Veranstaltung

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27.11.2005 - 27.11.2005 | Herzliya

The Universality of Human Rights

A Conference of the German Innovation Center (GIC)
by IDC Herzliya and the Science Center North Rhine-Westphalia

The Universality of Human Rights

The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" stresses the universality of human rights, their indivisibility and their interdependence. Despite the broad approval for this charter, there are general discussions on both the extent of human rights, their cultural origins and their international enforcement, as well as on the question of how human rights should be treated in exceptional circumstances, such as terrorism, civil war and catastrophes.

As there are different approaches concerning the concepts of "human rights" in Germany and Israel, there are different views on their practical enforcement, especially concerning the three examples mentioned below.

Apart from the questions concerning the definition of human rights and their claim to validity, practical political questions regarding the means of their enforcement are being raised. The role of international criminal law in terms of the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be discussed, against the background of an Israeli objection to the statute of the ICC.

Especially in the context of the international threat of terrorism, it has been discussed whether it is sensible and necessary, under certain circumstances, to limit the validity of human rights. Inter alia, it has been deliberated whether it could be necessary to lift the ban on torture in the event of an immediate terrorist threat. Or can no incident, however extreme it may be, legitimate the conscious infringement of the prohibition of torture? And which conclusions should governments draw when it is known that certain states in effect employ torture?

Apart from philosophical, legal and political questions, there has been an extended discussion about the right to life, triggered by the huge advances in bio- and genetic engineering in recent times. New treatments, such as stem cell therapy and therapeutic cloning, are promising - however, they function at the cost of having to use human embryos as a source for cell material. Do human embryos have human rights, and are certain therapies thus illegal? Or do human rights only apply to humans that have already been born?

At the GIC's conference, "The Universality of Human Rights," these current aspects will be discussed, and differing positions will be contrasted by academics from Israel and Germany.

09:30 Gathering

10:00 Opening Session

Greetings
Prof. Dr. Uriel Reichman
President, IDC Herzliya
Amb. Dr. Avi Primor
Director, Center for European Studies, IDC Herzliya
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gert Kaiser
President, Science Center, North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf
Dr. Wilhelm Krull
General Secretary, Volkswagen Foundation, Hannover

10:30 Introduction:
The International Protection of Human Rights as an Element of the
World Order

Prof. Dr. Jochen Abr. Frowein
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International
Law, Heidelberg


11:00 Session I
The International Criminal Court (ICC)

Israel and the ICC - an Outsider's Perspektive
Prof. Dr. Andreas Zimmermann
Director, Walter Schuecking Institute for International Law, Kiel
University

Crimes against Humanity
Prof. Dr. Yoram Dinstein
Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University

Chair: Prof. Dr. Yoram Shachar
Radzyner School of Law, IDC Herzliya

12:30 Lunch Break

13:30 Session II
Terror, Torture and Human Rights

Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Reemtsma
Hamburg Institute for Social Research
Dr. Guy Seidman
Radzyner School of Law, IDC Herzliya

Chair: Prof. Dr. Nathan Lerner
Radzyner School of Law, IDC Herzliya



15:00 Coffee Break

15:30 Session III
The Right to Life

Prof. Dr. Jochen Taupitz
Institute for German, European and International Medical Law,
Public Health Law and Bioethics at the Universities of Heidelberg
and Mannheim
Dr. Hillel Sommer
Radzyner School of Law, IDC Herzliya

Chair: Prof. Dr. Amnon Rubinstein
Provost, IDC Herzliya



17:00 End of the Conference

The conference will be conducted in English

The German Innovation Center (GIC)

The German Innovation Center (GIC) is a new platform for scientific dialogue which the Science Center North Rhine-Westphalia and the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya initiated in 2004. Its chief aim is to encourage and facilitate scientific co-operation and exchange of ideas between leading Israeli and German researchers, politicians, intellectuals and artists. Thus Israel's contribution to international dialogue in the fields of science and culture will be accentuated, and co-operative research of the Middle Eastern states and Germany will be intensified. The GIC will mainly be concerned with issues from the fields of cultural, legal and media studies.

A German advisory board of renowned academics is responsible for the scientific supervision under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gert Kaiser (President of the Science Center North Rhine-Westphalia) and in close cooperation with Prof. Dr. Uriel Reichman (President of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya). All activities of the German Innovation Center are coordinated with the Center for European Studies which former Ambassador Dr. Avi Primor has established at IDC Herzliya.

The German Innovation Center is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

www.wznrw.de/gic

Hinweise zur Teilnahme:
Transportation to and from the event is available from Tel Aviv
(Arlozorov Station, Park and Drive parking lot)
Departure at 08:45
Return immediately after the conference ends

RSVP tel.: 09-952-7260, email: rsvp3@idc.ac.il
(Please indicate if you require transportation)

Please present this invitation to the security staff at the entrance to the IDC Herzliya campus
Firearms are not permitted on campus

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