On 6 December 2019, the House of National Minorities in Prague hosted an expert seminar “A Century of Minority Rights – Lessons from the Post-Versailles System”, organized by the International Centre for Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity Studies and the  Department of Russian and East European Studies, Institute of International Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University) with the financial support of the Charles University, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in the Czech Republic, and the German Embassy to the Czech Republic.

The welcome speeches were delivered by the Chair of the International Centre for Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity Studies Dr. Hanna Vasilevich, the Head of the Department of Russian and East European Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University Dr. Kateřina Králová, the Counsellor for Cultural Affairs and Protocol of the Geman Embassy to the Czech Republic Mr. Markus Klinger, and the Head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in the Czech Republic Ms. Anne Seyfferth.

During the seminar we had two great key-note speeches: by Dr. James Kennedy, the Director of the Centre of Canadian Studies and a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, on “The Impact and Legacies of the Versailles System and the post-WWI Minority Treaties”, and Dr. Alexander Osipov, a Member of the Board of ICELDS, on “Liberal vs. Non-Liberal Approached to Minority Policies – is there a common ground?”

Within the course of the seminar, we also had fruitful panel discussions on “The Modes of and Challenges to International Cooperation in the Area of Minority Protection in Europe throughout the XX-XXI centuries and “The New Challenges and New Dividing Lines between the West and East and the future of the European Minority Rights Regime”. We thank all the expert speakers for their great contributions and insightful discussions.