Promotion of Democracy

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.

Abortion is one of the most common gynecological procedures. Legal regulations have a major impact on whether access to this essential healthcare service is safe, legal and free of charge.  

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.

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.

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.