Publications

The 2025 Gen Z protests in Madagascar were catalysed by several key political events. Madagascar’s position as a Small Island Developing State, uniquely vulnerable to climate change and economic precarity, poses specific challenges, and the country’s government has failed to address these in a manner that protects the futures of its young people. The 2025 protests rallied against political corruption and government inadequacy, demanding a stronger and more just political system as well as greater accountability for systemic shortcomings. While President Rajoelina was ousted, more work is needed to ensure stronger foundations for the nation’s development and future.

The 2024 July Uprising in Bangladesh integrated the characteristics of Gen Z revolutions around the world while also building upon the nation’s unique history of protests and resistance. Over the course of several weeks in the summer of 2024, the July Uprising operationalised tools such as street art, music, and memes and combined digital networks with in-person protests. By early August, the movement ousted Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian regime, but whether the vision of the protesters can be sustained remains to be seen.

The death of 13-year-old Ochanya Ogbanje in 2018 sparked Nigeria’s #JusticeForOchanya movement seeking greater protections for women and girls against sexual and gender-based violence and greater accountability for perpetrators. The movement resurfaced in 2025 following concerted efforts at mobilisation, with renewed demands for justice and concrete procedural improvements. Interviews with movement organisers from different generations draw lessons on how such movements can be managed to ensure the attention and support needed to lead to long-term, structural change.

In his book, author Vedran Horvat takes a personal journey through the last two decades of politics in the Western Balkans and sheds light on the potential of green politics under extremely difficult conditions.

Giving birth under conditions of violence, discrimination or stress is a reality for many women giving birth. Economic and social resources often determine access to a safe and friendly birth environment.

This e-paper is written based on interviews conducted with young activists, journalists, human rights defenders and academics from Afghanistan (all under the age of 35), who have been actively involved in the process of democratisation and committed to liberal values over the past 20 years in Afghanistan; it highlights the twenty years of achievements by Afghan youth and explores their hurdles and challenges under the rule of the Taliban’s de facto regime.

Reproductive technologies encompass a wide range of medical treatments and surgical procedures that enable people to have children without the necessity for heterosexual intercourse. The number of treatment cycles has been steadily increasing since the 1990s.

Almost 8 billion people will live on earth in 2021. While in the Global North people are encouraged to have children, in the Global South programmes of so-called development aid tend to aim at reducing the birth rate.

Contraception is a powerful tool of self-determination and population control. But access to contraception varies around the world and is influenced by economic, social, and cultural factors.

Malaysia and Singapore share a history of suppression of youth activism by the state, and as a result, this has led to the depoliticisation of young people, who are often labelled as apathetic. However, the changing realities of both countries, ­such as the instability of the economy, has led young people to engage more in political discussions in recent years. However, the rise of youth activism also entails rising harassment and state suppression of youth activists through surveillance, arrests and threats to future employability. 

About half the people in the world have the capacity to become pregnant. Yet there is still no contraceptive that is 100 percent effective. This means half of all people are potentially at risk of getting pregnant unintentionally.

Disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation pollute the information space worldwide and the trend of manipulating facts continues to disrupt public communication and, consequently, democratic processes in societies. The aim of this paper is to investigate the phenomena of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, as well as their impact on the political sphere. In addition, the paper attempts to explain the harmful influence of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation on public debates, democratic processes, and civil society engagement.

About causes of escape, how to combat them and what's wrong with them.

A decline in democratic quality can be observed worldwide. The terms populism, nationalism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism are omnipresent in attempts to explain and describe this development. The e-paper examines overlaps, differences and their relationship to one another, highlights global and regional trends of autocratization and highlights the consequences of this development for civil society in the affected countries.

Is the delivery of human rights a consequential outcome of liberal democracy? This paper explores the role of human rights in democracy, and specifically whether human rights is a necessary ingredient for its sustenance.

In voter surveys, the German Greens regularly come out as the party deemed to have by far the greatest competency in this area and in energy policy as well. This study by Arne Jungjohann tries to answer if this image is justified, as it looks at the subnational level of the federal states.

Civil society acitivists and organisations are under a lot of pressure in many countries. But whether civil society can develop its potential for peace and development and shape its political participation is closely linked to the framework conditions for civil society action. The FriEnt briefing "Prevention and Peacebuilding in Times of Shrinking Space" explains the growing challenges for peace promoters in times of shrinking space.

Liberal democracies are under pressure, both worldwide and in Europe. For example, in Hungary and Poland, farright nationalist to nationalistic parties are in government and propagate an ‘illiberal’ democracy. The dismantling of democracy in an EU member state is not a national problem – it is a European one. The study makes clear the dilemma in which the EU finds itself and what possibilities for action are available to it.

How far does Budapest's influence extend? How has the "refugee crisis" affected regional cooperation? This study gives background information, facts and data on the last three years of the “refugee crisis”: its social, political, policy and diplomatic repercussions.

Governments and corporations are driving the demand for water, land and organic resources. Previously intact ecosystems are being sacrificed, thousands of people are losing their livelihoods. This study provides insights on how we can better address and monitor resource and environmental policy projects.

In 2017 ASEAN turns 50. This book collects all articles of our dossier "50 Years of ASEAN" and analyzes the institutions of ASEAN - their history, dynamics and policies.

Civil society is under pressure worldwide. This e-paper focuses on dynamics and patterns of shrinking spaces and repressions on civil society with regard to natural resource struggles and takes a closer look into consultation processes and the role of the economy.