Ethics

Combating recidivism and promoting reintegration: Brazil’s experiment with prisons without guards

In Brazil, prisons without guards or weapons allow inmates a level of dignity that is rare in the country’s prison system.Read the full article

Negotiating the two faces of digitalisation

12 July 2023

Negotiating the two faces of digitalisation

Christina Colclough: “Whilst the process of automation is nothing new, the extent and speed of it is. It has been estimated that over 300 million jobs worldwide will be severely affected by these systems.”Read the full article

In the name of security, France plans to monitor crowds using AI and algorithms during the Paris Olympics

14 June 2023

In the name of security, France plans to monitor crowds using AI and algorithms during the Paris Olympics

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

Does the new EU consumer rights directive go far enough?

13 March 2023

Does the new EU consumer rights directive go far enough?

The new directive makes possible EU-wide class actions for breaches of 66 different EU directives and regulations, from legislation related to medical devices to the EU’s seminal 2018 GDPR privacy law.Read the full article

Zambia's anti-corruption drive is seeing stolen assets returned in exchange for a get-out-of-jail card

9 November 2022

Zambia’s anti-corruption drive is seeing stolen assets returned in exchange for a get-out-of-jail card

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

After calamitous floods, Pakistan makes a compelling case for climate reparations

19 October 2022

Environment

After calamitous floods, Pakistan makes a compelling case for climate reparations

After the recent floods in Pakistan left behind unprecedented destruction, the demand for climate reparations is louder than ever.Read the full article

Safety at work: a trojan horse for new monitoring technologies?

25 August 2022

Safety at work: a trojan horse for new monitoring technologies?

Ana Belén Muñoz Ruiz: Safety at work can be and already is being used as grounds for collecting and processing employees’ data, but the measures must be part of a rationale of prevention.Read the full article

The Amazon business model and the risks of big data

20 May 2022

The Amazon business model and the risks of big data

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

Alarm Phone, the hotline for people in need of rescue in the Mediterranean

8 April 2022

Alarm Phone, the hotline for people in need of rescue in the Mediterranean

The hotline is a vital link in a chain of solidarity that has been activated in the face of European public institutions’ neglect of their duties. The others include NGOs that provide shelter and material aid to migrants and refugees, or those carrying out maritime rescue [...]Read the full article

In Italy, rising dementia rates and an ageing population are exposing the painful consequences of an absent state

11 February 2022

In Italy, rising dementia rates and an ageing population are exposing the painful consequences of an absent state

A report by Alzheimer Europe estimates that around 1.3 million people in Italy suffer from dementia. If ageing trends continue at their current pace, this figure could double by 2050. The country faces a major challenge in providing care for this growing number of [...]Read the full article

Despite the efforts of trade unions and NGOs, seafarer abandonment is on the rise

25 June 2021

Despite the efforts of trade unions and NGOs, seafarer abandonment is on the rise

Every year, thousands of seafarers are abandoned by their shipowners while the world looks on with indifference. Trapped on board without wages until their ships are sold, some spend months and even years in their floating prisons.Read the full article

Is the end of corporate tax evasion and tax havens finally in sight?

21 May 2021

Is the end of corporate tax evasion and tax havens finally in sight?

The billions that the most powerful corporations avoid paying in taxes are crucial for a just economic recovery in the post-pandemic era. The G20’s stance on global tax justice will be decisive in turning the tide.Read the full article

Can less industrialised countries benefit from post-pandemic digitalisation?

21 April 2021

Can less industrialised countries benefit from post-pandemic digitalisation?

While the boom in remote work seen during the pandemic could create opportunities in countries with lower labour costs, it also threatens to reproduce the same colonial structures that have long dominated relations between rich and developing [...]Read the full article

From benefit corporations to social purpose companies: when capitalism seeks to reconcile profit with the common good

19 February 2021

From benefit corporations to social purpose companies: when capitalism seeks to reconcile profit with the common good

Can the inclusion of social or environmental objectives in a company’s articles of association help to make them more virtuous? Whilst it may help promote a shift in business mindsets, it may also amount to little more than ‘fairwashing’.Read the full article

1 February 2021

Understanding the era of emotion

In recent years, neuroscience has demonstrated the powerful role that emotions play in our decision-making – something that brands, social media and politicians have figured out how to exploit.Read the full article

21 January 2021

Illicit financial flows hinder development in Africa – the UN must rise to the challenge of ending this

Chloé Maurel: Every year, US$88.6 billion leaves Africa in the form of illicit capital flight, according to the UN. Africa is affected more than all other continents, making it a net creditor to the rest of the world, contrary to the popular belief of an Africa aided by the countries of the [...]Read the full article

Will the pandemic change our relationship with nature and animals?

13 January 2021

Will the pandemic change our relationship with nature and animals?

While the rejection of animal suffering remains the most deeply rooted and the most decisive conviction, anti-speciesism now also takes into account climate change caused by factory farming as well as infectious diseases of animal origin, zoonoses, of which the Covid-19 pandemic is the most [...]Read the full article

Japan's Indigenous Ainu community don't want a theme park – they want their rights

10 December 2020

Japan’s Indigenous Ainu community don’t want a theme park – they want their rights

Ainu Indigenous leaders are aware that their ancestral knowledge is endangered: “We are being wiped out. In 30 years, we will all be Japanese”.Read the full article

It's time for an alternative approach to migration and asylum policy in Europe

25 September 2020

It’s time for an alternative approach to migration and asylum policy in Europe

Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde: The EU’s current approach is not only censurable for all that it entails in terms of neglect of duty, non-compliance with international commitments and collaboration with the endless atrocities committed by mafias and governments, but also, and all the more so, for the simple reason that it does [...]Read the full article

The “normalisation of mass surveillance” could pose a threat to social mobilisation, warns digital rights advocate Diego Naranjo

31 August 2020

The “normalisation of mass surveillance” could pose a threat to social mobilisation, warns digital rights advocate Diego Naranjo

“It’s not about whether you have ‘nothing to hide,’ it’s that you need to live in freedom and not under the eye of constant surveillance.”Read the full article

The future vaccine against COVID-19 should be a ‘global public good' managed by the UN

16 July 2020

The future vaccine against COVID-19 should be a ‘global public good’ managed by the UN

Chloé Maurel: Should scientific knowledge be treated as a ‘public good’ or does it have a market value like anything else? The UN and its agencies have long argued the former.Read the full article

The risks of teaming up with Big Brother to protect health

18 June 2020

The risks of teaming up with Big Brother to protect health

Adrián Foncillas: Surveillance technology has helped to contain the spread of coronavirus, but it is essential that limits be set on how much information can be collected and for how long, to prevent governments from extending its use once the crisis is [...]Read the full article

Behind their current display of charity, it's business as usual for multinationals

14 May 2020

Behind their current display of charity, it’s business as usual for multinationals

Benjamin Hourticq: In response to the coronavirus pandemic, some large multinational corporations are putting their money and production capacities at the service of societies. But behind the scenes, they are working hard to ensure the preservation of the same economic model currently being called into question [...]Read the full article

Internet censorship and shutdowns are becoming an increasingly complex and widespread tool for repression

12 May 2020

Internet censorship and shutdowns are becoming an increasingly complex and widespread tool for repression

In 2019, 35 countries cut off access to the internet, 40 per cent more than in 2018. This figure is all the more alarming as internet shutdowns are becoming increasingly specific, targeted, complex, and above all, lengthy.Read the full article

The double-edged sword of international sanctions

30 April 2020

The double-edged sword of international sanctions

Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde: Sanctions have long had a bad reputation for both failing to achieve results and for causing much more suffering to the vulnerable civilian populations they ostensibly aim to protect than to the political and economic leaders they [...]Read the full article

9 April 2020

Huawei and the global race for 5G

Andrés Ortega: There is a global race for 5G and the Chinese company Huawei is in pole position. 5G technology, as well as being a strategic tool for a whole host of sectors, is crucial to the new information and communication boom being driven by the Internet of Things and artificial [...]Read the full article

31 January 2020

Honduras: dance as a school of life

“A moment of waltzing: it is timeless, it is a universal language that brings a sense of peace to an otherwise hostile world.”Read the full article

The growing global movement to end outdoor advertising

13 January 2020

The growing global movement to end outdoor advertising

“Advertising is like an iceberg: the largest impact is below the surface. Adverts colonise our imagination.”Read the full article

The renewable energy sector may ‘pass' the environmental test, but what about labour and human rights?

20 December 2019

The renewable energy sector may ‘pass’ the environmental test, but what about labour and human rights?

Renewable energy companies are repeating the same business practices for which the fossil fuel industry has been criticized – practices that are very far from being clean.Read the full article

Can humanity rise to the challenge of finding just solutions to the threat of coastal erosion?

4 December 2019

Environment

Can humanity rise to the challenge of finding just solutions to the threat of coastal erosion?

All over the world, coastal areas are losing ground. While the latest IPCC report recommends strengthening protection systems, other strategies are emerging, such as the removal of infrastructure and housing, and are highlighting the social inequalities in the distribution of [...]Read the full article

Could the demise of Thomas Cook mark a new beginning for the tourism industry?

24 October 2019

Could the demise of Thomas Cook mark a new beginning for the tourism industry?

Rashmee Roshan Lall: The point of a new travel model would be to forge the real linkages that enrich the visitor just as much as the people and the place they have visited. This has never been more important.Read the full article

Reasserting the rights and duties of journalists with the IFJ's new Global Charter of Ethics

19 September 2019

Reasserting the rights and duties of journalists with the IFJ’s new Global Charter of Ethics

Anthony Bellanger: The growing contempt towards journalists around the world has prompted the IFJ to draw up a new global charter reinforcing the ethical standards governing the profession.Read the full article

In the US, big banks are divesting from private prisons, thanks to anti-ICE activism

20 August 2019

In the US, big banks are divesting from private prisons, thanks to anti-ICE activism

“Activists can hold financial institutions accountable for investing in human rights abuses, and those who profit from misery can be hit where it hurts – in the wallet.”Read the full article

Cameras in the workplace: beware of the temptations of surveillance

3 July 2019

Cameras in the workplace: beware of the temptations of surveillance

Since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May 2018, the legislation in EU countries has been brought into line, and penalties for the misuse of technology have been strengthened. But the widespread development of the video surveillance market has led to abuses, [...]Read the full article

Battling stereotypes against older people

10 May 2019