On April 14, 2026, as part of the project “Global Responsible EU Leadership: Climate Change, Environmental Protection, and Humanitarian Aid” (EU_LEAD), supported by the Jean Monnet Action of the Erasmus+ program, a public lecture was held by Pavel Hyts – a professor at the University of Pomerania in Słupsk (Republic of Poland), a member of the Commission on Maritime Law and the Commission on Space Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Gdańsk branch), and author of numerous publications on international public law, European Union law, and intellectual property law, on the topic “Human Rights Protection in Europe.”
During his presentation, the speaker outlined the essence of human rights through the interconnection of culture, law, and the market; the differences between freedom and law; the nature and categories of human rights (political and personal rights/freedoms; economic, social, and cultural rights/freedoms; rights of international solidarity), universal, regional, and national human rights protection systems, historical aspects of human rights development, and the protection of human rights within the UN system and the Council of Europe.The main focus was on the issue of human rights protection in the European Union, particularly the content of the 2000 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which enshrines human rights within the EU and establishes new human rights (protection of personal data, the right to good administration, and access to documents). Dr. Paweł Hyc outlined the specifics of the human rights protection system in the Republic of Poland.
A total of 44 people participated in the event — students and faculty members of APP — who engaged in an active discussion at the conclusion of the event. The young people were interested in issues of human rights in the digital age, personal data protection, the legal regulation of artificial intelligence, as well as the observance of human rights under martial law, humanitarian and migration law, the crisis of the liberal world order, the rise of populist nationalist movements in EU countries, and the legal possibility of Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the European Union.
The EU_LEAD project team expresses its gratitude to all participants for the engaging discussion and exchange of views, and above all to Dr. Pavel Hitz for his substantive, timely, and extremely valuable lecture for young people in the context of Ukraine’s European integration.
