Promotion of Democracy

Instead of top-down reforms for the media, the countries in Southeast Asia need policies that prioritize the public’s interests.

Social media in ASEAN has quickly evolved from being a passive tool for knowledge consumption and entertainment to an active mechanism for change.

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.

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.

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]

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.

A coalition of Syrian civil society, activists and lawyers have filed criminal complaints in Germany against some high-ranking Syrian officials under the principle of universal jurisdiction. A first step towards justice for the victims and survivors of all crimes committed in Syria.

State capture by well-connected politicians and their recklessly proceeding patronage networks has been far reaching in the Balkans. How could citizens deal with very diffuse networks, if there are no intact correctives, no free, no independent justice?