Human Rights

In May, activists, feminists, researchers, and human rights defenders from some 35 countries from all continents will gather at the Global Assembly in Frankfurt am Main to discuss their ideas and strategies for a world with more justice and human dignity.

In her laudation, Lotte Leicht pays tribute to people like Joumana Seif who do not demand revenge for crimes committed against them and their relatives, but who insist on justice.

With her work the lawyer Joumana Seif has played a critical role in having sexualised violence recognised as an offence that constitutes a crime against humanity, says Dr. Imme Scholz, head of the Anne Klein Women's Award jury.

In the Syrian case the international community failed to prove that human rights are also for the Syrian people, that everyone has the right to be protected. Twelve years of this ongoing war – and the international community did not do anything for the democratization of the country, they only offered humanitarian help. Interview with the winner of the Anne Klein Women's Award 2023, Joumana Seif.

In her acceptance speech Joumana Seif talks about the long road necessary to prosecute the crimes committed by the Syrian regime, to punish the perpetrators and also about the injustices suffered by women and how she is trying to support them in Germany.

Despite the high number of rapes, the judicial progress that has been made, and the judgements passed by international, national and local courts, most of the affected women are still far from receiving compensation, reparations, or recognition as a victim.

It has been one year since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in August 2021. Following the announcement of the final withdrawal of international forces, the Taliban’s fast expanse from the provinces to the capital took everyone by surprise. Twelve months after the traumatic events, the situation on the ground has further deteriorated.

On Monday night, a surprise draft ruling by conservative Justice Samuel Alito was released in the U.S. indicating that a majority on the Supreme Court wants to reverse the legalization of abortions. Ella Müller, director of the Democracy Program at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC, puts this impending caesura and the political developments behind it in context.    

In an excerpt from his essay “I, ,the fag'”, Syrian author Raeef al-Shalabi reflects on an inner struggle that helped to position himself as a gay man and ultimately to think about human rights in a new way.

Hopes were high for a progressive turnaround after the populist previous government of Andrej Babiš. What is the balance sheet of the first steps of the new Czech government?