Protection and Security in Places of Worship: Ensuring the Rights of Every Individual Protecting our Religious, Historical and Cultural Heritage
At a time when places of worship are at increased risk due to terrorist attacks and the rise of hate crimes, ensuring the rights of every individual to participate and express themselves in places of worship, as well as the protection of such places as religious, historical and cultural our world heritage is a top priority among stakeholders and our society at local, national and pan-European level.
After a year of fruitful work in Cyprus, Greece, Germany and Portugal, the partner countries of the European program PROSECUW – Protection and Security for Places of Worship (https://prosecuwproject.eu/), and the Center for Social Innovation (Center for Social Innovation – CSI), as the Program Coordinator, taking the chance of the first face-to-face Transnational Partners Meeting in Cyprus, organized a Press Conference that took place on Thursday, March 10, 2022, 08:30 – 10:30 am, at the Press Center, RIK 12, Aglantzia, 2120, Nicosia, Cyprus.
The press conference presented and discussed the latest developments on the subject, snapshots from the upcoming international documentary on the protection and safety of places of worship in Europe, as well as the results of the European project PROSECUW research on the current situation and needs in Cyprus, Greece, Germany and Portugal. The conference hosted distinguished speakers from the European Commission, the Cyprus Police, academic researchers and experts on the subject:
- Koralia Kontou, Project Officer, Directorate-General for Immigration & Home Affairs, European Commission
- Salpy Eskidjan, Executive Director, Office for Dialogue between the Religious Leaders of Cyprus, under the auspices of the Embassy of Sweden (RTCYPP)
- Vyron Vyronos, Assoc. Senior Lieutenant, Head of Crime Prevention Office, Crime Prevention Department, Cyprus Police Headquarters
- Dr. Sotiris Themistokleous, Director of Strategic Development, Center for Social Innovation, Cyprus
- Dr. Nikolaos Dimitriadis, Professor of Religion, General Secretary, Center for Ecumenical, Missiological & Environmental Studies ‘Metropolitan Panteleimon Papageorgiou’ (CEMES), Thessaloniki, Greece
- Dr. Eliza Patouri, Director & Co-Founder, Research and Education in Social Empowerment and Transformation (RESET), Cyprus
- Panayiota Constanti, Senior Project Manager & PROSECUW Project Coordinator, Center for Social Innovation, Cyprus
More than 40 participants from the local authorities, the religious groups, the CSO community, as well as journalists, educators, decision makers and other interested individuals and institutions, actively joined a constructive discussion and interacted with the speakers with fruitful comments.
For the full Press Conference video and other related videos, please visit the PROSECUW Official YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaSfXhDQ4ALn-_0A7deDlA
For the Press Conference Facebook event, please click here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2525345334276619/?ref=newsfeed
For the related Press Releases published in the Cypriot national Press, please click here:
