As the guest of honour, Deputy Ombudsman Dr Jože Ruparčič attended the virtual international scientific conference entitled Human Rights in the Modern Organisation and Society (SOCIAL 2022) on 30 November 2022. The purpose of the conference was to highlight the importance of a stronger commitment to respect human rights in an organisation and society in order to move away from the current destructive practices that are leading us in the long term from the democratic visions of modern society into the imposed shackles of neoliberalism and autocracy.

The participants spoke about human rights in modern organisations, diversity management and inclusive society, active ageing, democracy in crisis and the crisis of democracy. They discussed the restriction on freedom of speech, freedom of media and digital dictatorship, discrimination, human rights, socio-political climate, and human rights and artificial intelligence. The participants also focused on the reasons for the decline of women’s rights and dedicated their attention to the care for rights of vulnerable groups.

In addition to Deputy Ruparčič, a number of panellists from Belgium, Brazil, Cyprus, Ecuador, Poland, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom presented their views on the developments in the field of human rights.

The conference was the result of cooperation between the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Social Issues at the Faculty of Organisation Studies in Novo mesto, the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, the Cardet organisation of Cyprus, the UCLL University of Applied Science in Belgium, and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering in Novo mesto.

Abstracts of content discussed by the participants