- Visar Duriqi, Kosovan journalist and guest of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People
- Salah Zater, Libyan journalist and guest of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People
- Mert Gülmez, LL.B.-Student (Moderation)
Failed states can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or governance. Within this power vacuum, people fall victim to the violation of human rights. Both Libya and Kosovo cannot protect fundamental rights and are themselves violating the freedom of press or speech. Two guests of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People will talk about the present human rights situation in Libya and Kosovo, the persecution they faced and their experiences in Germany.
Visar Duriqi (27) worked as an investigative journalist for the newspaper “Gazetta Express” in Pristina, Kosovo. He is known as an expert on Islamist groups in the youngest of the Balkan states and focuses his research mostly on organized crime and the recruitment of young Muslim Kosovars for the armed conflict in Syria and Iraq. After criticizing the terroristic intentions of several Kosovar Islamists, extremists accused him of “turning away from the proper Islamic believe” and threatened his beheading.
Salah Zater (28) worked as a reporter for two private Libyan TV stations from 2010 to 2014. Due to his news coverage of ongoing human rights violations in Libya such as child labouring, sexual abuse, drug and gun trafficking as well as corruption he became subject to persecution by both government officials and militia. Consequently, he was arrested, threatened by state officials, abducted and tortured by the infamous militia “Axis 11” and fled the country after receiving death threats.
in Cooperation with the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People and the Amnesty International Chapter of Bucerius Law School
