Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights
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INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS Organized in Prague on March 7–9, 2019 Anglo-American University, Czech Republic Norwich University, Vermont, USA STUDENT PROCEEDINGS OF THE 1st INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Partner of The Conference: The 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights, March 7–9, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic Editors Peter Bolcha, Ph.D., Anglo-American University, Czech Republic Rowland M. Brucken, Ph.D., Norwich University, Vermont, USA Reviewers Rowland M. Brucken, Ph.D., Norwich University, Vermont, USA Michael B. McGinnis, Ph.D., Norwich University, Vermont, USA Carollann Braum, LL.M., J.D., Anglo-American University, Czech Republic Alexei Anisin, Ph.D., Anglo-American University, Czech Republic doc. Dr. Jiří Kašný, Th.D., Anglo-American University, Czech Republic Authors only are responsible for the content, bibliographical references and language correctness of this publication. © Anglo-American University / Anglo-americká vysoká škola, z.ú., Prague / Praha, 2019 Address and venue of the conference: Letenská 5, 118 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic All rights reserved ISBN 978-80-906585-8-5 The 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights, March 7–9, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic CONTENTS Catholic Church’s Variant Perspective Shayla Moya ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Communist Use of the Police in Czechoslovakia Daniela Tupy ........................................................................................................................................... 7 How Raphael Lemkin’s Childhood Affected is Creation of The Word “Genocide” Sarah McLean ....................................................................................................................................... 15 How the Szlachta Permitted Kings to Rule, Not God Jason Guth ............................................................................................................................................. 21 Information and Democracy: The Surge in the Illiberal Information Control Practices of Poland and Hungary Stefan Fiedler Alvarado ........................................................................................................................ 27 Israel’s Violation of West Bank Palestinians Rights in Relation to Land Dylan O’Brien ....................................................................................................................................... 37 Mandatory Palestine: Competing Nationalisms and Political Violence Christopher Schwenck ........................................................................................................................... 45 The Collapse of the League of Nations as Organization Responsible for Protecting Human Rights and Peace in the World Diana Izmaylova .................................................................................................................................... 55 The Fight for Women’s Suffrage D’Shealyn Bullock ................................................................................................................................. 66 The Hamidian Massacre: The Forgotten Genocide Taylor Gorycki ...................................................................................................................................... 72 The Role of Student Activism in Revolutions Mariia Ashikhmina, Aisha Mubarak ..................................................................................................... 81 The Vietnamese Famine of 1944–1945: Implications for the Rise of the Viet-Minh and Anti- Imperialism in French Indochina Thomas Lessard ..................................................................................................................................... 91 The 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights, March 7–9, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic INTRODUCTION Attached are the proceedings of the 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights, at Anglo-American University, in Prague, on March 7–9, 2019, co-organized with Norwich University, Vermont, USA. The proceedings include all contributions authored by conference student participants (all levels – BA, MA and PhD students) presented during the conference. They have been reviewed and accepted by the conference editorial team and international external reviewers. The program is as follows: Thursday, March 7th, 2019: • Conference opening ceremony • Morning sessions: Presentation of conference keynote speakers, special speakers, and students • Afternoon session: Post Bellum Documentary Screening and Discussion, Round Table on Roots of Human Rights Friday, March 8th, 2019: • Moot Court • Morning session I: Contemporary Human Rights Challenges in Eastern Europe • Morning session I: The Protection of Minorities • Morning session II: World War II in Czechoslovakia • Morning session II: Linguistics and Definitions of Human Rights • Afternoon session I: August 1968 and the 1970s: Human Rights Resurgence • Afternoon session I: Human Rights and Middle Eastern History • Afternoon session II: Genocide: Law and History • Afternoon session II: Post-Atrocity Memory and Legacy • Afternoon session II: Media, Technology, and Surveillance • Afternoon session III: Women: Historical Victims and Activists Saturday, March 9th, 2019: • Mock Truth Commission CREATORS OF THE PROCEEDINGS: • Mihaela Stratulat • Miroslava Dvořáková Prague, August 31, 2019 i The 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights, March 7–9, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic FOREWORD: IDEA AND MISSION OF THIS CONFERENCE1 Petr Jan PAJAS Cofounder of the Conference and AAU President Emeritus In October 2017, during a visit to Norwich University, when discussing possible cooperation, we were inspired with the idea of Prof. Rowland Brucken to organize a joint International Conference on Human Rights as a first step in fulfilling the Memorandum of Understanding between AAU and NU signed on August 8th, 2017 in Prague. At that time, it seemed realistic to think about an interdisciplinary conference allowing to bring to one place – preferably Prague – scholars (faculty and students) and experts of both universities. In order to provide sufficient time for organizing the conference, as well as to make use of coincidence with expected celebration of important changes in the world during the year 1989, it was later decided to meet in these days. The main topic of the conference – Human Rights – is related to research already being in progress at NU under leadership of Prof. Brucken. It also coincided with my personal deep conviction that students of AAU – as well as students of any university – should have a chance to learn from crucial events of the past to better understand the present and be better prepared to serve their societies. As Prof. Brucken in his more detailed proposal from October 20172 explained, we should consider human rights viewed in relation to their historical legacy, philosophical and socio- economic background, including their conditioning and differentiation caused by diversity in culture, religion, traditions and even as a factor in economic development within framework of related ideals of humanity and enlightenment. Allow me to dwell a bit on the following issue: Is there any need to defend human rights, which might be and mostly are considered as self-evident? For more than twenty-five centuries and in most of human civilization and cultures there is known the ancient Golden Rule: What you do not wish for yourself, you ought not to do to anybody else3. It is, perhaps, the fundament from which other ethical and moral principles have grown, as well as the attempt to formulate rules including respect to some basic values. Remember, that in 1776 American colonies declared “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”4. 1 This foreword was created for the purpose of both proceedings from the Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights 2019 and was taken over word by word with permission of author Petr Jan Pajas and publisher Anglo- American University from proceedings: Bolcha, P., & Brucken R. M. (eds). (2019). Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights. Organized in Prague on March 7–9, 2019, Anglo-American University, Czech Republic, Norwich University, Vermont, USA: Proceedings of the 1st international conference. Prague: Anglo-American University. ISBN 978-80-906585-9-2. 2 Rowland Brucken: Proposal for a Joint Conference on Human Right: Anglo-American University and Norwich University, e-mail communication, October 2017. 3 See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule 4 US Congress, July 4, 1776: The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, full text available on http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/ ii The 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Rights, March 7–9, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic However, it took centuries before death penalty was abolished in most of countries, it took centuries before these rights were accepted as valid for all people regardless ethnicity, origin, color of skin, etc. So, is the right for life self-evident? It took nearly a century until slaves became free (1863) in states of the Union – and the cost for it were thousands of lives lost in civil war with the Confederation. Another century later, in 1968, assassination of Martin Luther