The Russian war in Ukraine is a war against cities. Everyday we see heartbreaking scenes from Mariupol – the city of Maria -, Kharkiv, Kyiv or Lviv. Cities are human rights hubs. Lviv and Utrecht both want to be cities of human rights. Being a ‘human rights city’ changed fundamentally after the Russian invasion on Februari 24. In this conversation we discuss what it means today for Lviv and Utrecht to be or become ‘a city of human rights’. Our guests are Daryna Zarzhytska, president of the Educational Center of Human Rights in Lviv and Hans Sakkers, Program Manager International Strategy of the city of Utrecht. Also Kristiina Vainio (Finland), Marta Siciarek (Poland) and Sebastian Bartsch joined in. They added important issues like ‘in this time of catastrophe the language of help is probably more apt than the language of human rights’. And ‘should we stop city-to-city cooperation with Russian cities and cities without an independent civil society.’ Definitely to be continued.
