Anlässlich von 30 Jahren Ärzte ohne Grenzen in Österreich verwandelt sich der Karlsplatz in Wien zwei Wochen lang in einen Schauplatz für die Ausstellung "Ärzte ohne Grenzen hautnah".  Machen Sie sich in der neu gestalteten Ausstellung selbst ein Bild davon, wie unsere Hilfe funktioniert. 
Wie gelangen Medikamente in Krisengebiete? Wie setzen wir uns für Frauengesundheit ein? Was haben wir beim bisher größten Ebola-Ausbruch gelernt? Wie funktioniert ein Cholera-Behandlungszentrum? Treffen Sie unsere erfahrenen Einsatzmitarbeiter:innen, lassen Sie sich durch die Stationen führen oder erkunden Sie auf eigene Faust. Eintritt frei!

Wann? 9. bis 20. Oktober 2024, täglich von 10 bis 18 Uhr
Wo? Karlsplatz Wien, Resselpark. Gut erreichbar mit öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln.
Eintritt frei!

Aus organisatorischen Gründen ist eine telefonische Anmeldung für Schulklassen und Gruppen ab 10 Personen erforderlich. Die Ausstellung ist für alle Altersgruppen geeignet. 
Für ein Gruppenanmeldung erreichen Sie das Ausstellungsteam Montag bis Freitag unter der AUSSTELLUNGSHOTLINE 0660 74 95 328.

Irene Horejs in conversation with Federico Donelli and Marie Roger Biloa 

Serie: AFRICA. Dimensions of a continent. Kuratiert von Georg Lennkh

Monday, October 14, 2024, 7 pm
Bruno Kreisky Forum für internationalen Dialog, Armbrustergasse 15, 1190 Wien

Please register: www.kreisky-forum.org

30 years after the genocide, Rwanda is one of Africa's fast-growing economies and one of the most modern countries in sub-Saharan Africa with remarkable rates of poverty reduction, education, health and employment and relatively low corruption levels.

This development has been achieved with a flaw of autocratic rule, silencing critical voices and cracking down on opponents even outside the country. In July 2024, President Paul Kagame was reelected by 99% for a 4th term in office, in an election without any serious contenders. Despite autocratic rule and flagrant human rights violations, Rwanda remains well regarded among the (guilt ridden) international community and foreign investors, mainly due to its record in fighting corruption and its reliable debt service with international banks.

Rwanda – one of the smallest countries in Africa - has also become an important, - though contentious– player on the continent. It has an important voice in the African Union and other international organizations, is one of the most important providers of troops to multilateral peacekeeping missions and has signed contracts as a bilateral security provider in the Central African Republic and in Mozambique, where Rwandan troupes are, among others, securing the operations of TOTAL ELF.

At the same time, Rwanda´s military is accused to fuel war in Eastern Congo by supporting one of the main rebel groups, the M23. The war, which involves dozens of armed groups, has not only generated massive displacement and one of the largest humanitarian crises, but appears also to be linked to the illicit extraction of valuable raw materials - essential for the transformation of the EU economy under the Green Deal. Indeed, Rwanda exports more raw materials than it produces. Nonetheless, the EU has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Raw Material Value Chains with Rwanda – a move which triggered immediately criticism in the DRC and EU member countries.

How to understand these contradictions in both Rwanda´s foreign policy and the EU policies towards Rwanda? What does this mean for the EU and its interests on the continent? Is Rwanda a reliable security partner for a renewal of the African security architecture? Is it a reliable partner for improving governance in mineral extraction and contributing to secure the raw materials for the EU economy? How does the EU - one of the major development donors and sources of foreign investment - deal with Rwanda´s multiple human rights violations?

Federico Donelli, International Relations in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Trieste
Marie Roger-Biloa, member of ECDPM's board of governors, media publisher and TV producer
Moderation: Irene Horejs, former EU-Ambassador, Bruno Kreisky Forum

Book Presentation and Discussion with Naoíse Mac Sweeney

Book Presentation and Discussion with Naoíse Mac Sweeney

"The West: A New History of an Old Idea": How the Idea of the "West" Shapes Our History and Present, and what it has to do with Exclusion and Racism.

Mittwoch, 16.10.2024, 18:00 - 20:00 Uhr
C3 – Centre for International Development, Sensengasse 3, 1090 Wien, Alois Wagner-Saal

Washington, Library of Congress. Sixteen bronze statues of venerable men, meant to represent the birth of "Western civilization", look down upon historian and archaeologist Naoíse Mac Sweeney. Where does she, as a woman from a migrant background, find her place in this narrative?

Naoíse Mac Sweeney decides to write a different history of the "West". In her story, Herodotus does not appear as the "father of history" but as a migrant fleeing from the Turkish province. She tells of a powerful Roman matriarch, an Islamic scholar, a Greek crusader, and an enslaved girl in the new America.

Her narrative shows that the concept of the "West" was invented to justify exclusion and racism—and continues to serve that purpose to this day.

To register, please contact: Hanna Reiner, h.reiner@oefse.at

Naoíse Mac Sweeney was born in London to Chinese and Irish parents. She is a professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses include Greek migration and colonization as well as the use of classical antiquity in contemporary political discourse. She has received numerous academic awards for her work on classical antiquity. "The West" is her first book for a wider audience.

The event will be held in English.
The event is a cooperation between the C3 organizations ÖFSE, Baobab and frauen*solidarität.

Talking to the South African Ambassador, Rapulane Molekane

17. October 2024 – 19 Uhr
SADOCC-Bibliothek, Favoritenstraße 38/18/1, A-1040 Wien

Once more, South Africa is in the spotlight – parliamentary elections in May this year, the formation of a “Government of National Unity” and remarkable initiatives in the field of foreign policy are some of the developments which deserve our attention. For the second time already, this FORUM provides an opportunity to discuss these and other issues with an insider who is no stranger to the SADOCC community.

Ambassador Rapulane Molekane, born and educated in Soweto/Johannesburg, started his political activism with the Young Christian Students (YCS) and was President of the Soweto Youth Congress (SOYCO) in the mid-1980s and Secretary-General of the ANC Youth League 1990-94. After serving in Parliament for one period, he joined Foreign Affairs and became South African High Commissioner to Ghana, Deputy Director-General: Europe and then Ambassador to France. Since 2019, he serves as South African Ambassador to Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia and Permanent Representative of South Africa to the International Organisations in Vienna.

Um die Frankophonie in Österreich zu feiern, schließt sich das Institut français d'Autriche dem Festival Weltwortreisende vom 15. bis 20. Oktober in Graz an und lädt den Autor Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Gewinner des Prix Goncourt 2021, für seinen Roman La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (Die geheimste Erinnerung der Menschen) ein.
Der Schriftsteller wird am 18. Oktober um 11 Uhr an einer Lesung teilnehmen und ein Gespräch mit Studierenden der Französischabteilung der Universität Graz führen. Am darauffolgenden Tag wird er um 18 Uhr in der Buchhandlung List anwesend sein und an einem Treffen teilnehmen, das von dem Forscher für frankophone Literatur, Rémi Armand Tchokothe, moderiert wird.

Graz:
Freitag, 18.10.2024 - 11:00 Uhr
Bibliothekszentrum Wall, Merangasse 70, 8010 Graz
Moderation:  Andrea Renker und Studierende der Romanistik Graz
Übersetzung: Alexandra Marics 

Wien
Samstag, 19.10.2024 - 18:00 Uhr
Buchhandlung List, Porzellangasse 36, 1090 Wien
Moderation: Rémi Armand Tchokothe
Übersetzung: Isolde Schmitt
Anmeldung erforderlich: office@buchhandlunglist.at

Thursday, 24 October 2024, 19:00 - 21:00
Bruno Kreisky Forum, Armbrustergasse 15, 1190 Vienna

Language: Englisch
Registration: schmidjell@vidc.org

Panel
Suliman Baldo (keynote), Director of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, former Africa director of the International Crisis Group (ICG)
Anette Weber (online), Special Representative of the European Union for the Horn of Africa 
Amira Osman, peace activist and researcher, co-founder of the Gender Centre for Research and Training (GCRT) in Sudan
Osama Kheir Mohamed, diaspora youth activist

Moderatorin: Irene Horejs, Bruno Kreisky Forum and former EU ambassador
Begrüßung: Georg Lennkh, former Austrian Special Envoy for Africa and board member of the Kreisky Forums
Ishraga Hamid, Mendy for Peace Culture and Diversity Management
Franz Schmidjell, Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (VIDC)

Five years ago, a peaceful civil society uprising managed to oust Sudan´s long-term dictator Omar Al Beshir, and to install a joint civilian-military government for a three-year transition to democratic elections. However, a military coup in October 2021 put an end to hope for democracy and in April 2022, the two power-sharing military forces initiated a cruel war.  As a result of looting, the conscious destruction of the economy and the use of hunger as a weapon of war by both warring parties, ten million people have been displaced and 25 million face the threat of a man-made massive famine and starvation.

The war in Sudan had also devastating effects on its already unstable neighboring countries on the continent. Its strategic location at the Red Sea has huge implications for the Arab Peninsula as well as for international trade and migration. Multiple international players have a stake in this crisis, most prominently Saudi Arabia and the UAE as active supporters of belligerents, but Russia, the US, the EU and others have their stakes too. Different mediation efforts by Egypt and other neighboring countries, the African Union, Saudia Arabia and the US have had little success.

Despite the humanitarian catastrophe and international implications of this crisis, there seems to be little attention to it by Western media and decision-makers. “The world is failing to live up to its commitments to protect civilians in armed conflict”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned. When states fail to protect their citizens, the international community has a responsibility to do so.

Who are the different conflict parties, what are their interests and who is behind them? Why have the different efforts for mediation failed so far? Why do Western powers not intervene more strongly in this catastrophic conflict? What has become of the strong Sudanese civil society movements? What role can they play in the current conflict situation? Within the country and as Sudanese diaspora? How can Sudanese civil society and the diaspora contribute to support humanitarian relief for the victims of this war?

These and other questions will be addressed in this panel discussion, which constitutes the opening event of a three-day meeting of representatives of the Sudanese diaspora from nine European countries in Vienna.

Panel
Suliman Baldo
is the Executive Director of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker. He was previously director of the Sudan Democracy First Group, a Sudan-focused think tank on democratization and peace. Baldo has also worked as an U.N. Independent Expert on Human Rights in Mali, and as an advisor to joint U.N. and African Union mediation teams in the conflict in Darfur. He served as Africa director of the Africa Program at the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and Africa Director at the International Crisis Group (ICG). Previously, he worked for Human Rights Watch (HRW) as a senior researcher for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Horn of Africa. He holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Dijon in France and undergraduate degrees from the University of Khartoum.

Annette Weber
is the Special Representative of the European Union to the Horn of Africa.  She was head of the department for Africa and the Middle East at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). She was engaged in mediation in Sudan and Ethiopia as Senior Advisor for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the Berghof Foundation. Before joining SWP, she held several positions, including Head Researcher (Sudan, Somalia) with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. She also lectured as Professor in Conflict Studies, International Relations and African International Relations at various universities in Germany, Austria. Annette Weber holds a PhD and MA in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin.

Amira Osman
is a peace activist and researcher with an interest in diaspora communities, gender, peace-building and humanitarian intervention. She holds a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford and a double Master in Rural Development and in Gender and Development, both from the University of Sussex, UK. She is a founding member of the Gender Centre for Research and Training (GCRT) in Sudan. She was also a former Council Member of the International Peace Research Foundation (IPRAF). Her published articles include among other “The Sudanese women in civil society and their roles in post-conflict reconstruction” and “The role of the Sudanese diaspora in the UK in the 19th December Revolution: Reflections, challenges and the way forward.

Osama Kheir Mohamed
is a social activist and studies political science at the University of Vienna. He grew up in modest circumstances in Vienna-Hernals. His father valued education greatly and wanted a good career for his son. Osman Kheir Mohamed initially turned to music before discovering his passion for political science. Today he is an activist and engaged to contribute to a fairer, more pluralistic and democratic society. His main areas of interest are international politics, African theory and anti-racism.

Irene Horejs
was ambassador for the EU and director with ECHO (European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations). She is a lector in Political Science at University of Vienna and senior consultant at the Bruno Kreisky Forum.