Reflections

Dennis Conroy
Member, San Miguel de Allende PEN Centre
Representing, Chicago Network for Justice and Peace

A pre-conference gathering was held on 24 March in the Brussels Town Hall at which delegates were addressed by Mr. Freddy Thielemans, Lord Mayor of Brussels and other dignitaries. Immediately afterward, delegates dined together at a nearby restaurant and participated in the “Forbidden Books” presentation as part of a Passa Porta Festival public event. The Passa Porta Festival (held every day of the WiPC Conference) hosted a hundred “odd encounters, talks and debates with well-and lesser-known authors.”

Over the course of four days, the open and celebratory presentations and dialogues with writers from around the world were in stark juxtaposition with the PEN conference focus of urgent and sustained intervention on behalf of countless writers world-wide who are imprisoned, threatened, disappeared and murdered.

25 March
WiPC Chair Marion Botsford Fraser opened the morning session that included presentations from PEN International WiPC, HALMA (a network of 16 literary centres throughout Central and Eastern Europe that provides scholarships to writers, facilitates work with translators, and organizes other intercultural exchanges), ICORN—The International Cities of Refuge Network (a global association of cities dedicated to the value of freedom of expression, each city hosting a persecuted guest writer with room, board, and economic security for two years), and brief updates from PEN Centres’ representatives on their current work. The afternoon session included robust presentations on Mexico by Mexico experts Jens Lohman of Danish PEN and Brendan de Caires of Canadian PEN. Mr. Lohman commented that the Mexican authorities promise to give serious attention to the disappearances and killings of print journalists and writers yet nothing of substance happens. Mr. De Caires presented a draft report, “From Whom to Seek Justice: The Failure of the Mexican Government to Protect the Human Rights of Journalists and Freedom of Expression,” on the problem of impunity in crimes against freedom of expression in Mexico resulting in the failure of the Mexican authorities to bring to justice those responsible for crimes committed against journalists and writers. The draft report, expected to be distributed in the coming weeks, is a collaboration between Canadian PEN and the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, International Human Rights Program. As a first-time WiPC conference attendee, with approximately two years of service through the San Miguel PEN Centre, I was heartened by the depth of the warm and collegial reception afforded me by the Mexico experts.

PEN International President John Ralston Saul participated in a discussion with the Chair of the Sub-Committee on Human Rights of the European Parliament during which it was announced that representatives of the Sub-Committee on Human Rights would be traveling to Mexico in 2011. It is hoped that concerns will be expressed to senior level Mexican government representatives demanding that serious, sustained and effective measures be taken to address the plight of journalists and writers who are attacked, disappeared and murdered throughout Mexico with impunity. Conference “Frontline Reports” focused on Congo, Uganda and Tunisia. A Congolese writer who was forced to flee for his life from his homeland reported on conditions in Congo that make writing an extraordinarily dangerous profession, saying repeatedly that he “did not know who to trust in his country,” nor did he know how to safely organize PEN activities in Congo due to the widespread and systematic oppression of writers and journalists. After his brother was murdered, and his entire family threatened with death, he was granted asylum in France. At present he and his wife await approval to bring their 6 children to France. Following several intensive reports from selected African countries, conference delegates shared a meal at a restaurant and then attended the Passa Porta festival “Shahrazad Stories for Life” event at the KVS Royal Flemish Theatre (where most PEN Conference meetings and breakout sessions were held).

26 – 27 March
Days 3 and 4 included joint WiPC, HALMA and ICORN hosted sessions
focusing on visas and migrations, working with the European Union on human rights issues, translation and publication issues, the dynamic of mobility and creativity for writers, and the uses of digital media post-Wikileaks. A “Frontline Report” on Afghanistan included a presentation by Parwez Kambaksh who was sentenced to death at age 23 for writing on behalf of women’s rights. He languished in 7 different prisons; his death sentence eventually was commuted to a prison term of 20 years. International PEN and other organizations kept his case in the public eye which led to President Hamid Karzai unexpectedly arriving at his prison and ordering Mr. Kambaksh’s release. Subsequently, Mr. Kambaksh was taken to an NGO in Afghanistan and from there he was able to gain asylum in Denmark.

The afternoon session on the 26th I delivered a comprehensive overview on the recent actions in Mexico prepared by International PEN Mexico expert Tamsin Mitchell, and I commented briefly on consequences of Section 33 of the Mexican Constitution that prohibits resident foreigners from involvement in Mexican ‘political affairs’ on pain of expulsion. (Ms. Mitchell’s report will be scanned and distributed to the members of Mexico’s PEN Centres by San Miguel PEN Secretary, Lucina Kathmann.)

At the conclusion of the WiPC Conference the delegates shared lunch at Brussels’s historic Old England building followed by attendance at the Passa Porta Festival’s concluding event, a conversation with Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk—a member of Turkish PEN—and Mr. Geert Lernout, a professor at the University of Antwerp.

As an associate member of San Miguel PEN, for the past two years I have responded to alerts from the International PEN Rapid Action Network by writing to Mexican authorities on behalf of disappeared and murdered journalists and writers. In 2010 alone there were 9 reported killings and 3 disappearances. It was extremely gratifying and moving to participate in the 9th Writers in Prison Committee Conference. I thank San Miguel PEN and the Chicago Network for Justice and Peace for providing financial assistance for travel, hotel and conference expenses.

I am indebted to all PEN members, writers-in-exile, and PEN staff with whom I interacted for 4 intensive days and nights. I shall do my best to repay their kindnesses and instruction with renewed vigor and dedication to the task of advocating on behalf of writers under attack. Fighting for the right of freedom of expression is humbling work indeed.