerance: Models and Practices

Meaning and understanding of tolerance

Universal values and local practice

Code of tolerance

Experts: Sister Raphael, Michael Daxner, Ustün Ergüder

Moderator: Krzysztof Bobiński

12.30-1.00 pm

Break

1.00-1.30 pm

Special Lecture: Limits of Tolerance

Unni Wikan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unni_Wikan

1.30-3.00 pm

Debate 2: Tolerance: Metamorphoses and implications

Facing social, economic and political challenges

Competition of cultural models

Citizenship responsibilities and rights

Experts: Dominika Kasprowicz, Hywel Ceri Jones, Peter Ripken

Moderator: Wojciech Przybylski

3.00-3.45 pm

Break

Language: English, Polish

Simultaneous translation:

Xymena Pietraszek-Płatek

Bartosz Krajka

Blog:

Polish: Joanna Kryńska, Warsaw

English: Michael Green, Cork

Arabic: Kareem Amer, Alexandria

French: Henri Kowalewicz, Luxemburg

CEREMONY OF AWARDING

THE POLISH PRIZE OF SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO

THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (2002–2003)

4.00-6.00 pm

Welcome:

Danuta Glondys, Director of the Villa Decius Association

Irena Wóycicka, Undersecretaryof State, Chancellery of the President of Poland http://www.president.pl/en/cabinet/irena-woycicka/

Magdalena Sroka, Deputy Mayor of Krakow

Opening:

Ernest Zienkiewicz, Director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office in Warsaw

Pery Machado, Minister-Counselor, Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil to Poland

I.         Announcement from the session of the Panel of Judges of the Polish Prize of Sergio Vieira de Mello

HE Staffan Herrström, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Poland http://blog.swedenabroad.se/poland/

II.        Justification of the verdict of the Panel of Judges in a category Person

Irena Wóycicka, Undersecretary of State, Chancellery of the President of Poland

Awarding the Statuette of Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Diploma

Speech by the Laureate

III.     Justification of the verdict of the Panel of Judges in a category Nongovernmental Organisation

Krystyna Żurek, Director of Department of United Nations and Human Rights, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Awarding the Statuette of Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Diploma

Speech by the Laureate

IV.     Justification of the verdict of the Panel of Judges in the special category Honorary Prize

Marian Ćwiertniak, President of Orlen Oil Company

Awarding the Statuette of Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Diploma

Speech by the Laureate

The ceremony will be attended by representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Ambassadors of both Brazil and Sweden to Poland, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Polish Ombudsman, Consular Corps, Institute of National Remembrance, Sponsors of the Prize, Regional and Municipal authorities and Laureates’ guests.

Language: English, Polish

Simultaneous translation:

Xymena Pietraszek-Płatek

Bartosz Krajka

Blog:

Polish: Joanna Kryńska, Warsaw

English: Michael Green, Cork

Arabic: Kareem Amer, Alexandria

French: Henri Kowalewicz, Luxemburg

DEBATES

19 October

9.00 am-3.00 pm

Introduction:

In Western tradition the history of discovering otherness, difference and strangeness is long, lined with thorns and measured in the cycles of wars waged, pogroms organised, and gallows and stakes raised. The blood-soaked confrontation of major collective identities has been accompanied by the brutal histories of the exclusion of minority groups.

In the 15^th century, alternative solutions to conquest and exclusion in encounters with otherness emerged for the first time. It was a concept elaborated on by a rector of University of Krakow, Paulus Vladimiri. Defined as ‘tolerance’, it would grow to the rank of a value not only of the Enlightenment, but also of what we proudly refer to as “the culture of the Western World”.

9.00-9.30 am

Key note speech: The Colour of my Dreams

Josep Ramoneda http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/josep-ramoneda

9.30-11.30 am

Debate 1: Tolerance: Models and Practices

Introduction: Helmut Pulte

Gunter Scholtz, Alte und neue Grenzen der Toleranz

André Crepin, La tolérance dans l’Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum de Bède (731)

Danielle Buschinger, Juifs et musulmans dans la littérature médiévale allemande: tolérance ou intolérance? Quelques aspects

Roy Rosenstein,˝No.m platz˝, car ˝fort m’enoia˝: ceux que les troubadours ne tolèrent pas dans les enuegs

Anna Kukułka-Wojtasik, Tolerance et la foi. Image des Sarrazins et d'autres infideles dans la litterature des XIIe-XIIIe siecles

Michel Henri Kowalewicz, Paulus Vladimiri: Duldung und Toleranz als Doktrin der Weltpolitik

11.30 am-1.00 pm

break

1.00-3.00 pm

Debate 2: Tolerance: Metamorphoses and Implications

Introduction: Riccardo Campa, Michel Henri Kowalewicz

Helmut Pulte, Toleration in sciences

Larissa Cain, Tolérance et Action: Tadeusz Pankiewicz, Irena Adamowicz

Isabelle Weill, Les limites de la tolérance dans la Cronica du moine franciscain Salimbene Adam, un franciscain du XIIIème siècle

Martine Yvernault, La chair et le texte: peindre ou incarner le Juif

Paweł Dybel, Concepts of toleration in liberal tradition and tolerance as an element of social Lebenswelt

Magdalena Revue, Bundeswehr et tolérance, un long chemin

Language: French/German/English

Translation only of the key note speech: French – Polish

Debates broadcast for public

Blog:

Polish: Joanna Kryńska, Warsaw

English: Michael Green, Cork

Arabic: Kareem Amer, Alexandria

French: Henri Kowalewicz, Luxemburg

ROUND TABLE

TOLERANCE: FACING SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHALLENGES

20 OCTOBER

9.00-12.00

Introduction:

The attractiveness of culture and the wealth of the Western World seem incontestable. They remain unbothered by faltering economies and finances. Yet, this attractiveness challenges the Western World with a cultural trial, which derives from economic expansion, demographic structure and intensifying migration. Living next door to “the Other” proves to be a mutual test and a moment of critical cultural choice both on an individual and a group level.

What will the future look like? Will the increasing social, economic and financial tensions in the Western World destroy already weak rules of co-existence of cultural models and values on the continent? Or will the real change come only in economic confrontation with other than Western cultures, leading to cultural metamorphoses and emergence of new forms of society based on respect and far-reaching tolerance?

Key note speech: Limits of Tolerance and Democracy

László Rájk

Moderators: Krzysztof Bobiński, Danuta Glondys, Wojciech Przybylski

Participants:

Kareem Amer, blogger, Egypt

Krzysztof Bobiński, President of Unia&Polska Foundation

Danielle Buschinger, Professor, Université de Picardie Jules-Verne, France

Larissa Cain, physician and historian, France

Riccardo Campa, professor, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Alexis Chatahtinsky, Consul General of France in Krakow

André Crepin, Professor, Institut de France, France

Michael Daxner, Professor, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Paweł Dybel, Professor, University of Warsaw, Poland

Ustün Ergüder, Professor, Istanbul Policy Center, Sabanci University, Turkey

Danuta Glondys, Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, Director of the Villa Decius Association, Poland

Jarosław Górniak, Professor, Jagiellonian University, Poland

HE Staffan Herrström, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Poland

Hywel Ceri Jones, former Director General of the European Commission, United Kingdom

Dominika Kasprowicz, Ph.D. in Political Science, Pedagogical University of Krakow, Poland

Aleksander Koj, Professor, former Rector of Jagiellonian University, Chair of the Villa Decius Association, Poland

Małgorzata Kossowska, Profesor, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Michel Henri Kowalewicz, Professor, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Anna Kukułka-Wojtasik, Professor, University of Warsaw, Poland

Jan Piekło, Director of the Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation, Poland

Wojciech Przybylski, Editor-in-chief of Res Publica Nowa, Poland

Helmut Pulte, Professor, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

Sister Raphael (Urszula Nałęcz), Franciscan, missionary, Rwanda-Poland

László Rájk, Professor, Színház- és Filmművészeti (University of Theatre and Film Arts), Hungary

Josep Ramoneda, Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain

Magdalena Revue, Professor, Ecoles Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan, France

Peter Ripken, Chair of the Board of the International Cities of Refuge Network, Norway

Roy Rosenstein, Professor, Université Américaine de Paris, France

Nawal el Saadawi, Professor, human rights defender, Egypt

Gunter Scholtz, Professor, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

Isabelle Weill, Professor, Universite Paris-Nanterre, France

Unni Wikan, Professor, Universitetet i Oslo, Norway

Martine Yvernault, Professor, Université de Limoges, France

Language: English

Debate broadcast for public

Blog:

Polish: Joanna Kryńska, Warsaw

English: Michael Green, Cork

Arabic: Kareem Amer, Alexandria

French: Henri Kowalewicz, Luxemburg