The NPP in Ghana is cooperating with the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation in Sweden. In March 2012 a delegation from the NPP Youth Wing visited Sweden. In connection with this visit an article about the cooperation and education was published on an Internet news page in Ghana.
Report on Azerbaijan prior to Eurovision Song Contest
March 16th, 2012 Azerbaijan | Seminars | Uncategorized |
Thomas Gür holds up the JHS-report on Azerbaijan. To his left,Fuad Muxtarli and to his right Gerald Knaus.
The Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation has during the last ten years been supporting democracy in Azerbaijan. An authoritarian state in which the political opposition only can work within the narrow conditions of the regime. The foundation’s partner in the country is the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA).
Due to the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Baku on May 26, the JHS arranged a seminar at the Moderate Party’s Annual Conference for Regional and Local politicians in Örebro on Mars 16 and presented a new report on the political situation in the country. Fuad Muxtarli, former international secretary for the opposition party NIPA and Gerald Knaus, chairman of the think tank European Stability Initiative (ESI) participated in the discussion, led by Thomas Gür, senior advisor to JHS.
The ESI will in the end of Mars release a report on the political situation in Azerbaijan and the regime’s relation with the Council of Europe. The report will be available on www.esiweb.org
The seminar on Azerbaijan was well-attended and even more people watched it live on the web.
The conversation focused on the roll of the political opposition and its possibilities to work under President Aliyev and his authoritarian regime. How journalists are persecuted and use self-censorship was also discussed, as was the election frauds taking place on various levels. “You almost can’t believe that it is true,” was one of the comments on how the regime operates in silencing critical voices.
Walburga Habsburg Douglas and Åsa Lindstam outside the prison.
Walburga Habsburg Douglas, MP representing the Moderate party and Deputy Chairman of the OSCE:s parliamentary assembly was refused on Monday to visit the Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in prison. Both the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Prisons Authority rejected the application for a visit.
“Ukraine must offer transparency immediately and allow the international community to visit Yulia Tymoshenko in prison and see first-hand the conditions in which she is being kept. Ukrainian diplomats and parliamentarians have offered numerous accounts of how ‘comfortable’ the conditions are in Kharkiv for the former prime minister, harping on the fact that she has comforts of home, like a washing machine” said Walburga Habsburg adding that “the fact is that these messages are no substitute for in-person visits.If the government has a story to tell about the conditions in Ms. Tymoshenko’s cell, then authorities should allow international visitors at once.”
“By focusing the discussion on the prison, the Ukrainian foreign ministry has tried to divert attention from the larger issues related to rule of law and political prosecution,” stated Walburga Habsburg.
Less Freedom on the Internet
February 8th, 2012 UncategorizedThe Internet has benn further restricted in Belarus. From the beginning of January in capability cases not allowed to “visit and / or using foreign websites.” Violation results in a fine of up to $ 125.
The law states that owners and managers of internet cafes and other places that offer Internet access to prevent users from visiting sites that are outside Belarus. According to some sources of the new rules also shared connections (such as in an apartment building) and individuals who allow others to use their home computers to surf the net.
Read more at www.hjalmarsonstiftelsen.se
Delegation from Kirgizstan visited Stockholm
February 6th, 2012 Eastern Europe | Education | News | Uncategorized
The delegation visited the Swedish Parliament, and met with MP:s Gustav Blix, Kristina Hulting and Christian Holm from the Moderate Party, Liselott Hagberg from the Liberal Party and Carin Runeson from the Social Democratic Party. The participants were particularly interested in the structure and the political division of the Swedish Parliament. They were also curious about the different procedures for decision-making.
Moreover, the group was invited to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs where a roundtable discussion was held with well known Swedish Central Asia experts – among them Malena Mård, Head of Department for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The role of Kirgizstan as a relatively new state, the relationship with EU and the measures taken to fight corruption in order to attract foreign investments in the country were topics brought up.
Books online and on iPad
January 15th, 2012 Uncategorized |
The Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation’s publications are available online and adapted for iPad.
Read online:
Balkan Blend – the Road to Renewal
Diaries of Dissidents – Daily Routines in a Belarusian Prison
Triumph of Democracy – After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Communism in the Baltic States
iPad:
Balkan Blend – the Road to Renewal
Diaries of Dissidents – Daily Routines in a Belarusian Prison
Triumph of Democracy – After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Communism in the Baltic States
Happy Holidays!
December 19th, 2011 UncategorizedRelease of a New Book: Balkan Blend
May 12th, 2011 Seminars | The Balkans | The European Union | Uncategorized
The anthology was discussed following a presentation of the book made by MP Walburga Habsburg Douglas.
The authors in Balkan Blend, a new anthology published by the Hjalmarson Foundation, all describe – from their different views – the advantages of an EU membership for the Balkan countries. The book does not give any final answers and the views sometimes go apart, for instance in regards to the Kossovar independence.
An audience of about 40 people attended the release of the book <i>Balkan Blend – The Road to Renewal/i> on May 12. After a few words of welcome from the Chairman of the Foundation, Göran Lennmarker, Walburga Habsburg Douglas, MP and a Hjalmarson Foundation board member, gave a brief introduction to the eight texts in the book. “The anthology does not present any consensus opinion and the views sometimes differ,” Walburga Habsburg Douglas noted. She explained that all the writers, from their different views, describe the advantages of an EU membership for the Balkan countries. “I hope this presentation will encourage you to delve further into this book,” Walburga Habsburg Douglas summarized. (more…)
Center-Right Politician was granted Nobel Prize
September 30th, 2010 Uncategorized
The Swedish academy has granted the Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 to Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian-Spanish writer (born March 28, 1936), politician, journalist and essayist. This is the first Nobel prize given to a Spanish speaking writer since 1990, when Octavio Paz won it.
The prize has been given on the basis of “his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat”
Vargas Llosa has been a classic candidate to the Nobel from many years. But it seemed that his candidacy had lost force. First of all they argued that Gabriel García Marquez already covered all writers of his generation, the generation of the Latin American “boom”. Then they argued that his political tendency, liberal, and critical against the social democracy was not in the line of the Swedish Academy. (more…)
Venezuela: Chavez Joined Twitter
April 28th, 2010 Uncategorized
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has joined the microblogging site Twitter. Twitter has become a phenomenon in Venezuela, where the rate of internet users and profiles in social sites is the highest of all Latin America. Chavez first Twitter message was short as it has to be (maximum 140 characters): “How’s it going? I am appearing as I said: at midnight. Going to Brasil. And very happy to work for Venezuela. We shall overcome!!” Knowing how devoted Chavez is to give long speeches (of several hours), the question is how he is going to master the world of Twitter. (more…)
Seminar about Democracy in the World
April 17th, 2010 Uncategorized
Göran Lennmarker, to the left, and Gunnar Hökmark.
April 16-17, the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation attended the national conference for local politicians from the Moderate Party.
As part of a larger exhibition area the Hjalmarson Foundation had a booth and also hosted a seminar.At the seminar the developments in regards to democracy was discussed by Gunnar Hökmark, MEP and Göran Lennmarker, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committée in the Swedish Parliament and chairman of the Foundation. Invited Croatian guests could not attend due to restricted flight schedules. (more…)
