The Hans-Litten-Prize 2014 will be awarded to the CHD President Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI
Saturday, 17th May 2014, 14h00 – 18h00
Littenstrasse 9, 10179 Berlin, in the building of the German Federal Bar Association, BRAK
Every two years the HANS-LITTEN-PRIZE is awarded by the German Association of Democratic Lawyers (VDJ) www.vdj.de , the German member association of ELDH. ELDH is sponsoring the event.
VDJ awards the Hans Litten Preis in recognition of legal achievements and to a person who, like Hans Litten himself, is uncompromisingly committed to the law, and who does not avoid necessary confrontations with power-political interests and the institutions representing them. In addition, and maybe more importantly, VDJ wishes to encourage laureates to pursue their work, to not give up, and to overcome the obstacles they have to face along the way. VDJ would also like to set an example, an incentive to our colleagues to keep helping, with their legal means, and to save from disappearance those who are politically persecuted, who have fallen victim to degenerated judicial systems, often at the mercy of state terror cloaked in justice.
The HANS-LITTEN-PRIZE 2014 will be awarded to the ÇHD President Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI (ÇHD – Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği – Progressive Lawyers Association).Since he did not receive the permission to leave Turkey he will participate at the prize awarding via video connection.
“The revolutionary career is not a series of banquets and a string of honorific titles, nor does it hold the promise of interesting research or professors’ salaries. It is a passage toward the unknown, with misery, disgrace, ungratefulness and prison as its way stations. Only an almost superhuman belief illumines it, and merely talented people therefore choose it only rarely” (Max Horkheimer in Dawn & Decliine, 1934)
The agenda
1. Welcome by the Vice-President of the Berlin Bar Association, Bern Häusler
2. Opening by the President of the German Association of Democratic Lawyers (VDJ)
3. Political Trials against Lawyers in Turkey
– The KCK Trial in Diyarbakir and the Istanbul Bar Associations Trial, Bernd Häusler, Vice-President and Human Rights Commissioner of the Berlin Bar Association
– The KCK Lawyers Trial, Istanbul, Gilda Schönberg, Berlin Association of Defence Lawyers and Republican Lawyers Association (RAV)
– The CHD Lawyers Trial, Istanbul, Thomas Schmidt, ELDH Secretary General
Discussion
4. The Anti-Terror State – the state of exception – the abolishment of the rule of law, Prof. Lieven De Cauter, Brussels
5. Awarding of the HANS-LITTEN-PRIZE to the CHD President Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI
– general remarks, Dieter Hummel, VDJ President
– Lautdatory Speech, Beate Rudolf, Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, http://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/en/home.html
6. The Right to Resistance – the Role of Progressive Lawyers, Münip Ermiş, CHD Vice President
7. Klezmer Concert
Guests are welcome. Entrance is free.
Organizers:
- Association of Democratic Lawyers (VDJ), www.vdj.de
in cooperation with the
- European Assocation of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH)
- Berlin Bar Association (Rechtsanwaltskammer Berlin), www.rak-berlin.de