propaganda and verbal aggression can be seen in all the major tragedies of this world. The exceptional effectiveness of propaganda everywhere is puzzling. That is what we want to reflect on. Exclusions affect various minorities - including minority identities. If someone's right to identity is denied, the person feels it with all their being. The reasons may vary, but an attack on identity is, in fact, an attack on a human being,' Piotr Cywiński pointed out.
The conference opened with a lecture by Prof. Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch. He spoke about the universal characteristics of human nature that may lead to exclusion and ultimately even genocide and the next steps in the process leading to genocide.
'Man is an animal that uses symbols and classifications. We employ classification when we try to describe a phenomenon. It is an innate feature of our mind; however, we forget it is not an objective description of our surrounding reality but an abstraction created by us. We often place too much importance on this abstraction and use it against others. Excluding people from specific categories may lead to them being seen as strangers or enemies,' he said.
'Genocide, unfortunately, is not an exception but a rule in human history. If we are to combat genocide, then we must consider how we can influence human nature. There is only one race, the human race,' Prof. Stanton emphasised.
The first panel devoted to exclusion on account of religious belief brought together activists who deal with issues of Islamophobia, antisemitism and anti-Christianity on a daily basis and who reflected on the reason for such violent radicalisation and brutal persecution affecting representatives of the world's largest religions. They included Logan Carmichael, Director of Advocacy, China Aid; Dr Farid Hafez, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Salzburg; and Dr Leon Saltiel of the World Jewish Congress, UN and UNESCO Representative and Coordinator for Countering Antisemitism.
The second panel aimed to present the true meaning of the exclusions affecting women and children during armed conflicts and discuss their consequences for excluded people. The panellists included Brita Fernandez Schmidt, former Managing Director Women for Women International; Léa-Rose Stoian, Deputy Director, We are NOT Weapons of War; and Marek Krupinski, Director General of UNICEF Poland.
On the second day of the conference Tuisina Ymania Brown, Co-Secretary General, ILGA World; Jovan Ulićević, Board Member, Transgender Europe; and Vyacheslav Melnyk, Executive Director of the Campaign against Homophobia, spoke about exclusions on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. The guests discussed why LGBT+ people arouse so much intolerance, where the consent to violence derives from, and why there are cases of law enforcement agencies remaining passive in the face of persecution.
The conference ended with an emotional meeting with victims and witnesses of exclusion, who tried to point out the commonalities and differences in their experiences and what impact the experience of exclusion had on their lives. Participants in the discussion included Almasa Salihović, Survivor of the conflict in Bosnia; Maung Zarni, activist counteracting the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar; Linda Greta Zsiga, Roma activist encountering exclusion in Romania; and Dr Lutz van Dijk, historian and writer, representative of the LGBT+ community.
During the conference and open-call session, representatives of local organisations talked about their projects, which promote exclusion awareness in the modern world and provide genuine help and support to those who have fallen victim to it. The winners of the international competition "My memory, my responsibility. In my place", organised by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute, also delivered their presentations.