International Policy

Kristina Lunz and Nina Bernarding, who are leading the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy in Germany explain why a peaceful world will remain an utopia without a feminist foreign policy.

How to lobby the G7 countries to implement feminist policies? Canadian civil society organizations are pushing participation from the global south to highlight voices often not heard.

During the past seven decades, transatlantic ties have been tested repeatedly. They have included economic conflicts, competition for markets, dealing with armed conflicts and cultural clashes. Europe and the US share both the challenges and the consequences for either success or failure which makes the transatlantic relationship more important now than it has been since the end of the Cold War.

Şebnem Fincancı was rewarded for her lifelong engagement for investigating on torture and inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. The manual she published in 1999 has been accpeted as official document by the United Nations and serves as handbook and guideline for doctors, lawyers and judges. However torture remains a reality in Turkish prisons. And not only.

US Congress and the Trump administration are still wrangling over how to deal with Saudi Arabia in response to the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Europe should take a principled stance.

The “realist” discourse about nuclear weapons promises that weapons prevent war. A feminist analysis helps to understand how nuclear weapons are a patriarchal tool, benefitting the patriarchy.

Violation of human rights, deportation and colonization of the Crimean population and territory by Russia has a long history. ‘The Soviet period was a real nightmare for the Crimea Tatars’, and still is today. Four years after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, European political leaders continue to sidestep the issue of Crimea. 

Two major issues in the Syrien conflict are the strenght of the IS and migration flows. The country needs stability and the EU should contribute to the resolution of the conflict. However, will peace talks and humanitarian assistance be able to bring stability? 

The failure to go beyond rhetoric and statements of condemnation and to implement international law has allowed Israel to entrench its control over the Palestinian people and their land. The EU itself is complicit in Israeli violations through its various trade and funding links with Israel.

Israeli and Palestinians share a complex urban reality in Jerusalem. Fair policies for both communities could help enhance the living environment in the city and the personal security of all its residents in order to reduce tensions in the city such as the unilateral alteration of boundaries.