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A short chronicleThe Hellenic League for Human Rights is the oldest Non Governmental Organization for human rights protection and promotion in Greece. The League was founded in 1953. Its board members are eminent personalities from the political and academic field. The League, from its foundation, is the affiliated member of the International Federation for Human Rights (Fédération Internationale des Droits de l’Homme) and represents the Federation’s human rights network in the country. The dictatorship of 1967 banned the functioning of the Greek League for Human Rights and its members were persecuted untill the end of the regime. The president of the League, Professor Phaedon Vegleris, was the basic witness before the European Court of Human Rights at the notorious Greek case against the military regime, which actually resulted the expulsion of Greece from the Council of Europe. The League recommenced its activities in 1974. Statutory principlesAccording to its statute, the League takes action in the field of promotion and defense of the principles that recognize within a certain historical and social context, rights and freedoms to individuals. The prevention of violations of human and civil rights and contribution or the protection of human rights is the League’s fundamental intervention pillar. The means by which the League actualizes its goals are the research and study of problems involving human rights protection, both in collective and in individual level, the submission of proposals to the administration for the solution of such problems, legal aid to victims of human rights violations, sensibilization of public opinion, consolidation of public dialogue on human rights through the organization of press conferences, colloquies, publications active interventions and other actions judged necessary. Actuality of rightsThe League was founded and originally functioned in a context of a limited democracy, within which the struggle for human rights represented a high political risk for the defenders. However, the human rights struggle was clearly determined as far as its targets and goals were concerned. The political juncture after the fall of the dictatorship in 1974 has created a new environment for the defense of human rights and freedoms, less dangerous for their defenders but nevertheless far more complicated as to its comprehension, or the protection and prevention of human rights violations due to the complex legal and administrative context of advanced liberal democracies. The consolidation of democratic principles and the consequent legitimization of public authority through the respect of human rights, the appearance of new forms of intercultural social structures due to unprecedented migration waves to Greece after the Cold War, combined with the remaining spots of cultural historical diversity (i.e. traditional minority problems), the clash of ethnic and other conflicts around the country’s boundaries have resulted in the rise of nationalistic xenophobic and racist phenomena in the Greek society. Such behaviors might be easy to denounce, but rather complicated to struggle against and change them. Therefore, we are convinced that defense of human rights, in our days, involves a higher lever of conceptualization of factors related to their violation, as well as the elaboration of new preventive strategies. This is the challenge we feel we have to meet fifty years after the foundation of our League. The League’s General Assembly elects the members of its Board every two years. The General Assembly counts up to 460 members. The Board members after the elections of June 2009 are: Mr. Dimitris Christopoulos, President, Mr Konstantinos Tsitselikis, Vice-President, Mr Yannis Ioannidis, General Secretary, Ms Klio Papapantoleontos, Cashier, Mr. Mr Nikos Alivizatos, Mr Kostis Papaioannou, Mr Takis Kampylis, Mr Nikos Paraskevopoulos, Mr Yannis Konstantinou, members,.Mr Miltos Pavlou, Ms Anna Paparrousou, Mr Yannis Rahiotis, non-voting members. |
