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Turkey’s speedy evolution into the world’s fourth largest humanitarian donor in 2012 has been accompanied by admiration and awe among international policy-makers, humanitarian practitioners, and journalists. The country’s number one humanitarian feat has been its humanitarian engagement in Somalia.…

When President Dilma Rousseff signed Brazil's landmark 'Marco Civil Da Internet', a comprehensive new law that safeguards citizens' digital rights on key fronts and the result of a broad participatory process, it marked the decisive coming out of Brazil as a progressive player on digital rights on…

Am 17. Dezember 2013 stellte der Stellvertretende UN-Generalsekretär Jan Eliasson den neuen UN-Aktionsplan „Rights Up Front" zur Verhinderung von Massenverbrechen vor. Angesichts der sich zuspitzenden Situationen in Südsudan und der Zentralafrikanischen Republik hätte er sich keinen passenderen…

Der Völkermord in Ruanda ist in seiner Geschwindigkeit und Brutalität im 20. Jahrhundert unübertroffen. Mindestens 800 000 Menschen kamen im Verlauf von nur 100 Tagen in dem kleinen ostafrikanischen Land zwischen Anfang April und Mitte Juli 1994 vor den Augen der Weltöffentlichkeit ums Leben. Heute…

In March, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, urged world powers not to forget the Syrian conflict and warned that the new quarrel could increase dissent over Syria in the UN Security Council. But a worsening situation in Ukraine and in Crimea may also have repercussions on the…

Responding to a crisis the magnitude of that in Syria is a formidable challenge. In addition, forces on all fronts seem to almost conspire to make it more difficult to provide effective humanitarian assistance to those affected by the conflict. The Syrian government is restrictive. Extreme…

Rhetorically speaking, all agree: peace, security and development belong together. The experience with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) supports this statement. Countries that are affected by conflict, violence and political instability are the furthest away from achieving the MDGs. According…

In April 1994 when Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder was asked why the United States was doing so little to stop the killings in Rwanda she answered candidly: She had received hundreds of calls by her constituents who were concerned about the endangered gorilla population in Rwanda. Only a few…

In the hot plains of the Vanni, a larger-than-life stone soldier emerges out of a block of concrete, an AK-47 in one hand and the Sri Lankan flag in the other. Hardly visible from the ground, a dove sits on the machine gun. This is a “victory memorial” created by the Army after the end of the…

East Africa is the global oil and gas industry’s hottest frontier. Barely a month goes by, it seems, without a major discovery in Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, or the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. This new African windfall is hardly without precedent. Several west and central African…

On January 24, 2014, West African and European Commission negotiators reached agreement on all outstanding negotiating issues of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), thereby breaking an impasse that had persisted since 2007. The aim of the negotiations was to create a free trade area between…