Charles University Law Prof. Harald Scheu from Prague, who lectured June 13th-25th, 2022 at Mykolas Romeris University’s (MRU) Public Security Academy in Kaunas, said cooperation will hopefully continue with the Public Security Academy.
“We will have to look at ways to use European and other funds to conduct research and undertake joint projects that our institutions are interested in,” said the Law Professor, who conducts research in the fields of international migration law and international human rights law.
He said academics from both universities have cooperated on joint research and a publication.
In 2021, a joint paper was published in a Czech legal publication dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic with measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. Its authors were Prof. Scheu, Public Security Academy Institute of Law and Law Enforcement Head Prof. Birutė Pranevičienė and Prof. Violeta Vasiliauskienė.
Potential future areas of research cooperation include international aspects of law enforcement, migration, public health and the COVID-19 pandemic and its influence on the populations, especially minorities, in Lithuania and the Czech Republic.
"We have common ground for cooperation in these areas,“ he added.
Speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic, he said that COVID measures had a broad impact on human rights and affected the entire population.
Prof. Scheu said that close ties have developed with the Public Security Academy‘s Institute academics Prof. Birutė Pranevičienė and Prof. Vasiliauskienė.
Currently Prof. Scheu sits on the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which is part of the Council of Europe‘s human rights protection system. He has participated in working visits to countries such as Estonia. For example, in the case of Estonia, issues relating to the Roma and the Russian minority were discussed.
In order to increase trust between the police and minorities in the Czech Republic there is a recruitment strategy involving members of minorities.
The final product of the Advisory Committees work is an opinion containing suggestions and recommendations for the country concerned.
Since 1997 Prof. Scheu has been lecturing on International Law and European Law at Charles University in Prague. He has has been presenting lectures at the Police Academy of the Czech Republic since 2018. June 13th-25th, he was invited as a Lecturer at the Public Security Academy in Kaunas to lecture on "European and International Human Rights Law."
Prof. Scheu has been a member of the Council of the Government of the Czech Republic for Human Rights since 2013 and since 2014, a member of the Czech Government‘s Legislative Council.