The 14th Annual Meeting of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies

The peninsula was and remains an important part of the history of the School’s formation. Since the beginning of USPS, we have visited Crimea every year. Our groups were hospitably received in Bakhchysarai Zincirli Madrasa. But after 2013, this became impossible. We believe that future USPS groups will be able to freely visit Ukrainian Crimea.

In the meantime, together with the Community, we wanted to call to mind murmur of Crimean waves and plunge into the atmosphere of the sea. This is how the installation “Crimea” was created, which we presented at the annual meeting of USPS. These are memories for each of us and an opportunity to feel a little part of home for the entire Crimean Tatar people.

We believe that future groups of the School will be able to freely visit Crimea. In the meantime, we will look for “the way home”, as Jamala sings.

In 2020, the Ukrainian School of Political Studies turns 15 years old. Therefore, we wanted to show the full Path of the Community’s formation, starting in 2005, when the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to create the Ukrainian School of Political Studies.

For 15 years, we have been overcoming challenges and developing together, the whole Community. Circumstances and political players were changing, but we have defended our principles. Ukraine needs justice, breakthrough, and unity. To do this, our Community has always chosen one Path – the path of values, dialogue, education, and taste.

Andriy Andrushkiv, our alumnus and project director at the Centre for Joint Actions, spoke about the importance of a dialogue at the USPS Annual meeting.

At the same time, it is important to adhere to certain principles of a dialogue. In particular, a dialogue requires homework, effort to hear the other, silence, and attention.

According to the speaker, dialogue is not a thing in itself but a way to learn the truth. We have a lot of topics for a dialogue. How can we build a system of public service where we could serve, not cringe? How can we build a judicial system that does not pass politically motivated sentences? Only in the format of negotiation, dialogue, and co-creation can we come up with rules for the future. And, thus, to ensure that the country in the process of creation does not fall apart like the Tower of Babel.

Anna Kyrii, Founder of the Architecture Bureau and a USPS alumna, spoke to the guests on the topic of architecture in politics.

“We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us,” the speaker quoted Winston Churchill.

She told and showed how architecture reflects political regimes of countries, how symbolic the difference is between democracy and authoritarianism, using buildings as examples. The former build bridges, the latter – fences.

Ukraine inherited many authoritarian style “political” buildings from the Soviet Union. Rebuilding the past for new quality of the future is a new symbolic task for modern Ukrainian architects.

Yevhenia Zakrevska, Chair of the Bar Advisory Group and a 2020 USPS alumna, spoke with the School’s Community about values. Yevhenia is a lawyer for families of the Heavenly Hundred in Maidan cases. She has gotten used to standing up for her principles no matter what. In particular, in November 2019, she went on a hunger strike when, due to some actions of the Parliament, investigation of the cases was suspended. This is because values encourage you to fight.

This evening Andriy Stelmashchuk, Managing partner at Vasyl Kysil & Partners and an alumnus of the School, spoke about justice as one of the fundamental values of the Community.

However, today in Ukraine, there are certain obstacles to achieving justice.

“Legal institutions – judiciary and law enforcement systems – have a high level of distrust. This means that people want justice but cannot get it in these institutions,” said Andriy Stelmaschuk.

Legal activity, the main goal of which is to achieve justice, is now mixing with business all over the world. Here, says Andriy, it is important to remember that a lawyer is not a businessman because his main goal is not to make profit. A lawyer is, first of all, someone who cares about justice.

Nicole Ruder, Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office, described how the Ukrainian School of Political Studies overcomes challenges with the help of its main value postulates. She also said that Switzerland supports USPS on its way.

Rustem Umerov, a representative of the Crimean Tatar people and co-founder of the Astem Foundation, stressed how important unity is for Ukraine now in order to preserve its sovereignty and statehood.

People unite because they have some common features. However, according to Mr. Umerov, only unification for the sake of positive development, justice and peace, and protection of common values can be truly long-term.

In Ukrainian history, there are many examples of how unity helped to achieve the highest goal.

“Last year, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Act of reunification of Ukrainian People’s Republic and West Ukrainian People’s Republic. Then Ukrainians proved to the whole world that unity can get a specific political and legal form – the united Ukrainian state. A terrible price had to be paid for that, as the soviet regime saw the unity of Ukrainians as a threat to its own existence. We went through the Holodomor and repressions, but we won. We restored our own statehood and created a political nation. The Ukrainian national flag is now proudly hoisted all over the world,” the speaker said.

And now, we again need unity of all citizens of Ukraine in order to defeat the enemy. Truth has nothing that divides. Truth has something that unites us.

Awarding diplomas to the group in 2019 was the last act at the 14th Annual meeting of USPS.

On this day, the programme participants officially completed their training. But we don’t say goodbye to our alumni. New victories are there ahead on our common path!