Refugee policy in Europe and in Germany has tightened noticeably since 2025: new restrictions, an increasingly security-oriented rhetoric and growing doubts about compliance with human rights standards now shape the treatment of displaced and traumatized people. How can a reasonable balance be maintained in this field of tension between legitimate security interests and binding human rights obligations?
The event “Artificial Empathy? Human Rights Perspectives on Displacement, Trauma and Artificial Intelligence” features three keynote speeches. The opening keynote will be delivered by Judith Kohlenberger, ECDF Associated Member and migration scholar, who will speak about her book "Migration Panic", published in September. In it, she demonstrates how politically fueled narratives of fear are used to legitimize increasingly restrictive migration and asylum policies—and why this places additional pressure especially on people who are particularly in need of protection. The second keynote will be delivered by Eva van Keuk, Psychotherapeutic Director of the Psychosocial Center for Refugees in Düsseldorf and, until recently, long-time Executive Board Representative for Human Rights at the Professional Association of German Psychologists. She will explain the concrete effects these recent developments are having on psychosocial and psychotherapeutic practice with refugees. Moderator, author and “taz” editor Friederike Gräff will then introduce “Homina,” the psychosocial AI advisor developed by Inter Homines, thereby highlighting the growing digital dimension of the field. In the discussion that follows, these different perspectives will be brought together, exploring both socio-political and digital as well as psychosocial-therapeutic approaches to action. In the subsequent panel discussion, the different perspectives will be brought together, exploring both socio-political and digital as well as psychosocial and therapeutic approaches to action. The event will conclude with an open networking session, offering space for exchange, encounters and further discussion.
The panel will be moderated by Friederike Gräff, author and “taz” editor.
Date: February 2, 2026
Event start: 5:00 pm
End of the panel discussion: 6:45 pm, followed by networking
Venue:
Einstein Center Digital Future
Conference Hall, 1st floor
Wilhelmstr. 67
10117 Berlin
Further information on registration //here.