Demokratie International

In many regions of the world the freedom of the Internet is just an illusion. Especially in Arab countries, the neighbouring states of Russia and Subsahara-Africa the year 2015 marked the lowest point for democratic participation and civil liberties.

The civil society in Egypt is facing a disastrous suppression and realignment by the government. By returning to normal foreign policy operations this weakening condition for civil society could be even strengthened.

In Pakistan NGOs face harsh restrictions and human rights activists risk imprisonment and harrasment. It is important that the government recognizes the role of civil society and promotes a culture of cooperation and trust.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, explains in this interview with Christine Meissler why he will never give up fighting for democracy and human rights.

Civil society organisations can be a vanguard of progress for the LGBTI community. Despite the growing number of laws and policies impeding LGBTI advocacy, activists and organisations successfully challenge these trends.

With the Olympics Rios city limits are shifted: Instead of fostering the wealth of the population, the municipality opens the way for speculation in real estate.

Marilene de Paula, coordinator for the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation Brazil, analyzes the legacy of the 2014 World Cup.

State repression against non-governmental organizations is increasing globally. In this interview, Barbara Unmüßig calls for a reconceptualisation of solidarity with civil society and puts the issue of shrinking and closing spaces at the very top of the political agenda.

The participation of 4,675 female athletes in the 2012 Olympics – about 45 per cent of all athletes – was a milestone on the way to gender equality.

In spite of the maxim transparency and laws requiring free access to information the municipality of Rio de Janeiro owns a lot of information on the Olympic Games.

Barbara Unmüßig correlates the Olympics with Brazil’s institutional, political and economic crisis. Did the organizers learn a lesson from the World Cup in 2014?

With Britain leaving the EU Poland is loosing one of its most important security policy ally. At the same time up to a million polish migrants in Britain are facing an uncertain future as they were already being used as scapegoats in the Brexit campaign.

While Great Britain’s future departure from the European Union is a sizable loss to Hungary in both political and economic terms, the Hungarian government is trying to cash in on increasing popular dissatisfaction with Brussels.

Hillary Clinton should be warned by the British referendum: Similar to the Brexit movement, Trump’s campaign benefits from anti-immigrant sentiment and anger over the “political elites” and “mainstream media”.

Putinist trolls are having a good time in Hungary these days. Articles published by pro-Kremlin, anti-immigrant news sites are shared by thousands of readers, often mistaken for actual news stories. Objective journalism has thus been degraded to just one of many possible narratives for interpreting the world around us.

Many experts are in agreement that the causes and long-term implications of the refugee issue can hardly be resolved at national level. Whether Brussels can play a more prominent role was the subject of debate at the annual European Conference held by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Berlin on 26 May 2016.

The Nordic countries have traditionally been attractive for refugees. Given the large number of refugees that arrived last year, these countries have introduced an increasingly restrictive asylum policy, however.

In this core area of the work programme “Europe for Citizens” activities are pooled that focus diversly on various aspects of the European asylum and refugee policy.

The lack of a consensus culture in political life provides an explanation of France’s cautiousness towards the refugee crisis. Though, when it comes specifically to asylum, a lot has been done since 2012.

Poland has also taken in refugees and economic migrants from Chechenya, Georgia, and Ukraine. Any solution to the refugee crisis requires EU-level efforts, including effective implementation.