Publication Series on Europe 6: With the ink on the Treaty of Lisbon scarcely dry, the European debt crisis has once more raised the question as to how the EU should be constituted. The Union’s ability to hold together and withstand the crisis is being put to the test. The EU finds itself at a crossroads.

The 2007–2008 world food price crisis caused political and economical instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. This was only the latest example for a functioning food system being an indispensable pillar of a stable economy and a society capable of reproducing itself. A new study outlines steps how the intergovernmental Committee on World Food Security could be expanded towards a politically relevant international steering committee.

In March 2009, the Serbian National Assembly narrowly passed the Anti-Discrimination Law despite immense opposition from religious leaders and right-wing political parties. Nevertheless, breaches of Human Rights of LGBT are still common in Serbia today. This Shadow Report evaluates the law’s application and provides recommendations of how to improve implementation and thus the Human Rights situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Inter* individuals in Serbia.

Twenty-two authors from fifteen different countries contemplate the fates of refugees and asylum-seekers in literary form. The perspectives and insights are just as different as individual motives, destinies, and experiences.

The impacts of changes to the global climate affect men and women not only differently, but women are often affected disproportionally worse. Gender equality and the fight against climate change are two challenges that have to be tackled simultaneously, and urgently. A collection of Essays.

In recent months, a number of rapid and dramatic developments have unfolded that demand our attention. The most prominent of these include the tsunami and the ensuing nuclear reactor crisis in Japan, political upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East, and most recently the Green Party‘s swift rise in popularity in Ger many, which led to the election of Germany‘s first Green Minister President at the federal state level – namely in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Publication Series on Ecology 17: A short introduction to new concepts for a good life in South America and to nature's rights by Thomas Fatheuer.

Leftist governments in Ecuador and Bolivia have drawn up new constitutions. Buen Vivir – the right to a good life and the rights of nature – has been enshrined in these documents. Buen Vivir is based on indigenous traditions and sees itself as a concept that departs from Western paradigms of affluence. This essay describes the political genesis of a complex concept.

How People Define Violence and Justice is a joint research project of ACSFo and HBS on international crimes, massacres, rapes, murders, destruction of residential areas, homicide and imprisonment of intellectuals, torture and human rights abuses of the past fifty years. The standards for justice and human rights violation in this project are defined by people. Views, beliefs and utterances of respondents constitute the basis of this research.

With their presentation of specific topics and discourses, the media construct specific realities that shape a society’s images of other regions. This comprehensive study analyzes the portrayal of China in German media. Originally published in German, this summary summary shows the essential results.