Democracy

The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung commissioned a study by Political Capital entitled “Focus on Hungary: Refugees, Asylum and Migration”. The authors of the study analyse the Orbán Government’s rhetoric and policy measures with regard to refugee, asylum and migration issues. 

The annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the launch of a hybrid war against Ukraine was Russia’s answer to the revolution triggered by Euromaidan. The conflict continues to pose fundamental challenges for the European Union, and raises the question of whether the EU will maintain its commitment to the political and economic consolidation of those of its Eastern neighbours which aim to make sovereign choices based on the rule of law and democracy.

The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung has commissioned the second volume of the study to furtherexamine existing and new tendencies of Hungarian youth regarding their political choices and the reasons behind them. While previously only students who reside in the country were in the focus, the scope of this recent study has been extended to include the political involvement and attitudes of that part of the Hungarian youth who already are emigrating or are planning to soon move abroad.

The International Literature Festival Berlin, together with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, has called on authors to contemplate the fates of refugees and asylum-seekers in literary form. Twenty-two authors from fifteen different countries answered this call in poems, short prose and essays. The perspectives and insights are just as different as individual motives, destinies, and experiences.

The concept of "gender backlash" encompasses too activities pursued by a multitude of different local initiatives all over Central and Eastern Europe, which strongly promote tradition over equality. In many cases these groups appear to be backed and inspired both by influential US-American “pro life” organisations as well as the Kremlin’s "Gay-rope" propaganda, which aims to discredit the European Union as a place of moral decline. The contributors to this publication express grave concern about the current situation of gender equality and LGBTI rights in Central and Eastern Europe but give reason for hope too.  

The publication was elaborated within the framework of the Regional Program “Gender Democracy/ Women’s Politics”. It contains contributions presented at the regional conference “Gender in the EU. The Future of Gender Policies in the European Union” which took place in Warsaw on 28 October, 2009.

The self-immolation of young and jobless Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, being deprived of his vegetable stand and humiliated by the authorities, triggered popular movements and historic events in the Arab World completely unexpected in their magnitude...The renown authors in the special edition of “Perspectives Middle East”, a journal of the hbs office in Beirut, address many questions posed by this rapid development.

This publication is an output of a project called "New role of the national parliaments in the EU decision-making processes: previous experience and new challenges pursuant to the Lisbon Treaty", undertaken by EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy together with the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw and Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin with the financial support of Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Annual Report Heinrich Böll Foundation - order print version or download as PDF document.

Politics can only succeed when it is inclusive of all genders. Gender justice is an ambitious goal, one that the Heinrich Böll Foundation is pursuing together with many different allies worldwide. This publication gives an overview of their work.