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The Indian national identity system, Aadhaar, was set up to empower disadvantaged groups and enable digital innovation. However, it has sparked protests.

Over the last years, Asia has undergone an impressive digital transformation. Large parts of the continent have turned from the world’s factory into a creative industry. Digitalization has become a driving force of social and economic change. This certainly means more opportunities for innovation and growth for many countries. However, on the flipside, if new technologies are in the wrong hands they can also be used as a mean to abuse power.

Women in Pakistan face sexual harassment in public spaces and in the digital sphere. We talked with Nighat Dad, founder of the Digital Rights Foundation, about women’s experiences and how virtual abuse can be countered.

Although ASEAN’s new consensus document on migration is a giant step towards safeguarding the rights of migrant workers, it still sticks to putting skilled professionals and lower-skilled migrants in separate silos.

Thirty years after the Velvet Revolution, the atmosphere in Czech society is poisonous. Many who followed the course of the Czech presidential elections during the past few weeks in detail must feel they are trapped in a nightmare.

In bestowing the Anne Klein Women’s Award 2018 on Jineth Bedoya Lima and Mayerlis Angarita Robles, the Jury is honoring two women from Colombia who have campaigned for the rights of women in armed conflicts, against the use of structural sexual violence, and for peace in Colombia and the nation coming to terms with its past.

Geoengineering – large-scale manipulation of the Earth’s natural systems – is increasingly being presented as a strategy to counteract, dilute or delay climate change. Which international legal norms and agreements would contradict the different measures?

Nowhere in the EU is smog more suffocating than in southern Poland. This year, the polluted Polish mining city Katowice will host the COP24 climate conference. Ahead of that, change is in the air — and on the ground.

In July 2017, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed additional sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea. What was the response from Russia and Germany? How are U.S. lawmakers addressing European concerns?

While energy giants like Exxon and Shell have drawn fire for their roles in warming the planet, the corporate meat and dairy industries have largely avoided scrutiny.

Prof. Alexander Betts on his new study on Syrian refugees in Europe and the political consequences that their exclusion from the labour market might have.

This manifesto shares the thoughts, expectations, concerns and recommendations of Afghan women in relation to women’s political participation, their role in security sector as well as their engagement in peace process in Afghanistan.

Hungary has reached a point where people fleeing from war and persecution can be detained, beaten and deprived of their rights, while those who endeavour to help them are cast as national security risks.

A small group discussion concerning Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) was held at the office of the Heinrich Boell Stiftung (hbs) Pakistan in 2017. Experts from the field of environment and former government officials who had been part of the EIA process were brought together. Some environment journalists were also in attendance.

The “Pakistan Climate Change Portal” is an online repository of Pakistan-specific knowledge on the subject of climate change. It has been developed by the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change (CSCCC), a registered consortium of civil society organizations working for climate action in Pakistan, and made possible with financial assistance from Heinrich Boll Stiftung and European Union.  

With the death of Arseny Roginsky, the Heinrich Böll Foundation loses one of its closest and oldest friends and partners in Russia.

The power shift in Zimbabwe was a military coup, says Brain Raftopoulos. To prevent the consolidation of a new authoritarian state, the international community has to be careful not to prioritise stability over democratisation.

Representatives of political parties and civil society all echoed in same voice for the increased representation and participation of women in decision-making forums in the political and social arena by ensuring level-playing field to them. They shared these views at the launching of the Gender Action Manifesto, policy paper, organised by the Heinrich Boell Stiftung in collaboration with the Women's Parliamentarian Caucus on 13th October, 2017 in Islamabad.

This essayistic anachronism imagines Böll's novella The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1974) as if it were unfolding in contemporary times in an era of populism and rising conservatism, in which female sexuality is still richly milked as a sensational cover for abuse of patriarchal power.

Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS) Pakistan through its project “Journalists on Resource Equity and Climate Change” organized a workshop followed by a capacity building field visit for environmental journalists based in Lahore, to highlight the environmental degradation caused by cement factories in Kahoon Valley, District Chakwal. The three cement factories in Chakwal have already led to fast depletion of natural ponds and groundwater resources. Still two more factories are pushing their way into the beautiful valley thus threatening the remnants of environmental, social, economic and biological life of the local communities. The news reports prepared by the journalists after the field visit have brought about tremendous attention of the provincial government and the judiciary to this issue.

In this study, the Heinrich Böll Foundation with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) want to show how the mechanisms to narrow the space for civil society work. At the same time, the study focusses counterstrategies and proactive strategies to push back against civil society restrictions.

The scope of action for civil society actors opposing large-scale projects; protesting social injustices, land grabbing, and environmental destruction; and demanding democratic participation and human rights is shrinking continually.

Since Hungary has built the border fence, refugees have to wait for as long as a year to gain admission to the transit zone where they can file for asylum. Admission is hectic and slow and favours families and unaccompanied minors. Most of those who attempt crossing illegally are single males over 18.

Governments and corporations are driving the demand for water, land and organic resources of all kinds as never before. Citizens are fighting for their rights and working to preserve their livelihoods. Our study "Tricky Business" shows how the mechanisms of expropriation work. [external_media:soundcloud.com/boellstiftung/tricky-business-bollfocus]

Both the Mugabe’s succession plan and Mnangagwa’s long held Presidential ambitions have been in play for some time. While they have coincided in their strategic intent, at some point the final confrontation between the two was always on the cards.

Mayerlis Angarita and Jineth Bedoya are the recipients of the Anne Klein Women’s Award 2018 for the many years that they have dedicated to women’s rights and peaceful conflict resolution in Colombia. The award ceremony will take place in Berlin on March 2nd.

In the "Transatlantic Manifesto" published by DIE ZEIT in October 2017, the authors emphasise the necessity of a strategy based on fostering transatlantic relations. Critics are calling for a "new post-Atlanticism foreign policy", an attitude that is based on fundamental misunderstandings.

The German Federal Constitutional Court has ordered the legislature to provide a third gender option beside male or female in the country’s birth registry – or else do away altogether with information on gender in civil status. This puts Germany in a position to play a leading role in Europe on this issue.

The political activist, Márton Gulyás, calls for a reform of the Hungarian electoral law. The government has declared him a national security risk. In this interview he talks about his reform ideas and why a movement of civil disobedience is the only option.

COP 23 was one COP in two zones: The Bula zone was the site of the official negotiations  - with little relevance to what happens in the real world. The Bonn zone hosted dozens of civil society kiosks and hundreds of events searching for real solutions.