Democracy & Human Rights

Across Europe and beyond, actors on the nationalist right are instrumentalising the concept of gender for their own political gains. In Poland the incumbent right-wing Law and Justice party, backed by the Catholic Church, demonised LGBT organisations in its recent successful electoral campaign. 

Omaid Sharifi is a pioneer Afghan activist and one of the co-founders of ArtLords, an artist association which has been attracting widespread international attention in recent years.

The Conservative election victory has killed the last hopes of averting Brexit and set the stage for disaster capitalism and climate chaos. The work of building an alternative world must take place not in government offices, but on the streets.

In a digitalized and increasingly polarised world, questions about how to protect freedom of expression online while curbing hate speech and online abuse, are at the centre of discussions about human rights protection.

In the height of debate on the agreement that the EU negotiated - in theory - with Mercosur, Brazilian activists and professors brought their doubts on this matter all the way to Brussels, particularly regarding the quality of their country’s 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.

The Anne Klein Women’s Award 2020 goes to Prasanna Gettu, a human and women‛s rights activist from Chennai, India. Gettu, a criminologist, is a remarkable and courageous  defender of human and women‛s rights, championing the right to a life free of violence, a life lived according to one‛s own wishes and in dignity and good health. - Statement of the jury: The Anne Klein Women’s Award 2020

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.