PEN Ukraine

---

PEN Ukraine is a Ukrainian non-governmental organization established to protect freedom of speech and copyright, promote literature and international cultural cooperation. It is part of the network of national centers of the International PEN.

PEN Ukraine (logo)

Title

PEN is an abbreviation which stands for poets, playwrights, essayists and novelists.;

History

"The Ukrainian PEN Centre is part of the network of PEN International, the activity of which is based on the 1921 PEN Charter and aims at protection of freedom of speech and expression, support for imperiled and persecuted authors, defense of language and cultural rights, and promotion of humanist values through culture and literature".

Today, the Ukrainian PEN has 108 members, its main governing body is the general meeting, the operational management is carried out by the Executive Council of eight persons headed by the president and two vice-presidents. The activity of the Ukrainian Center for Medium International PEN is regulated by the officially registered Statute and the legally confirmed status of a non-profit public organization. The general nature of the activity is determined by the Charter of the International PEN (established in 1921), where the main task of the PEN is to protect freedom of speech and expression, restore minority rights, help persecuted writers, support cultural development, and promote humanistic values ​​through culture.

During 2011-2017, the Ukrainian PEN implemented a number of short-term and permanent projects, including: presentation of Ukrainian issues at the 78th Congress of the International PEN in South Korea (M. Marynovych, 2012), the 80th Congress in Kyrgyzstan (A. Kurkov, 2014) , 82nd in Galicia (M. Ryabchuk, A. Kurkov, G. Bekirova, 2016), successful lobbying of the next, 83rd PEN Congress in Ukraine, in particular - the invitation to Ukraine of the President of the International PEN John Ralston Sol (Kyiv & Odessa, 2015), Dre Menaker, Head of International Relations, American PEN (Kyiv, 2016) and Carles Thorner, Executive Director of International PEN (Lviv & Kyiv, 2017), holding annual regional conferences of Eastern European PEN clubs within the Lviv Publishers Forum, annual award ceremony Ukrainian PEN named after Shevelyov (ceremony and media coverage), the annual award ceremony of the PEN. Stus (Book Arsenal ceremony), annual International PEN competition “New Voices”, participation of the President of the Ukrainian PEN in anniversary events organized by Polish (2015), Slovak (2015), Romanian (2017) and Croatian (2017), presentation of Ukrainian issues at the meeting of the International PEN Committee “Writers in Prison” in Rotterdam and ICORN in Lillehammer (Galya Koinash, 2014 and 2017), the annual International Writers ’Meetings in Bled, Slovenia (A. Kurkov), the OSCE Conference on Freedom of the Press in an Unstable Environment »In Vienna (O. Panych, V. Yermolenko, 2017), numerous trips and speeches of PEN members in the regions of Ukraine, etc.

Activity

Since 2014, the Ukrainian PEN has been trying to draw attention to the events in Ukraine, the occupation of Crimea and Ukrainian political prisoners in Russian prisons through a series of statements to the international community.

In particular, the following were published:

• Statement on the cessation of escalation of violence in Ukraine "To prevent the escalation of violence". Statement of the Ukrainian Center of the International PEN Club, Eurozine, 23.01.2014;
• “To prevent the escalation of violence”: Statement of the Ukrainian Center of PEN International PEN Club, Eurozine, 23.01.2014;
• Statement of protest against political repression in Crimea and in defense of Ilma Umerova
• “Free Ilmi Umerov! Stop Political Terror in the Crimea!” aimed at prevent political repressions on the peninsula;
• Open letter to Dutch colleagues on the eve of the local referendum on the Ukraine-EU Association;
• Statement in defense of Ukrainian journalist, member of the Ukrainian PEN Mykola Semena;
• Regularly informing foreign colleagues and the international community about the case of Ukrainian writer and film director Oleg Sentsov, who is illegally imprisoned in Russia, and lobbying for an international campaign for his release.

The greatest achievement of the Ukrainian PEN today is the organization and holding of the 83rd Congress of the International PEN in Lviv on September 18-22, 2017. From the very beginning, this event was seen as a unique opportunity to raise international issues of Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia and the occupied territories, to place the topical issue of refugees (internally displaced persons) in the international context, and to draw due attention to the tragic fate of ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious minorities in the occupied Crimea, in particular the fate of the Crimean Tatars persecuted by the occupation authorities. In addition to the traditional plenary sessions and meetings of commissions and committees, the Congress managed to organize 27 additional events open to the general public, especially young people - concerts, exhibitions, lectures, panel discussions, literary meetings and poetry readings with Congress delegates. The main event was a multimedia evening "Empty Chairs" ("Empty Chairs"), dedicated to imprisoned and persecuted authors, which presented the case of Oleg Sentsov, a documentary about him, a fragment of his play, and where he spoke with poems by Sergei Zhadan and with his compositions - "DakhaBrakha".

The Congress became not only a significant cultural but also a political event - a manifestation of international solidarity of writers with Ukraine, which since 2014 is in a state of undeclared war with Russia, experiencing along with military aggression and a powerful propaganda and defamation aggression. The reflection of such international solidarity was a number of resolutions adopted at the Congress, its embodiment is the very official theme of the 83rd Congress - "Reclaiming truth in times of propaganda" ("Defending the truth in the age of propaganda"). Like every successful international event, the Congress helped to establish a positive image of Ukraine in the world, promote Ukrainian culture, convey information about Ukraine through opinion-creating environments of different countries, represented at the congress by leading writers.

Discussion PEN club

The PEN Discussion Club is a project of the Ukrainian PEN, the purpose of which is to comprehend urgent issues in the dialogue and promote the development of civil society, to form a culture of respect for the interlocutor and the ability to hear others. The first season of the PEN Discussion Club took place in Kyiv from autumn 2018 to spring 2019 with the participation of leading writers, journalists and intellectuals. The second season started in September 2019 with the support of the Democracy Fund of the US Embassy in Ukraine. Within its framework, discussions will take place not only in Kyiv, but also in regional centers of the country.

PEN Charter

PEN claims that:

1. Literature does not recognize borders and must remain a common value of nations in the face of political or international upheaval.
2. Under all circumstances, and especially in times of war, works of art - and the cultural heritage of mankind in general - must remain inviolable by national and political interests.
3. PEN members must at all times use all their influence for mutual understanding and mutual respect between nations and peoples; they undertake to do their utmost to dispel any hatred and to uphold the ideal of a single humanity living in peace and equality in a single world.
4. The PEN advocates the principle of unhindered dissemination of opinion within each nation and between all nations, and its members undertake to resist all forms of oppression of freedom of expression in their country and the community to which they belong, as well as throughout the world, as far as possible.
5. PEN recognizes freedom of the press and opposes arbitrary censorship in peacetime. He is convinced that the proper progress of the world towards a more highly organized political and economic order determines the imperative of freedom to criticize governments, administrations and institutions. And because freedom implies a voluntary expression of restraint, members undertake to resist such vices of the free press as false publications, deliberate lying, and distortion of facts for political or personal gain.

Leadership

Presidents of the Ukrainian PEN

1989—1993 - Mykola Vingranovsky

1993—2010 - Yevhen Sverstyuk

2010—2014 - Miroslav Marinovych

2014—2018 - Mykola Ryabchuk

Andriy Kurkov - elected on December 17, 2018

Vice Presidents and Executive Director

In August 2018, journalist Tetyana Teren became the executive director of the Ukrainian PEN.

As of October 2019, the members of the Executive Board of the organization are Olena Styazhkina, Leonid Finberg, Yevhen Zakharov, Larysa Denysenko and Ostap Slyvynsky.

Social networks

PEN Ukraine in Facebook.

References

Category: Freedom of speech Category:Clubs and societies Category:Writers' organizations Category:PEN International

This article "PEN Ukraine" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:PEN Ukraine. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

This page exists already on Wikipedia.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Diddikicks
• Free Speech Radio News
• Geopiratism
• Helsinki Social Club
• Freedom of speech versus blasphemy
• Feminists for Free Expression
• Freedom of speech

---