Ambassador of Kingdom of Netherlands Will Discuss Human Rights at VMU
We kindly invite you to participate in the public lecture-discussion “Human Rights and Security Implementation Challenges in the Contemporary World” by H. E. Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Jack Robert Twiss Quarles Van Ufford.
The public lecture will be held on Thursday, May 4th, 2023, at 5 pm. in the Centre for Research and Studies at Vytautas Magnus University, V. Putvinskio St. 23, Room 106, Kaunas.
In his lecture, the Ambassador will discuss today‘s dilemmas of human rights and security. Human rights opponents still claim that it is a Eurocentric concept, even though these arguments are most commonly expressed by dictators most commonly express these arguments. Human rights and security are often seen as opposites or even contradictory concepts. But security creates a strong foundation for human dignity which is the basis of human rights and social development. However, human rights and security can sometimes clash as security interests can imply the need to restrict certain human rights. Three examples of human rights and security implementation will be discussed during the lecture.
E. Ambassador Jack Robert Twiss Quarles Van Ufford holds a Master‘s degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam. He began his diplomatic career in 1990 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Since then, he has worked in the Dutch embassies in Tanzania, Nigeria, and the US, furthermore, he was the head of the Netherlands representative office to the Palestinian authorities. From 2011 to 2016, he was an advisor to the Prime Minister on foreign policy and defense. From 2016 to 2022, he worked as a Director of Intelligence at the General Intelligence and Security Services. Since 2022 he has been the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Lithuania.
The lecture will be held in English.
