Lebanon’s Descent Into The Abyss Commentary The biggest uprising in the country’s history, a devastating explosion in Beirut a year ago, a global pandemic, and now one of the worst socio-economic crises in the world. In the last two years, Lebanon has been transformed beyond recognition, has unraveled beyond limits. By Samer Frangie
Tirana 2020: No Remembrance, No Discourse Tirana's historic building stock is disappearing. Overnight, listed buildings lose their status and are demolished the next day. Last year, at least ten villas were levelled to the ground. In their place, multi-story residential and commercial buildings are being built by private investors. This development does not benefit the city's residents. By Anja Troelenberg
A political map of Slovakia two years after the tragedy of the murder of Ján and Martina Background February 2020 will be written into the modern political history of Slovakia as a month with a great turning point which combined in a special way two dramatic themes in the internal political development of the country. By Grigorij Mesežnikov
The Real Price of Coal in the Wartime Donbas: a Human Rights Perspective This publication shows that the price of coal extraction in Donbas is not only its high production cost, but also a number of political and environmental consequences paid for by the people in Donbas and the entire population of Ukraine. pdf
How Corruption Fuels Climate Change Dirty dealings protect the powerful and moneyed interests of the oil and gas industry. That is one reason why governments have not been able to meet their emission reduction commitments. Why the battle against climate change and corruption must be fought together. By Lili Fuhr and Simon Taylor
South Africa: “Strengthening democracy is about building trust in the system” Like nobody else Thuli Madonsela stands for the compliance of constitutional maxims in South Africa. In her seven years in the office as “public protector”, she repeatedly uncovered various abuses of powers by the political elite. We talked to the winner of this year’s German Africa Award. By Maria Kind and Layla Al-Zubaidi
Macedonia: a captured society The hostile environment created by the government makes the work of civil society actors practically impossible. To be a human rights activist in Macedonia is to be a person that is constantly threatened, attacked, and demonized. By Xhabir Deralla
Anti-Corruption – Goal on Anti-Corruption Tackling corruption is crucial to the G20’s goal of generating inclusive growth and establishing a cleaner, safer, more sustainable economic framework. The cross-border nature of the problem requires global solutions, ones that the G20 must lead on. By Maggie Murphy
How the Skopje 2014 project ate the urban commons The Skopje2014 urban reconstruction project is the biggest infrastructure investment in the entire Macedonian history. This video delineates the costs and presents the corruptive machinations behind the project.
Editorial: Behind the Rio 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? By Barbara Unmüßig