Coping with Crisis the Vietnamese Way – A Role Model?

The world is currently teetering on the brink of the corona crisis. This pandemic was the trigger of the downturn, but certainly not the cause, which lies much ...

Migration

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

A human tragedy is unfolding at the Turkish-Greek border. While Erdoğan, the President of Turkey, is waving refugees through to Europe, the European Union is failing to come up with a humane solution to the problem beset by fears of repeating the experience of 2015. The rush to shut down borders is putting European values in an increasingly precarious position.

#FFI

Bui Thi Suu

In Vietnam, a country with a growing manufacturing industry and almost 50% of the employees being female, gender discrimination is still a tremendous issue. Business executive Bui Thi Suu implemented a mechanism in her company that hires and rewards women based on their credentials, preventing discrimination because of their gender.

#FFI

Kaka Bag-ao

In the Philippines, women tend to be puppets in political positions that male family members vacated until the men are eligible to run again. Dinagat Islands Governor Kaka Bag-ao proved that this system can be overcome through leadership anchored on people’s participation.

Pakistan: Water Crisis is a Regional Political Challenge

Since its independence in 1947, Pakistan has faced many political and economic challenges. Among others, one of the major and long-term challenges for Pakistan is neither extremism nor terrorism, but the lethal combination of climate change and a rapidly growing population. Both these issues are influencing water resource- scarcity on the one hand and monsoon flash floods on the other.

Free Trade and Human Rights

Human Rights in a Free Trade Agreement

Free trade agreements should be encouraged, and we should find more reasons to make it work rather than to discourage them. However, the politicians need to be empathetic to the conditions of the ground traders and ensure that their rights are as protected as the corporates.

Human Rights Index 2019 is out!

Prisoners of Conscience 2019: Political Prisoners from East and Southeast Europe

Every year hundreds of people around the world are wrongfully imprisoned for no other reason than being critical of those in power. In some countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Russia, human rights advocates, opposition leaders, journalists, activists and others have been targets of persecution and crackdowns on critical voices. They have become prisoners of conscience. Download now the full report "Prisoners of Conscience: Political Prisoners from East and Southeast Europe".   Raising awareness is crucial, as one political prisoner is one too many. 

Prisoner of Conscience: Nazli Ilicak

Human Rights

Prisoner of Conscience: Ahmet Altan

“I will never see the world again. I will never see a sky unframed by the walls of a courtyard,” writes Ahmet Altan, a journalist and best-selling novelist from Turkey, in his latest book, which he has written while in jail. Altan’s memoir is made up of a series of essays reflecting on his arrest and his experiences on the inside. The book, called I Will Never See the World Again, was put together thanks to notes the writer managed to smuggle to his lawyer.