democracy remains un- about an unbroken. >> thursday president beidler's annual state of the union unionaddress during a joint sesn of congress. to outline his priority for the countries watch our live coverage began 8:00 p.m. eastern with our preview program followed by president biden state at the union speech. then alabama sen will get the republican response and will get your reaction by taking your phone call. text in social media, swatch live thursday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now mobile video app or onlin at c-span.org. we are funded by these television companies and blower. including ♪ ♪. ♪♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ support c-span as a public■7s. along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy.s5 iscussion on human rights advocacy the role of the international community during russia's invasion of ukraine. featuring ukrainian visit fellow at purdue university this is about an hour. [background noises] >> good afternoon everyone. welcome to the human rights program p talk.

on human rights advocacy at work, can you hear me? okay. my name is rebecca i am codirector of the interdisciplinary human rights program at purdue house in the college of liberal arts. dedicated to teaching global human rights issues. our students come ay understande human rights and narrative that belongs to theri world, it's politics andti and to our own humanity. our program today commemorates the second anniversary of russia'sraine on february 24, 2. he is here as a visiting scholar through■5 produce initiatives se is sponsored the initiive is the largest residential program of its kind launched by then

purdue president mitch daniels at march 2022 in response■itg te invasion. the initiative provides an opportunity for ukrainian scholars to pursue their academic p m was the first of te scholars to arrive here in the summer of 2022. we are gratefuer current purdue president for extending the program and to the many university and community donorse made the program possible. this afternoon doctor it will te possibilities and limitations of human rights advocacy within the wartime context. is a expert and trainer in the field of education, youth, and culture with a focus on human rights and democratic citizenship. she said he at national

university and berlin freaked freeuniversity for obtaining hed at the national university. during the past five years she has participated in elaborating legal framewo for ngos on the implementation of new legal acts with a specific focus on the donbas region in southern ukraine. i question and answer session will follow the presentation. we will ask the people whoave ad where i am standing now. again, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. prese doctor. [applause] thank you for coming. today i tried to indicate what

happened with human rights in ukraine and post- communist■! we had two years of the war. and today the support for ukraine and justice in russia who wasas killed. [inaudible] with their oppositional personalit i russia. in this context we see human rig -- they have different dimensions. you are invited there is anyway.

we can under the beginning of global changes. on the information of informational criminal justice not only of human rights. i will have an answer and question session if you have a question about the developments of what happens in the global context. and also what happens in ukraine. in an understanding of human rights in ukraine. and manyple can ask why we pay more attention to this

person but the human right content to implicate. they are more dangerous and that dictatorship for the tote total terry rege such people means you are part of democracy. once understanding of the united nations we mentioned human rights and it is very broad. the declaration of the rights of human rights and 98. indicate everyone has a right strive for perfection and preservation of human rights and

fundamental freedoms. also ratis the participation of human rights groups in different countries and the couy÷ntries in which the challenges cannot be considered a democratic country. we see not what happens with understanding of rights. in the recent development of russia we can come back and into triedhi

seventeen and 18 with the moment s looking atrights in the soviet d the international community also fought for these people. therwere many exchanges and and tools that forced the soviet government to relee politic prisoners or at least recognize that is not ok to imprison political opponents. in case of - the first one coming universality. claims to civil rigs, right to association, freedomf speech. from another side they also

advocate for national identity side for equal status, history,d of the minorities groups and it was questionable for international communities with of the humanights and what happens if we start to talk about the rights of the groups this is difficult because the soviet union started to collapse

and still there are some points that are important in thecontex set up the constitutions and the second point that is very important for ukrainians this mo

participate in other conflicts. very s everybody understood there would be no agreement it was aiffere reform in each country moved in the direction to recognizeuman rights and building democracy institutions.

for ukraine it was the first. it's important s up and uaine never disssed that it shouldn't be changed. a second, this results and was the catastroph in ukraine and all this to establish in 1995

ukraine needs to remeeapons from this■k. because it destroyed a lot of weapons which to that time it was important to have guaranteed forder and it was integral and safe withi its borders for a long time.

but that is an expressionhere are a lot of policie and criminality but also a lotf freedom. like others in area it is important for freedom of speh andis elections. th moment is also the peopleed revolution when demanded to organize elections.

the revolution was successful. they reached their g negotiations and the democracy and rule of lawnduman rights. collective rights difference. 2n

happened which actually was the origin and 2014 we have the dictatorship and putin and the president ofussiaominated and all of the former republics of soviet union to have the

influence on eastern europe. in november,01 t government [inaudible] and declined [inaudible] it waso understand how it is going on but■c the first stageising

international solidity on the international level. a political point of view was different political groups and also discussions about violence att this the different political groups managed to come together.

first time and first of all it was annexation and supporting and managing different groups established like the republican the east and■k the idea of russa was now w to connect and invite the whole eastern part of ukraine. and in that moment, the international human rights community was undecided about what's going on and it was also important in the russian context because in russia it was with

the annexation of crimea and said that they could take part in local elections and exchangem but they put out the different because they provided some functions about russia and he was killed in 2015 so that time on the political level even to pu the table the relationè.

that is the human rights■r mome. there are two kinds of crime and national or regionally the national group it was difficult to understand who they are.

in also discussed. of the third point was also more about and should be finied into the people that committed the crime should experience the■g justice

they finally find it and the justiceic systems for the groups and the modern framework of human rights. there were also some groups that were accepted. first of all it was legislation.

the seconde ramework [inaudible] there's a special legislation that follows national holidays and the education reform

it was also very acceptable for something positive. there were proemand controversies of the political prisoners the organizations here because if the person decides to write, the international community have problems to recognize it. the second case happens.

this was also not a problem. rights defenders andany accepted and finally also received the recognition. d to the last point is about the rate of vision and picture of the enemy but it

ve the direction [inaudible] and now human rights defenders advocate for everybody and it's a difficult challenge for the people who are for peace and always appreciated the nonviolence. th understanding that nonviolence doesn't work.

it's not only the peace but the justice that provided the opinions, the human rights movements and about the international criminal justice and focus on recognizing war crimes and also focus on coopat the state. it's easier for the human rights groups. it's something that aims and we have to decide our rights and now the situation is like we have to work with the state to defend our rights because another state wants to remove r.

the main controversy between the state of international criminal court because the state decided and they ratified after the war was finished. the last point is about information and basic because now in fact we have limitedcy. we can speak about the quality of political life or maybe

we just don't know because the informations limited and the more we take from it soon 0lwe have the whole generation who hasn't experienced political life challenge because it could be also violent so [inaudible] and if you have some questions or want to emphasize something more. at this point we will take■ questions and come down and ask

your question right over here so that wet get it. maybe we can go back to your title slide and then be able to see what the questions are. the floor is open. thank you for the■- interesting presentation. the main question what are current organizations and what are the perspectives?

>> working as specific protocols and they are submitted in the international criminal and they work together with the rnl court and there are many interesting to also work on interviewing ukrainians and■% claim to have more than 100,000 cases and if they feel that the case is sufficient to submit to the international criminal court but the criminal cases are stillse

acting and in many cases they select the case and start to work on it but it's for 50 or 60 years for many people. maybe i will ask a question while you are still thinking ab questions. an important point that you make in this idea of peace is justice

and there is a kind of transfer in the way we are imagining protests and human rights advocacy and i wonder if you■u could talk about that a little bit more, but the different methods for advocating human rights. >> the firbo rights groups there are specific protocols into the situations with human rights there also are different truths coming from organizations especially the nations that they can nominate a special commissioner

to monitor for the countries. so those are the conclusions and also provide recommendation for the country how to proceed. in the united nations system there is also so-called site to provide to the state officials who is right and who commit to that. it was ukraine as many others so it was never like a full democracy it was transition. the fifth point now for the

human rights defenders to. to change the situation it could be a prosal foamr the legal framework and other things and radical so it can bect with more demonstrations and debates but it can be also violent.

to the genocide in sri lanka we found a united nations human similarly the situation with of the debate the high commissioner for human in protest over the organization's lack of response to the genocide of the palestinians, so how do you feel they can start to shift more radical direct forms of

change where in the past they have maybe failed to act on the promise they make to the international community? >> it's interesting because i think they experience some global changes soon. a good example)á so they cannot delegate as a another side it's also united

nations agencies and i think that there will be■2■h some ref. it's the most corrupt but maybe will remind. because it didn't accept what happened or accept

prisoners and and negoat. it was it impactful in any way or just doing it for show?■wq ia

exterminated many of the groups but in case of ukraine without social media but i think there are no changes in the structural mediabf the people just come to the bubble.

how do you take people from thii think it makes sense but it's very difficult now because you have this i commercial approach. for example the are a lot of now in europe and that they time to set up and do something. and they just have some messages. but■ those people who don't have access or space because they are in their own bubble and it's

like rising disappointed becaush now it is like to converse late but i think it and will change but even in 2014, i did social■5 media. operate.y now when we try to on the bubble you have only the

stable the message. inour in the role of the united states with human rights in the world especially theu and how important is the u.s. both positively and negatively what are the impacts? >> i think the human rights system is stronger and every state follows. the united states for the convention.

i is stronger because this experience, and exe international development. maybe the people have tried but i think the united nations are in keeping the international security and having influence in the united nations and providing justice6o. it's about what happens but i have a feeling we experience global change and with of the

process -- >> a fewea we had a speaker come talk at the symposium from the group human rights first talked about the role of the united states and tt we can certainly point to, but she asked what's the alternative. what would be the alternative scenario to the strong position of the united states if we see theseth changesning and we see a pullback into more

isolationism, so it's a quest■4n m posing based on that presentation. managing some critical issues that for example functions russe a justice system and everyone can advocate [inaudible] presen.

youha made an interesting point when we look at the history of ukraine we start to see the experiments by the where the prosperity goesnt up, but i was wondering if you could flush out a little bit the material conditions are the economic prosperity and thehumas there a relationship there and how do we understand that? >> i think it is about corruption and inc■t fact one of

the■y origins is more freedom in the economy and the devopment. atat the same time someone can come and say it's mine and after the criminalization changed but different

and not loyal but now we see in comparison to russia they have progress, but it'st corruption. the transparency and everything. i think it was a lot more possibility. they experienced this level of radicalization and developing. it was this experience and it's very painful for the people this

model is an experience they have and the possibility you can have powerful people to manage things and i would say appreciate thisc freedom and ukraine f also power and reach. it was good progress to avoid the but for the peace and as expected in the quy

of life. last question how much are the groups dependent because the military after that would be like china and russia obviously in terms of size and so my question is how much is the u.s. dependent or is it not at all important? >> you mean the united nations and supply? i think it is different. it's different. there is bilateral agreement and so for the bilateral agreement th to have approval of the united o

possibility to set up. as a member of the security council but what happens now is about bilateral agreements. the united nations [inaudible] araft today and russia participated in activitieshí it is a different perspective on

that. outline that the voices come here and talk about this country and about their background. it's important because there's r lot o russian propaganda and it has been always like that. the interview with the ukrainian writer she was a fulbright■ scholar in the usa right after the soviet union collapsed and she said that at that time

people knew because most view the history as written by russians and when you come to high school and take■d■ a textbk about history civilizations, you will find russia very often and maybe yo w worst ukraine. so this event today would be good to hear voices in the united states so that know the history has long roots so that american citizens don't ask

questions when did ukraine appear, was thi r union collaps. so, thank you so much for this event. whaadou give to palestinians who wish to do the same?+h >> i think it's difficult now because there is not the

capacity. i think it is very important if you work for the human rights agency. the united nations and■r allow hamas to build infrastructure■- and also it's important the who want war and i'm

thinking are these people of and open borders. i think it's a big problem. it's power and a lot to think about. it also was not the question.

>> are there any further questions? >> in that case, thank you very much for this talk and your attention to the questions people had. i think it was really useful. coming. [applause]

will one of the most important issues for me that i would like to hear president biden touch upon is the fentanyl crisis and how he's dealing with that. also the mental health crisis.

>> research and intellectual history and i think the most important issue i would love to see discussed is the pain that artificial intelligence poses to the civilization particularly in the way that i think underminesy employed economy and might threaten culture. >> i'm from st. louis missouri. it's getting overwhelming and a lot of

>> i'm from new61erke to see ano gaza and palestine. >> watch the state of the union address live thursday at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span, the free mo app or online on c-span.org