Justice

Environmental disasters are not always dramatic one-off events, sometimes devastating effects arise over decades of neglect and damage. The fight for environmental justice in Martinique and Guadeloupe, which remain French “overseas territories”, is inscribed in a long struggle against colonial power and domination. For the people of these islands, decolonisation is far from an abstract notion – it is bound up with the most basic of human needs and can be a matter of life or death.

Can identifying the strands of thought linking all forms of domination help us to better fight against them?

Over the past decades, Romania has seen successive waves of protests calling for deep reforms of the country’s politics in line with principles of democracy and social and environmental justice. The impact of these protests has been pivotal, reshaping the political landscape by leading to the rise of new parties. Raluca Besliu traces the trajectory that has led Romania to the politics it has today and explains why the country, in many ways, remains an outlier in the region.

Breaking the silos of the mainstream and in gender equality policies requires a new approach centred around justice.

A debate over LGBT+ rights became heated as Estonia battled the Covid-19 crisis in 2020. The ruling coalition’s collapse in January 2021 meant that the discussion was suddenly curtailed, and the contentious referendum on the definition of marriage planned for spring cancelled. Where next for the fight for LGBT+ rights now the issue recedes from the spotlight?

The absence of fundamental rights protection in the new European Commission regulation on AI puts communities at risk.

Recent victories in the courts show how a human rights framework can be an instrument to fight suffering and injustice.

The EU’s strategy for tackling gender discrimination may be a new chapter for gender equality in Europe, but the road ahead is long and winding.

In October 2020, a Polish tribunal ruled to further curtail one of Europe’s strictest abortion laws.

Abusive regimes are responsible for their own behaviour. But other states are also responsible if they stand by and fail to speak out.