Performers
Radka MacGregor Pelikánová
Radka MacGregor Pelikánová studied law and economics in the EU and the USA. She has worked in several countries and possesses extensive professional experience, particularly in the fields of intellectual property law and EU law. As an attorney, she is a member of the Michigan Bar Association and the Czech Bar Association, with ten years of experience in business management. For the past 15 years, she has primarily focused on academic and publishing activities, with many of her articles on sustainability, CSR, and values published in leading academic journals.
Her lecture will address the intersection of intellectual property, values, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility.
Robert Kenyon MacGregor
Robert Kenyon MacGregor studied economics in the USA. He spent many years working in corporate management, dealing with supply chains and the real estate market. He later became an expert on U.S. history, a writer, and an editor. Over the last 10 years, he has focused on lecturing, specializing in business ethics, commerce, and sustainability, including the exploration of the interconnection between various sustainability policies and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He provides expert analyses and information in this field and contributes to foreign journals.
His presentation will address selected aspects of environmental protection in the USA and Europe.
Jarmila Duháček Šebestová
Jarmila Duháček Šebestová is an associate professor at the Silesian University in Opava, School of Business Administration in Karviná. She is an experienced researcher focusing on small businesses, non-profit organizations, and social enterprises. She has participated in numerous international projects, including IPREG (Innovative Policy Research for Economic Growth) and the E-WORLD project (International Entrepreneurs Network), as well as the COST project titled "Transnational Collaboration on Bullying, Migration and Integration at the School Level" (CA18115). She is the vice president of the European Council for Small Business for the Czech Republic, where she supports research activities in this area.
Jarmila will represent the Silesian University at the Expert Panel.
Gwendolyn Albert
Gwendolyn Albert is a human rights activist. After receiving a bachelor's degree in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, she came to Charles University in Prague in 1989 on a Fulbright Foundation scholarship. She participated in the Velvet Revolution as a translator for Civic Forum. As an activist, she has been involved in issues such as dignified memorialization of Roma concentration camps, ensuring equal access to mainstream education for Roma children, and compensation for forcibly sterilized women. For her "long-term and selfless defense of human rights," the Committee for the Compensation of the Roma Holocaust awarded her the Humanitarian Award in August 2020. In 2021, she received the Alice G. Masaryk Human Rights Award from the U.S. Embassy in the Czech Republic for her long-standing advocacy for access to justice and compensation for victims of forced sterilization.
Gwendolyn will be the honorary guest of the expert panel.
Katarzyna Gattnar
Katarzyna Gattnar is a lecturer, event organizer, and artist. She graduated from the School of Business Administration at the Silesian University in Karviná and the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Ostrava, combining creativity with strategic management. She has ten years of experience in the non-profit sector (including Amnesty International, Forum 50%, and the One World Human Rights Film Festival) and in informal education both in the Czech Republic and abroad. She has contributed to several projects focused on equality and women's rights.
In the upcoming workshop on Women's Rights, you can look forward to an interactive quiz on the journey to equality in our country and an open discussion on the hot topic, "What is the purpose of feminism, yesterday and today?" The workshop will provide space for clarifying what feminism is and is not, and we look forward to a conversation with you.
Elena Gorolová
Elena Gorolová is a Roma human rights activist and social worker who has long been dedicated to raising awareness about the unlawful sterilizations of Roma women. She has been engaged in the fight for their compensation from the state for over 15 years. Elena Gorolová has also contributed to international initiatives and policies aimed at human rights protection and equality through her work with the United Nations (UN).
Her lecture focuses on the unlawful sterilizations of Roma women as a violation of human rights and discrimination. In her presentation, she will explain how these illegal practices represent a serious breach of human rights and equality, and she will discuss efforts to achieve justice and compensation for the victims of these unethical practices.
Kellye Hyan McIntosh
Kellye Hyan McIntosh spent more than 20 years in Washington, DC, where she contributed to the development and implementation of successful national campaigns focused on human rights for children, the elderly, women, and families. She led programs and field teams for NGOs and a successful campaign for the U.S. Senate.During her 15 years at the Alliance for Justice, Ms. McIntosh helped lead national grassroots coalition efforts to ensure a fair and equal federal court system in the USA. She worked on four U.S. Supreme Court nominations and dozens of federal court nominations.
At the U.S. Student Association, Ms. McIntosh organized a non-partisan campaign to increase voter turnout, registering nearly 100,000 new college-age voters.
Ms. McIntosh received direct action organizing training at the Midwest Academy and has since trained thousands of progressive activists to lead local, state, and federal legislative campaigns and build diverse coalitions.
She holds a Master of Arts in Government from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Political Economy from Michigan State University..
David Březina
David Březina, a graduate in political science from Palacký University in Olomouc, currently works at Eurocentrum Ostrava, which falls under the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. His areas of interest include the EU, particularly migration policy and environmental policy. In his free time, he engages in informal education both in the Czech Republic and abroad.
His workshop will focus on migration with an emphasis on human rights.
Zuzana Hudcová
Zuzana Hudcová holds a master's degree in International Law from Newcastle University, UK, and a master's degree in International Development and Environmental Studies from Palacký University in Olomouc. She has worked for UNICEF in Jordan and Zambia, focusing on children's rights, the right to a clean and safe environment, and climate change in relation to water access (WASH domain). She has lectured on the human rights aspect of environmentalism in Zambia and Spain.In her lecture, she will discuss the newly recognized right to a clean and safe environment in relation to climate change.
Marcel Mahdal
Marcel Mahdal is a high school history teacher at Pavel Tigrid Language Gymnasium in Ostrava-Poruba and a long-time expert in the field of historical education. He serves as a master teacher consultant for the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles, managing the Visual History Archive (VHA). Marcel is an active member of the PANT association board and the program council of the PANT Center, where he contributes to the development of educational projects focused on modern history.
In addition to his teaching work, Marcel is the team leader of Europe Direct Ostrava, a European Commission representation in the Moravian-Silesian Region, which strives to strengthen dialogue between citizens and the European Union. He is also the editor-in-chief of the website www.obcankari.cz, dedicated to civic education. He has been active in education for over 15 years, and his work includes editorial work on the website www.moderni-dejiny.cz.
Silvia Knyblová
Silvia Knyblová completed a course as a social services worker and has dedicated nearly her entire life to working with socially disadvantaged citizens. She worked at the Northern Moravian Roma Association as an agency worker in the Equal project, focused on combating all forms of discrimination and disadvantage in the labor market. She also worked as a field worker for the Statutory City of Karviná, where she helped members of the Roma community in socially excluded areas. She even led a dance club for children from this community. Before joining the non-profit organization ROMODROM o.p.s., she worked again for the Statutory City of Karviná as a crime prevention assistant, focusing on fieldwork in the city's excluded areas.
Currently, she has been working for over ten years as a field social worker for the non-profit organization ROMODROM o.p.s. in the Housing First project, aimed at acquiring and maintaining standard housing. This project supports people socially excluded or at risk of social exclusion in reintegrating into society. The goal of the project is not only to find housing but also to help create a home, enabling people to live full lives again.
Dominik Plíhal
Dominik Plihal has been working as a local consultant at the Agency for Social Inclusion, part of the Ministry for Regional Development of the Czech Republic, for four years. In Ostrava, he focuses on coordinating social inclusion policies, providing project consulting, and mediating education in this area. He previously worked as a consultant at BeePartner, specializing in the strategic development of territorial units.
Dominik studied Management in Social Services at the School of Business Administration in Karviná and is now studying psychology at Palacký University in Olomouc. He is a member of the Absolvent & Recovery Coaches Club, which brings together people with experiences of addiction.
Dominik Plihal will present at the Karviná Human Rights Festival with a lecture focused on the causes and consequences of social
Tomáš Konečný
Tomáš Konečný studied history and specializes in the history of science and technology and the history of ideas, in his last publication he dealt with the relationship between institutions and innovations in European modern history. For the past ten years, he has been active in the management of a number of associations focusing on the civic education of students in the areas of the functioning of democratic principles.
Beyond that, he deals with issues of academic and publication ethics and socio-economic barriers in Czech higher education. He currently works at the rectorate of Charles University as a trustee for interest activities, and also as a member of the ethics commission and the council for equal opportunities.
In his lecture, he will try to outline a view of the development of the idea of the right to elected representation in European history.
Jana Volná
Jana Volná studied social work and psychological counseling at the University of Ostrava and completed training in transformational systemic therapy. In her practice, she has devoted herself to the topics of personnel management, education and family therapy, and for the past 10 years she has been working in the field of social housing. As the coordinator of the Housing First project, it promotes long-term stable living of people in housing need in their own apartment with adequate targeted support according to their own needs. He also deals with the topics of counseling and education in the area of housing and participates in the preparation of legislation on supported housing. The motto of her work is: "When someone believes in you, you can do more"