Articles

The corona pandemic has reached Syria. Anna Fleischer, Program Coordinator for Syria, explains why the virus could hit the country extremely hard and above all endanger those imprisoned. 

We are living in difficult times and while the number of human COVID-19 infections continues to be on the rise, there is one patient that should not be forgotten: our parliamentary democracy. Judging from what we have seen in the past few weeks, the patient is in a serious condition and the prognosis is unclear.

Erik Marquardt got a first-hand impression of the inhuman conditions in the Moria refugee camp, where more than 20,000 people live in the most miserable conditions. An outbreak of coronavirus would be devastating. In order to draw more attention to this issue, he has co-created the Leave no One Behind campaign.

On 2 March 2020, Senegal reported its first case of coronavirus. This new form of COVID-19 has spread around the globe, with the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March. The public health crisis is wreaking havoc upon all social and economic aspects of people’s lives in every corner of the world, including a notable impact on gender inequality. 

President Vladimir Putin is facing the greatest challenge of his political career: the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Russia is expected to peak in the next few weeks. Johannes Voswinkel, Head of our Moscow office, reports on timid action, an unexpected crisis manager and the fears of breaking into the reserves.

Viktor Orbán uses the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to complete his authoritarian regime. These moves are not purely the domestic political problems of Hungary – an authoritarian state within the EU could be deadly dangerous for the entire project. Germany has a very important role to play in the current situation. 

For the Ukrainian energy sector, the beginning of the year was marked by the “Ukrainian Green Deal” proposal developed by the Ministry of energy and environmental protection. But when it comes to near-term plans, further investments of public funds in nuclear and gas projects are still being considered by the government.

It is still too early to learn lessons from the coronavirus crisis. However, there is one term that comes to mind when addressing the inevitable directions of political thinking after the crisis: resilience. But what exactly does it mean and how will it influence the political agenda?

Covid-19 in Turkey and the implications for LGBTI+ people who are among the most vulnerable groups in the country and who had already been struggling with challenges in accessing rights and facing systematic rights violations, including those related to the right to life. In addition to inequalities in enjoying the right to health and the right to employment, as well as soaring reports of domestic violence under isolation, the LGBTI+ community has been targeted by a recent wave of hate-motivated campaigns.

As European countries turn to apps to contain the pandemic, the EU must weigh the public health emergency against its own data protection rules. Policymakers and experts on data protection and privacy in Brussels warn that tracing and monitoring technology can undermine fundamental rights.