UNIVERSITY STUDENTS CAN NOMINATE THEIR TEXTS ON EXTREMISM FOR THE DANIEL TUPÝ PRIZE
Bratislava, 15 May 2020: In November fifteen years will have passed since the murder on the Danube embankment of Daniel Tupý, who was a student at Comenius University. He was only twenty-one years old. Although the perpetrators have not been convicted, it was most likely an attack by a group of neo-Nazis. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University is organizing the tenth edition of the competition of student texts for the Daniel Tupý Prize.
“We want to honour the memory of our student, Daniel Tupý, with a competition of texts on violence, extremism, and the failure of the state in the field of human rights in the past and the present. It is these topics that specifically force us to think about Daniel's tragic death and the subsequent fifteen-year wait in vain for justice,” said Marián Zouhar, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
Current students of the faculty have not forgotten the tragedy that befell their fellow student. They realize that the evil that killed him remains present today. As the members of the Students’ Section of the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Arts, state, “Daniel Tupý was not the only victim of extremist violence in Slovakia. Marek Kaluža and Henry John Acorda are also dead. Extremists have now put on suits, and some of their ideas are becoming part of the political mainstream. Slovakia is scarred by this trauma: the milestones along its path are the graves of innocent young people, from Daniel to Henry and Martin. Our country is torn by a struggle of conflicting attitudes and ideas about the ‘right way’. We believe in freedom, tolerance, and the rule of law. And we must not be silent.”
Students from all universities in Slovakia as well as abroad can enter their works for the Daniel Tupý Prize. The deadline for submissions is 15 October 2020, and the winners will be announced on November 4, the anniversary of Daniel's death. The three best works will receive a financial reward and will be published.
This event is supported by Slovakia’s Public Defender of Rights, Mária Patakyová, and is organized by the Milan Šimečka Foundation, the Youth Against Fascism initiative, and the Students’ Section of the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava.
More information: Facebook, #tichopodanielovi