Human Rights, European Integration and Southern Dictatorships (1949-1977)Guest Lecturer Victor Fernândez Soriano
In his guest lecture, Dr Soriano connects three historical processes: the emergence of international human rights after WW2, European integration, and dictatorial far-right rule in Greece, Spain and Portugal. The main argument is that the participation of Southern dictatorships in European integration organisations challenges the official historical narrative that links European integration to human rights. In pedagogical terms, we shall dwell on the meaning of “human rights” and on the role of Southern Europe in Cold War relations. The timeline discussed in the lecture goes from 1949 (foundation of the Council of Europe and NATO) to 1977 (EC declaration on fundamental rights and beginning of accession negotiations). It is important to keep this development in mind when evaluating the path to inclusion of Central and Eastern European countries in European institutions. As Emma De Angelis and Eirini Karamouzi observed in their article “Enlargement and the Historical Origins of the European Community’s Democratic Identity” in the journal Contemporary European History in 2016: “As countries in central and eastern Europe also started on the path to democratic transition, their demands for the European Community’s support had much to do with the seeds that had been sown in the 1960s and 1970s.”
About the Author
Victor Fernândez Soriano is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and ESPOL Lille. He previously conducted research at the C²DH at the University of Luxembourg, where he worked on the global history of human rights, European integration and Southern Europe. He is the author of the book Le fusil et l’olivier. Les droits de l’Homme en Europe face aux dictatures méditerranéennes (Brussels, 2015).
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