In response to the Iran–Israel war, starting June 13, 2025 and the tragic mass stabbing attack in Villach's city center on February 15, 2025, NGO HOPE is launching this initiative, along with Project Lili / Life in Light – Human Rights, as a countermeasure against extremism. This project aims to foster political empowerment, dialogue, inclusivity, and democratic values, providing a constructive response to polarization and radicalization.

To ensure accessibility for participants with language barriers, the workshops will be translated:

• Apl. Prof. Dr. Andreas Blank’s workshop will be interpreted into Farsi and Dari by Zahra Ghobadi, BEd., B.A.

As part of this initiative, two distinguished scholars will lead workshops addressing key challenges in contemporary democratic theory, human rights, and global justice.

✨ What to Expect

• Engaging discussions led by experts

• Simultaneous translations for accessibility

• Short breaks during the sessions

• Iranian snacks and drinks provided to ensure a comfortable experience

• All participants receive an integration certificate of attendance

• Travel costs covered:
  Hand in your outbound ticket and show a photo of your return ticket – you’ll receive the money in cash on site.

🌍 Workshop by Apl. Prof. Dr. Andreas Blank

📌 Human Rights and Cosmopolitan Duties in Contemporary Political Philosophy

📅 Date: 09.08.2025
⏰ Time: 4:00 - 7:30 PM
📍 Venue: Alps Adriatic University, Klagenfurt / Celovec, Z.1.09

One approach to justifying human rights relies on international agreements that contractually establish specific duties. While this strategy provides a legal framework for sanctioning violations, it also has a limitation: legally enforceable obligations depend on the ratification of these agreements. This makes an alternative approach attractive—one that grounds human rights in natural law, deriving them from human nature itself.

This perspective is rooted in the tradition of cosmopolitanism, which holds that there is a universal human society where political relationships, rights, and duties exist analogously to those within a nation-state. Such a conception implies that political obligations transcend national borders, even in the absence of formal treaties. Recent debates on global justice have explored this issue, raising fundamental questions:

• Who are the rightful bearers of cosmopolitan duties—individual citizens or nation-states?

• What role do non-state institutions (e.g., the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, multinational corporations) play in perpetuating global injustice?

• How do democratic deficits within these institutions contribute to human rights violations?

This lecture will provide an overview of how human rights can be defended from a cosmopolitan perspective against the increasing influence of non-democratic global institutions.

🕊️ Learn & Engage in Human Rights Education

📅 Save the Dates and take part in insightful lectures and workshops on democracy, extremism, and global justice.

🎟 Registration:

✉️ Email: z.kazemzadeh88@gmail.com
🟢💬 WhatsApp: +43 681 10312121

#HumanRights #Democracy #ProjectLili #AgainstExtremism #HumanRightsEducation