Bard College Berlin hosts Human Rights and Cross-Strait Relations workshop

Following the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Bard College Berlin hosted a one-day workshop titled “Human Rights and Cross-Strait Relations” on December 11, 2023. A collaboration with the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung, under the aegis of the Open Society University Network (OSUN), the on-campus workshop brought together experts on the region, students, and a UN representative to discuss the current state of cross-strait relations between China and Taiwan, the politics of human rights, and the UN's role in protecting them. The workshop was a capstone of a new OSUN network collaborative course titled Human Rights and Modern Society: The Case of China and Taiwan, jointly taught by BCB Professor of Politics Dr. Ewa Atanassow and Professor Dr. Chiahao Hsu from the NSYSU.

The event included a special address by UN officer Brenda Vongova, which was attended by over 100 students and faculty in Berlin and Kaohsiung, as well as contributions by political scientists Martin Dimitrov and Chiahao Hsu, and sociologist Bin Xu, who shed light on the securitization of human rights discourse around the role of civil society initiatives in upholding democratic culture. It also featured a presentation by the students in Prof. Dr. Kerry Bystrom’s Human Rights Advocacy course calling attention to the unlawful detention of the Uyghur scholar and activist Ilham Tohti and to the international efforts to promote his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The workshop offered unique opportunities for BCB students and faculty to gain deeper insights into the meaning and history of human rights as a legal concept, and also into its diverse interpretations and their resonance in contemporary China and Taiwan. “One of the main takeaways of the discussion,” Atanassow explains, “was that while human rights violations continue to take place in South East Asia and worldwide, calling attention to them puts pressure on governments and international organizations to address these issues. So there is evidence that human rights advocacy works, albeit in incremental ways, to increase governments’ accountability.”

“The palpable student presence throughout the workshop,” Atanassow explains, “and the searching questions posed—about the UN’s role in the Gaza war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis, how to reconcile different understandings of human rights, or the future of cross-strait relations—were the key measures of the workshop's success.”

Along with familiarizing students with different ideological and cultural understandings of human rights and the intellectual and political history of China and Taiwan, the collaborative course that inspired the workshop offered students unique opportunities for cross-campus and cross-continental collaboration.

For their final projects, the students in the course worked together to design a website, creating five multimedia stories addressed to young people around the world and anyone else who may be interested in learning about the complex history and current state of cross-strait relations. 

In the process of creating the multimedia website, Atanassow says, “Students not only had a chance to systematize the new knowledge acquired throughout the semester and to reflect on the value and broader relevance of this knowledge. They were also encouraged to pool their creative skills in conveying their knowledge to a broader audience by means of exciting and accessible stories.”

While this course and the workshop were the first fruits of an intense cross-institutional partnership between Bard College Berlin and the National Sun Yat-Sen University, Hsu and Atanassow are determined that it should not be the last. Along with teaching another iteration of the course in the near future, they are planning to develop a scholarly collaboration that would translate the experience of the course and the December workshop into a robust interdisciplinary research agenda.

Post Date: 01-16-2024