Many police officers in Bosnia-Herzegovina have not been in the situation before to deal with non-heterosexual people. "Coming out!" an EU-funded projects reflects emerging stereotypes and predjudices in trainings to increase the sensitivity for needs and rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender.

The Jasmine Revolution has prevailed, and the dictator has fled. The Tunisian people have outlined a new page in their history and the history of the Arab world during this first half of 2011.

In 2014 Western combat troops will leave Afghanistan after 13 years of engagement. In the wake of this caesura certain policy changes of actors of the international community have taken place. This report traces these changes in the cases of the negotiations with the Taliban and German governmental development cooperation.

The Afghanistan activities and the Civil Society Forum (2./3. December in Bonn)On December 5, 2011 in Bonn an international Foreign Ministers Conference on Afghanistan will take place – nearly exactly to the day ten years after the Petersberg Conference on Afghanistan. Also representatives of the Afghan civil society will ask to speak with their own political proposals regarding Afghanistan’s future.

To the degree that the international community is concerned with the intra-Afghan agreement and security handover, so should it also be concerned that the process does not harm Afghan civil society, but rather ensure that it has an active voice in the process. 

In his Interview, Aziz Rafiee, Managing Director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum, assesses the developments in Afghanistan during the last ten years. Where can we mark successes and where do gaps persist? Which role does the Afghan civil society play and will the Taliban be invited to the table at the Bonn conference on Afghanistan in December?

After brutal attacks against African refugees in conjuncion with a demonstration at Tel Aviv's HaTikva, high-ranking politicans of the Israeli governement are demanding a tougher action against illegal immigrants. But there are also more and more voices that support more agreeable solutions.

The migration stream going through Mexico is the largest in the world. Violence is on the migration routes of the day. At least since the discovery of 72 dead migrants in the northern state of Tamaulipas in August last year, brings the issue of serious human rights violations against migrants in Mexico increasingly into the public interest. An inventory

The cold December fired up Hungarian politics. For days, thousands of students marched on the streets to protest against the government’s plans to drastically cut higher education spending. The demonstrations resulted in a defeat for Viktor Orbán, with his government being forced to withdraw its reform plans.  

In July 2011, ISAF officially handed over seven areas to Afghan National Security Forces, beginning a process to gradually transition all security responsibility from international to Afghan leadership. Drawing on The Liaison Office’s experience in the region Loya Paktia, this paper examines the shortcomings of a transition strategy that focuses on security, while ignoring important social and political factors that could undermine the strategy.