Ganna Sarybaieva Participated in the 2026 CEU Democracy Institute Annual Conference

Ganna Sarybaieva Participated in the 2026 CEU Democracy Institute Annual Conference

On 25–26 June 2026, Ganna Sarybaieva, Founder of the Open Dialogue Platform and Doctor of Law, participated in the CEU Democracy Institute Annual Conference, Imaginary Exhaustion? Revisiting Democratic Futures Past, held in Budapest.

The conference served as an international forum for rethinking the role of law in an era of democratic transformation, digital change, and the growing challenges facing democratic imagination. Bringing together leading scholars in law, political science, history, sociology, and the humanities, the event explored the future of democracy, the rule of law, and democratic institutions in rapidly changing societies.

The opening panel set the intellectual framework for the conference by addressing a fundamental question: Can law secure democracy’s future? The discussion highlighted that while the rule of law remains an indispensable foundation of democratic governance, legal institutions alone cannot respond to today’s democratic challenges. Their effectiveness increasingly depends on public trust, democratic culture, historical consciousness, and societies’ ability to imagine and shape a shared future.

Throughout the conference, participants examined democratic resilience, constitutionalism, migration, memory politics, digital technologies, populism, the transformation of the public sphere, and emerging forms of authoritarianism. Despite the diversity of perspectives, the discussions converged on a common conclusion: the future of democracy will depend not only on the strength of institutions but also on societies’ capacity to sustain democratic values, cultivate public trust, and develop new forms of civic engagement.

These discussions closely resonate with the research agenda of the Open Dialogue Platform, which explores the intersections of law, digital transformation, human rights, cultural memory, and democratic resilience. In the digital age, law increasingly operates within environments shaped by algorithms, information infrastructures, digital platforms, and evolving forms of public communication, requiring new interdisciplinary approaches to democratic governance and the protection of human rights.

Participation in the conference provided an important opportunity to contribute to the international academic dialogue on the future of democracy and the rule of law while strengthening professional connections with scholars working on contemporary democratic transformations.