Stan De Spiegelaere:The transposition of the EU minimum wage directive and the subsequent national action plans should focus on promoting sectoral collective bargaining as it benefits workers, companies and society alike.Read the full article
In the 6 to 9 June elections, Europeans are staking much more than it seems: with unprecedented support for the far right, between high levels of discontent and disinformation, they risk condemning themselves to losing social rights and legitimising a divided and ineffective European [...]Read the full article
Luc Triangle:“This May Day we must remember what trade unions have done for democracy in the past, and harness the collective power of trade unions to defend and rebuild democracy now and in the future.”Read the full article
How do Haitian trade unions view the current crisis, the Presidential Council and the actions of the international community? What is their view of the multinational security force requested by Ariel Henry, authorised by the UN in October 2023 and due to be deployed under Kenyan [...]Read the full article
The search for persons disappeared during the Spanish Civil War, a search backed by the United Nations and overshadowed by political debate, has resulted in the exhumation of just 800 mass graves over the last two decades, out of a total of around 3,500. It is a fragile advance that risks being [...]Read the full article
The wave of repression that began in the summer of 2023 has continued following the February 2024 presidential election. For the last 20 years, Azerbaijan has steadily slipped down the international rankings for democratic principles and freedom of [...]Read the full article
‘Feminist foreign policy’ is an evolving concept aimed at improving women’s rights around the world through diplomatic relations. Its scope can range from funding development projects aimed at fostering gender equality to increasing women’s representation in the diplomatic sphere and giving them a [...]Read the full article
Gerardo Martínez:“The measures [against labour and trade union rights], which the current government has implemented unilaterally and without any consultation with social actors and representatives, ignore the tradition of institutionalised social dialogue that has been part of our country’s democratic [...]Read the full article
The year 2020 marked an inflection point for Hong Kong’s book sector, when the Chinese government imposed a sweeping national security law on the city, partly to crush the 2019 protest movement that challenged Chinese President Xi Jinping. Publishing words in Hong Kong has become a risky [...]Read the full article
Mandeep Tiwana:“Although most countries have embraced the ritual of elections, the quality of democracy on offer is poor. In short, many elections in 2024 will be less free and transparent than the winners want us to believe.”Read the full article
Europe is ageing. Fewer and fewer Europeans are being born, and while younger generations increasingly concentrate in large cities, much of the remaining territory is falling behind in development. Long an existential problem in Eastern Europe, these trends are increasingly fuelling inequality [...]Read the full article
Dijana Šobota:Workers who more positively assess their level of being informed about workers’ rights are more likely to state that their rights have not been violated, while a higher incidence of violations of rights was recorded among those respondents who felt that their level of being informed was [...]Read the full article
Bernard Duterme:“While the rebels of Chiapas may not have succeeded in reforming Mexico’s constitution, decolonising its institutions or even gaining a foothold in the country’s political scene, they have nonetheless given unprecedented local, national and international visibility to peasant and Indigenous [...]Read the full article
“Internet shutdowns have a negative impact on democracy in French-speaking Africa, especially during election periods. They constitute a form of censorship that limits freedom of expression and access to information. They prevent citizens from finding out about candidates and election issues, [...]Read the full article
Luis Linares:Bernardo Arévalo’s election victory offers a glimmer of hope that efforts will be made to promote green and decent work. But the ‘pact of the corrupt’, trying to prevent the social democrat from taking office on 14 January 2024, is fuelling uncertainty, and could block the reforms needed in rural [...]Read the full article
“All our field observations show that people’s livelihoods are profoundly affected for many years after they are evicted. So why continue along this path?”Read the full article
Alex Nkosi:“The journey of trade unions in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone represents a beacon of hope for unions worldwide. By prioritising peace alongside economic interests, these unions have become catalysts for positive change in fragile [...]Read the full article
The success of the far right in Argentina “cannot be separated from a critical political and economic situation [with galloping inflation] that makes you feel like your income is losing value from one minute to the next. It’s a daily battle through the economy, which causes tremendous [...]Read the full article
“The whole idea of strategic litigation is not just important from the perspective of winning victories. It is also important from the perspective of our experience in Europe being written into official records of state courts.”Read the full article
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a landmark, post-Second World War commitment to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of all people – turns 75 this year. Can the world recommit to this noble promise or will attempts to uphold the sacred principles of the Declaration eventually be [...]Read the full article
The al-Sisi regime is without a doubt one of the most repressive in the world. Its severe reprisals against those who criticise it even in the slightest have driven thousands of dissidents into exile. But even halfway across the world, many are unable to escape the long arm of the [...]Read the full article
Loredana Carta:“The ITUC Global Rights Index is now, more than ever, a powerful force to build a better world for working people. It has been used to force governments to improve workers’ right in return for international loans, trade unions have used the Index for targeted action to force legislative change [...]Read the full article
Many fear that France’s planned use of algorithmic video surveillance (AVS) for the 2024 Paris Olympics will infringe on civil liberties and lead to widespread mass surveillance beyond the event.Read the full article
Claes-Mikael Stahl:The ETUC is standing with our brothers and sisters in the Philippines. We urge the EU institutions to do everything in their power to ensure that there are sufficient guarantees from the government of the Philippines to ensure that there is real, concrete, and measurable progress on human [...]Read the full article
“In addition to being a health crisis, the pandemic has resulted in a global restructuring of our living and working conditions,” says Chilean psychologist Alondra Carrillo, former spokesperson for the Coordinadora Feminista 8M and member of the Constitutional Convention of [...]Read the full article
Enis Coşkun:On 14 May, the people of Turkey will elect their president and members of parliament. A hundred years after the foundation of a secular state under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, these elections are crucial to the country’s [...]Read the full article
Despite having one of the most diverse media landscapes in Africa, Cameroon is also one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist on the continent, as the recent murders of Martinez Zogo and Jean-Jacques Ola Bébé demonstrate.Read the full article
Recent moves by Israel’s right-wing government to weaken the power of the judiciary and further erode human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is pushing the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to seek EU citizenship and move back to the countries where their grandparents were once [...]Read the full article
Kais Saied was elected president in 2019 with more than 70 per cent of the vote. While some warned of the dangers of his brand of populism at the time, no one anticipated a descent into autocracy with racist overtones. Most recently, Saied has targeted opposition politicians and trade [...]Read the full article
María Ana Skotadi:In Argentina and throughout the region, the fight against corruption shows signs of systematic bias against left-wing leaders. Their political opponents have weaponised the media and the justice system and resisted the progressive will of [...]Read the full article
The guiding principle of the public library is that everyone deserves free and open access to our common cultural heritage. This places the institution at fundamental odds with capitalist consumer ideals. From New Delhi to Los Angeles, we visit seven ‘palaces for the [...]Read the full article
Why are evangelical churches in Latin America increasingly influencing the region’s political, social and economic agenda? Argentine sociologist Ariel Goldstein provides some insight into the phenomenon.Read the full article
Frédéric Thomas:The CTH (Haitian Workers’ Confederation) and the CTSP (Public and Private Sector Workers’ Confederation) reassert their firm anchorage in the Haitian social movement and their commitment to promoting a ‘transition of rupture’, with the support of an international solidarity [...]Read the full article
The announcement that Morocco allegedly bribed prominent figures in the European Parliament to defend its interests in Brussels has led to increased scrutiny of human rights violations in Morocco. The resulting picture is not a flattering [...]Read the full article
According to an EU Directive, every state must bring its whistleblower legislation up to date. Romania, a country that benefitted from the strong protection of whistleblowers, understood the assignment differently and stripped them of their [...]Read the full article
In Ghana, where people in positions of authority are generally treated with deference, a group of young protesters recently took to the streets to demand the resignation of the President – a first. What does this mean for the country’s protest culture, and [...]Read the full article
Hichilema’s government is not following the traditional ‘arrest, prosecute, convict’ anti-graft playbook. Instead, it is embracing a hybrid approach of prosecution for some offenders and a policy of ‘no jail but surrender the assets’ for [...]Read the full article
Juan Antonio Sanz:China has displaced Russia as the dominant power in Central Asia. It has done so thanks to its diplomatic and economic might. Russia’s decline highlights the fragility of relations with Central Asia based on Moscow’s military superiority.Read the full article
“The Egyptian authorities are sending a clear message to Egyptian NGOs that what happens in Egypt must be kept hidden from the rest of the world. NGOs from all over the world can go there but Egyptian NGOs are not welcome.”Read the full article
“Women are staging street protests, holding press conferences, organising activities, some are refusing to wear a hijab that fully covers their bodies and faces, while girls are attending schools secretly.”Read the full article
Every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iranians travel to Armenia for a short break from the social and political suppression in their country, despite an ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.Read the full article
According to Human Rights Watch, “Syria is not safe for refugee return”. In June, Muhammad Fawzi Akkad became the first Syrian refugee to win a case against Turkey when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkish authorities had unlawfully deported [...]Read the full article
Agricultural innovation from scratch, entrepreneurship in the face of poverty, leading as a woman in traditional societies, and solving concrete problems on a local scale: this summer reading compilation brings together tales of ingenuity and [...]Read the full article
New technologies, especially digital, are having a profound effect on all human activity and, by extension, on international relations.Read the full article
The leftist president-elect is seeking to form a coalition government that will allow him to deliver the far-reaching reforms he has promised. The economy will be the yardstick by which he will be measured.Read the full article
Farmer Cédric Herrou, who has found himself in the media spotlight for his work to help migrants in France, has denounced what he describes as “state racism” on several occasions. In 2019 he created the first farming community of the Emmaüs movement in the Alps, linking the defence of human rights [...]Read the full article
Macy Leung :The very systems that have made Hong Kong an open society, a remarkable success story and a free place distinctly different from repressed China, have all but disintegrated.Read the full article
Sharan Burrow:The 2022 ITUC Global Rights Index reveals a dire situation for working people across the world. We must reverse this trend.Read the full article
The right to strike in Hungary was repeatedly restricted, particularly in the public sector, during the last term of office of the nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán, who was elected for the fourth time in a row in April [...]Read the full article
Since 2019, trade unions have been subjected to a campaign of harassment, intimidation and violence that has made it impossible to improving local working conditions.Read the full article
Niro Kandasamy:Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since independence, and the responses of the state indicate it is incapable of protecting its citizens.Read the full article
Amazon controls 33 per cent of the global cloud infrastructure market. This dominance has serious implications in terms of competition, surveillance and security.Read the full article
Annie Game:We need to value and support the critical work of journalists countering the mis- and disinformation flooding our communications channels, especially during crises, conflicts, and elections. The good news is that when the media and civil society work together, they create a better information [...]Read the full article
Cathy Feingold:As players from the US and around the world prepare for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA must improve its track record of turning a blind eye to authoritarians and ‘sportswashing’ human rights violations.Read the full article