The Macedonian P.E.N. Centre at the World Congress in Bled

From 21^st till 25^th of May 2005, the World Congress of the International P.E.N. was held in Bled, the Republic of Slovenia. Mr. Dimitar Bashevski, president and Mr. Ivan Dzeparoski, member of the Presidency, represented the Macedonian P.E.N. Centre. There was also another participant from Macedonia, Mrs. Katica Kulavkova, representing the Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee. The main topic of the Congress was “The writer in modern society”. After the procedural part of the Congress, few round tables were organized referring to various themes related to literature and the writer.
As usually, the Congress started it's work with the committees. One of the Committee was Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee which is based in Macedonia at the Macedonian P.E.N. Centre. The report for it’s activities for the past year was presented to the Committee and was accepted positively. We, the representatives of the Macedonian P.E.N. Centre, took part in the work of the Committee. After positive remarks concerning the work of the Committee, Mrs. Katica Kulavkova was elected president of the Committee again for the next three years.
Besides the work of the committees and the plenary session, two workshops were organized during the Congress dedicated to the question of the physiognomy of the International P.E.N. and the kind of activities the centres should be preoccupied with. Dimitar Bashevski took active part in the workshop regarding the future of the International P.E.N. with the thesis that, besides the need of further following up of the problems concerning human rights of writers and the freedom of expression, we should always have in mind that P.E.N. is a World association of writers and this image should not be lost. Our delegates took part in two literary readings - the one in Bled and the other in the province, together with few other writers from different PEN centres.

The President of the Macedonian P.E.N. Centre, Mr. Dimitar Bashevski, participated in the Conference organized by the Italian P.E.N. Centre between the 2^nd and the 6^th of May in Venice under the general subject “The Human Rights of the Writers”, and took part in the round table held under the title “The Freedom of Expresion and the Human Rights of the Writers in the World”. The Conference was organized with the sponsorship of the President of the Republic of Italy and in collaboration with the National Commission of UNESCO for Italy, and its participants were also Mr. Jiří Gruša, the President of P.E.N. International, and Ms Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, the Secretary General of P.E.N. International.

In the introductory part of the Conference spoke the President of the Italian P.E.N. Centre, Mr. Lucio Lami, then Mr. Jiří Gruša and Ms Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, and then also other Italian representatives. Before the start of the round table discussion, chaired by the Secretary of the Italian P.E.N. Centre Mr. Emanuele Bettini, the President of the Writers in Prison Committee of the International P.E.N. Ms Karin Clark had an introductory exposé about the situation with the human rights of the writers in the world. She presented the cases of violation of the rights and freedoms of writers in several countries and presented also the activities of the Writers in Prison Committee in helping these writers.

On the round table, at which representatives from 15 P.E.N. Centres were taking part – from Austria, Bangladesh, France, Guinea, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Tibet and P.E.N. Esperanto, Dimitar Bashevski presented his paper under the title “Freedom, the Writer and Literature”.

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