{"id":72970,"date":"2025-09-29T13:16:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/?p=72970"},"modified":"2025-09-29T13:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:16:55","slug":"renovabis-congress-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/renovabis-congress-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Renovabis Congress Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Berlin, September 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201c<\/strong>Untouchable and vulnerable<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The preservation of human dignity was the focus of the international congress of the Catholic solidarity campaign <\/strong>\u201c<\/strong>Renovabis\u201d <\/strong>for the people of Eastern Europe. Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk gave a moving speech<\/strong><\/p>\n

BY MICHAEL LEH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Human dignity was the focus of the three-day International Renovabis Congress held in Berlin from September 9 to 11. Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk gave a moving speech via video link from Kiev to the more than 200 congress participants. They had previously been welcomed to the Catholic Academy by Berlin Archbishop Heiner Koch and the managing director of Renovabis, Father Thomas Schwartz.<\/p>\n

The participants came from many countries in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Founded in 1993, the German Catholic solidarity campaign \u201cRenovabis\u201d for the people of Eastern Europe is active in 29 countries. The name \u2018Renovabis\u2019 comes from Psalm 104: \u201cYou will renew.\u201d The motto of this year’s Renovabis Pentecost campaign was: \u201cFull of dignity. Empowering people in Eastern Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Renovabis

View of the hall at the Catholic Academy in Berlin, photo: Leh<\/p><\/div>\n

Likeness to God<\/strong><\/p>\n

The congress emphasized the importance of the dignity of every human being as an expression of their likeness (imago Dei) to God. The first sentence of the first article of the German constitution reads: \u201cHuman dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.\u201d The heated discussions about whether unborn life is also entitled to indivisible human dignity have recently made it clear how endangered human dignity can be in our society. At the beginning of the congress, Archbishop Koch declared that Christians must \u201cspeak out vividly and committedly and stand up for human dignity in all phases of life without exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

The congress also formulated a final appeal. It states: \u201cEvery human being has dignity from the beginning because he or she is made in the image of God. It does not depend on success or strength.\u201d However, human dignity is threatened by violence, social inequality, and exclusion. \u201cWhen a person’s value is measured by performance and usefulness, when polarization and dehumanization increase, the common foundation of our society breaks down,\u201d the appeal states. And: \u201cWe call on each and every one of us to take personal responsibility for humane coexistence \u2013 in everyday life, in the family, in the neighborhood, at work.\u201d The way we treat the weakest among us shows \u201chow human we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dignity as a matter of life and death<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesuit Father Vyacheslav Okun, who comes from Ukraine, explained that he always visits a military cemetery in Lviv. He knew some of the fallen soldiers personally. Father Vyacheslav: \u201cAt this moment, when Ukraine is facing the greatest test of its independence, the word \u2018dignity\u2019 takes on a new and urgent meaning. It is no longer an abstract concept, but a matter of life and death, freedom and oppression, light and darkness.\u201d War shows how fragile the line between humanity and inhumanity is. \u201cWe are witnessing,\u201d Father Vyacheslav continued, \u201chow easily a person can become \u2018inhuman\u2019 when they lose awareness of the image of God in themselves and in others. At the same time, we also see the opposite: extraordinary acts of solidarity, mutual support, and devoted love\u2014glimmers of divine dignity that no darkness can extinguish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occupation is just war in another form <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Renovabis

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk spoke to the conference participants via video link from Kyiv. Photo: Leh<\/p><\/div>\n

Oleksandra Matviichuk, a human rights lawyer who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has documented more than 70,000 Russian war crimes in Ukraine since 2014 with her Center for Civil Liberties and other organizations. In her speech, she described individual atrocities as examples. Putin denies Ukraine’s right to exist and wants to wipe out the Ukrainian nation and culture. Civilian buildings and infrastructure, including hospitals, are being attacked indiscriminately. Matviichuk emphasized: \u201cSome may think that occupation is better than war because it reduces human suffering. But occupation does not reduce human suffering, it only hides it. Living under Russian occupation means deportations, torture, rape, denial of Ukrainian identity, forced adoption of children, filtration camps, and mass graves. It is war, just in a different form.” Any peace built on the suppression of human suffering would be neither just nor sustainable.<\/p>\n

Oleksandra Matviichuk, a human rights lawyer who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has documented more than 70,000 Russian war crimes in Ukraine since 2014 with her Center for Civil Liberties and other organizations. In her speech, she described individual atrocities as examples. Putin denies Ukraine’s right to exist and wants to wipe out the Ukrainian nation and culture. Civilian buildings and infrastructure, including hospitals, are being attacked indiscriminately. Matviichuk emphasized: \u201cSome may think that occupation is better than war because it reduces human suffering. But occupation does not reduce human suffering, it only hides it. Living under Russian occupation means deportations, torture, rape, denial of Ukrainian identity, forced adoption of children, filtration camps, and mass graves. It is war, just in a different form.” Any peace built on the suppression of human suffering would be neither just nor sustainable.<\/p>\n

She herself has interviewed hundreds of people who survived Russian captivity:\u00a0 \u201dThey reported being beaten, repeatedly raped, locked in wooden boxes, their knees smashed, their genitals tortured with electric shocks, their fingers cut off, their fingernails pulled out and drilled into. One woman had her eye gouged out with a spoon.\u201c Matviichuk emphasized: \u201dRussian soldiers commit these war crimes simply because they can\u2014without being punished.” Putin and other Russian government and military officials must be prosecuted.<\/p>\n

Matviichuk underscored the importance of each individual’s commitment in light of her experiences in Ukraine: \u201cOrdinary people can do extraordinary things.\u201d In Ukraine, ordinary people repeatedly risk their lives to save others they have never met before.<\/p>\n

\"Renovabis

Oleksandra Matviichuk (right) accompanied former political prisoners and torture victims Prof. Ihor Kozlovskiy (left) and journalist Stanislav Aseyew (centre) from Donetsk prison to panel discussions in Berlin in December 2021. Photo: Michael Leh<\/p><\/div>\n

Lectures for rats <\/strong>in prison cell<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The author of this article had already met Oleksandra Matviichuk in Berlin in December 2021, before she had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At that time, she had accompanied philosophy professor Ihor Kozlovsky (who died in 2023 at the age of 69) and Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseyev, both of whom were political prisoners in the same prison in Donetsk and had been tortured. Kozlovsky also had a leg broken during the torture. Matviichuk had recorded his statements after 700 days of Russian captivity. As she reported in her speech at the Renovabis Congress, Kozlovsky had also given philosophy lectures to the rats that came up through the sewers in his windowless, filthy cell during his solitary confinement \u2013 “so that they could hear the sound of a human voice” (and probably his own as well).<\/p>\n

Discussion forums, lectures, excursions<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the congress, there were several panel discussions, lectures, dialogue groups, and excursions\u2014for example, to a Caritas hospice in Berlin Pankow. Topics included \u201cLiving in dignity. Dimensions of human dignity and questions surrounding it\u201d (introductory lecture by Ingeborg Gabriel, professor emeritus of social ethics from Vienna), \u201cChallenges and dilemmas based on the question of assisted suicide\u201d (with Professor Andreas Lob-H\u00fcdepohl and Professor Jean-Pierre Wils, among others).<\/p>\n

Parliamentary State Secretary Johann Saathoff (SPD) spoke on \u201cPolitics has a duty \u2013 dignity as a guide for development and cooperation.\u201d In a \u201cCountry Focus: Bulgaria,\u201d Diana Dimova reported on border protection and the treatment of refugees. Harutyun Harutyunyan from the University of Yerevan in Armenia spoke about internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh\/Artsakh. Father Norbert Frejek SJ from Chernivtsi explained the traumas of war in Ukraine. Other topics included the practice of pregnancy conflict counseling, violence against women, and assistance for victims of human trafficking.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

This article by IGFM board member Michael Leh appeared on September 18 2025 in the Catholic weekly newspaper <\/em>\u201c<\/em>Die Tagespost.\u201d We are publishing it here with the kind permission of the author.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berlin, September 2025 \u00a0\u201cUntouchable and vulnerable\u201d The preservation of human dignity was the focus of the international congress of the Catholic solidarity campaign \u201cRenovabis\u201d for the people of Eastern Europe. Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk gave a moving speech BY MICHAEL LEH Human dignity was the focus of the three-day International Renovabis Congress held in Berlin from September 9 to 11. Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":72948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Renovabis Congress Berlin - Menschenrechte Osteuropa - News & Konflikte","description":"Berlin, September 2025 \u00a0 \u201c Untouchable and vulnerable \u201d The preservation of human dignity was the focus of the international congress of the Catholic solidarity"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,1240,487,216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bl-en","category-country-ukraine-3","category-country-ukraine-2-en","category-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72970"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72974,"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72970\/revisions\/72974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrights-online.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}