The Institute of Human Rights of the Universitat de València (IDH) will conclude one of its major research projects, ‘International and European security: from the prevention of armed conflicts to strategies for the construction of an inclusive and plural citizenship’ (Prometeo project 2018/156), with the celebration of a final conference on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 April. The Prometeo programme is an initiative of the Valencian Government to promote research groups of excellence.

The final results of this research, which has spanned three years and has had a budget of 276,000 euros, will be presented at the UV’s Faculty of Law. The research has generated more than thirty scientific articles in academic publications.

Over the course of these years, the research group co-directed by professors Consuelo Ramón and Emilia Bea has concentrated its efforts on analysing and responding to some of the most significant challenges to European security, understood in terms of human security and therefore, they argue, ‘global, interconnected and multidimensional’. The principal objectives of the research have been issues related to the threat of jihadist terrorism, including the return to European and Spanish territory of fighters recruited by ISIS. Furthermore, we focus on the study of responses to phenomena such as radicalisation occurring within immigrant communities that have been settled for years (and, more recently, in the case of Spain). In response to this radicalisation, there has been an attempt (in France, for example) to legislate to counteract what are understood to be ‘separate communities’ threatening social cohesion.

In addition to the scientific work, which has resulted in meetings of experts and research stays in specialised centres, as well as in different publications, the research group has also made an effort to disseminate and raise public awareness of the debates connected with these issues through the organisation of different conferences and congresses.

The conference will feature a diverse array of panels, comprising esteemed speakers from a multitude of disciplines and national and international backgrounds. A number of members of the project’s research group will participate in these sessions, with the objective of combining the public presentation of the research results with critical reflection with other experts.

The inaugural session will commence on Thursday, 7 April at 16:00 in the Assembly Hall of the Department of Legal Philosophy (Faculty of Law) with an inaugural conference by Professor Javier de Lucas. This will be followed by two panels on business and human rights and corruption in Equatorial Guinea, respectively. At 9:00 the following morning, panels on international and European security, the fight against impunity, and finally social rights will be held.

The organisers advise that, due to capacity limitations, registration for the sessions should be completed via the online form available on the websites of the project (https://gisedde.es) or the Institute of Human Rights (https://www.idhuv.es).