Democracy

Human rights defenders advocate humanity and fight for freedom, dignity, equtiy and equality for all people. In many countries, they're being surpressed and punished for standing up for those who can't. Therefore, the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders was created.

Youth-led street movements have forced climate warming up the agenda in the past year. School strikes and demonstrations introduced young people to politics for the first time and new discourses changed how people think about the climate.

In an early election held after a corruption scandal collapsed the right-wing government, the Austrian Green party achieved a historic high, gaining 13.9 per cent of the votes. From appealing across the rural-urban divide to new electoral coalitions, the strategic questions emerging from the recent Austrian election are relevant for green and progressive parties all over Europe.

This short documentary tells the story of women fighting for reproductive justice in El Salvador, where abortion is illegal under any circumstances.

Brexit is patriarchal and a threat to human rights. Turning a feminist lens onto Brexit, then, reveals a host of concerning power struggles running throughout the process and wider British politics. From racist and Islamophobic narratives underpinning the Vote Leave campaign, to the idealisation of Britain the Empire: Brexit is a feminist issue.

Brexit, Boris Johnson, Backstop - these are the November 2019 headlines of the British media. But with each new passing headline, every new article title aimed to draw the reader in, and in all the subsequent debates at both the domestic and regional level, the issue of gender has been notably absent.

Revelations of rampant sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry sparked an outpouring of testimonies from women and girls across the globe in 2017. Despite gains for equality in many parts of the world, sexist treatment and abuse remains a pervasive and universal problem. The political sphere has also been a focal point of allegations, among which the European Parliament. 

30 years ago, citizens managed to bring down a repressive surveillance state through peaceful resistance: the fall of the Berlin Wall. Resistance, solidarity and the thirst for freedom made citizens strong to oppose repression and overcome barriers. Those who fight for human rights should be protected by international standards as was agreed by the international community.