debates

In the Contemporary Context: The Essence of the Concept of Human Rights

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On August 30, 2024, the HRUG regular seminar on “In the Contemporary Context: The Essence of the Concept of Human Rights” was successfully held. This seminar was chaired by Professor Peter Herrmann (a researcher of CSU Human Rights Center). Mehmet Okyayuz (a professor of political science at Middle East Technical University, Turkey), and three teaching … Read more

State under the Rule of Law and Democracy

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Obviously, democracy is a somewhat open concept, i.e. there are different concepts of what democracy actually is and how it works. One – and probably the dominant in the Western sphere – is that it is a representative polity, the demos, according to the Marriam Webster dictionary, understood as “common people”. In other words, the … Read more

Interaction between Law and Politics in a Global Perspective: “Law First” or “Politics First”?

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On January 30, 2024, the HRUG regular seminar on “Interaction between Law and Politics in a Global Perspective: Law First or Politics First” was successfully held.  The seminar was chaired by Professor Peter Herrmann, a researcher of Central South University Human Rights Center. Evgeniia Kiseleva (a researcher of the School of Economics at the Russian … Read more

Surprises

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Should there be a question mark or an exclamation mark. In the e-newsletter of the German ZeitOnline, published on the 6th of September 2024, we read – here translated: Joe Biden disappeared on a beach holiday for a fortnight without anyone really noticing his absence. Kamala Harris, Tim Walz and their respective partners are travelling the … Read more

Care and Respect: Research on Disease Management for People Living with HIV or AIDS in China

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On July 26, 2024, the HRUG regular seminar on “Care and Respect: Research on Disease Management for People Living with HIV or AIDS in China” was successfully held. The seminar was chaired by Joe Finnerty, a policy analyst of the School of Applied Social Studies of University College Cork in Ireland, and reported by Xiao … Read more

Trust

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Probably many came across the widespread sentence: do not believe any statistic that you haven’t forged yourself. It is commonly attributed to Winston Churchill, while in fact, or better to say: in Wikipedia’s terms (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_geflügelter_Worte/T#Traue_keiner_Statistik,_die_du_nicht_selbst_gefälscht_hast.) there seems to be no evidence, and it may even be that it is a somewhat “anti-Churchillian sentence”. Already the … Read more

What are Human Rights concerned with – the Universal Human Being, the Social/Class Question or Wokeism?

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The HRUG regular seminar on “What are Human Rights concerned with – the Universal Human Being, the Social/Class Question or Wokeism?” was successfully held on December 1, 2023. The seminar was chaired by Joe Finnerty (social policy analyst, School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Republic of Ireland) . Prof. Peter Herrmann and Associate … Read more

From Words to Action

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On the 1st of August thousands of people gathered in Poland, 80 years after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The German Bundespraesident, Mr. Steinmeier, asked the Polish citizenry for apologies – for something that cannot be excused, while we may contest if today’s generation is “responsible” for what happened those days, asking for apologies for something that … Read more