100 Anniversary of the Congress of European Nationalities in Geneva

On 9 October 2026 Geneva hosted an experts’ meeting to commemorate the centenary of the Congress of European Nationalities.

In 1925 representatives of European nations and minorities, not having an official seat at the table, met in Geneva to raise their voices at the League of Nations – the precursor of the United Nations. For more than a decade the Congress advocated for  the advance of collective rights, dialogue and conflict prevention at international level.

A hundred years on, some legal protections for minority languages and peoples exist, but a significant gap remains between legal safeguards and political representation and the debate on self-determination does not have a clear space in the international governance organisations.

Against this background, the 100 Anniversary of the Congress of European Nationalities revisited the legacy of the 1926 Congress and opened a discussion on collective rights and self-determination in today’s multilateral landscape.

The day opened with welcome words from Alfonso Gómez, member of the Geneva City Council and mayor in 2023–2024 and 2025–2026; and Antonia Luciani, President of Coppieters Foundation.

Nicolas Levrat, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, delivered the keynote address.

The first roundtable looked at the history of the Congress of European Nationalities and at national recognition in historical perspective. The speakers were Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, Professor of Modern History at the University of Santiago de Compostela, and Kas Swerts, lecturer at KU Leuven and researcher at ADVN.

This first session was followed by presentations of some of the participants that provided an updated from a historical perspective on the cases of the Corsican people, Baskes, Frisians, Galicians, Catalans, Rijeka, Åland Islands or Savoie.

The afternoon roundtable ‘Looking forward: self-determination and global governance” examined how the right to self-determination of peoples has evolved from a global governance perspective. Fernand de Varennes, expert on human rights and international law, and Anwen Elias, Reader in Politics at Aberystwyth University, took part. Sandrina Antunes of the Research Center in Political Science (CIPC) at the Universidade do Minho moderated.

Sébastien Farré, Executive Director of the Maison de l’histoire at the University of Geneva gave the final remarks and closed the day.

With the organization of this event Coppieters Foundation celebrates a historical event of great importance, bringing light into a rather unknown part of our history and keeps advocating for the values of dialogue, recognition of national diversity, and cooperation among the peoples of Europe.

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This event is an initiative of Coppieters Foundation with the collaboration of the Masion de l’histoire of the University of Geneva and Sine Qua Non.

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This event is  is financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for the content of the event nor for the opinions of the speakers.

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