The Tom Lantos Institute is co-organising a Global Minority Rights Summer School with Middlesex University, London and the National University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary, and with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary. The summer school will take place on 14-20 July, 2014, and it will focus on civil society, political participation and minority rights in regions like Africa and the Middle East, and it is combined with events highlighting minority issues in Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe.

The Summer School will host 30 participants from all over the world and offers a forum to discuss relevant issues related to minorities with leading experts and practitioners in the field of ethnocultural diversity management. Taking an avowedly global approach, the Summer School will provide overviews of the international minority protection regime (norms, institutions and mechanisms) and complement this with analyses of diverse regional practices from around the world. The forum pays special attention to the role of civil society and political participation, drawing on a multi-disciplinary approach that combines law, political sciences, anthropology and sociology.

The Summer School aims to:

Assess & critique the dynamics and dilemmas of the current international minority protection regime;
Review civil society experiences on minority rights advocacy in different regions of the world;
Identify the role and impact of civil society contributions to norm emergence and adherence in the field of identity politics.
This Summer School is envisaged as a space for meeting and consulting with authoritative academics, practitioners, civil servants and decision-makers, providing participants the opportunity to share their experiences and present their research projects for discussion.

Speakers include:

Anna-Mária Bíró, President and CEO of the Tom Lantos Institute
Joshua Castellino, Dean of the School of Law, Middlesex University, London
Neil Clarke, Director of Minority Rights Group Europe
Vincent de Graaf, Head of Section/Senior Advisor, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
Rita Izsák, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues
Jennifer Jackson Preece, Associate Professor, London School of Economics
Zoltán Kántor, Director of the Research Institute for Hungarian Communities Abroad
Nurcan Kaya, Turkey Coordinator at Minority Rights Group International
David Keane, Senior Lecturer in Law, Middlesex University
Yoram Meital, Chairman of the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Brendan O’Leary, Lauder Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Richárd Papp, Adjunct Professor, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Valmaine Toki, Vice-President of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues
Balázs Vizi, Associate Professor, National University of Public Service
Location and Institutions

The Summer School will be hosted by the NUPS Faculty of Public Administration in Budapest, Ménesi út 5. on Gellért Hill, in a nice green environment, close to the city centre. Accommodation and meals will be offered in the dormitory of the Faculty at the same place.

For further information, please refer to the homepage of the summer school: http://en.uni-nke.hu/mrss