All Articles
Once a concept confined solely to science fiction movies, human augmentation is rapidly transforming into a tangible reality. While Hollywood often portrays such enhanced humans through flashy, futuristic technology, the reality is that we are on the cusp of witnessing such innovations quite soon. Far from the realm of fiction, human augmentation is moving into the sphere of real-world applications, especially in the field of defence and healthcare.
In late September 2024, Georgia's Parliament passed a law on "family values and protection of minors," cloaked as a defence of tradition but, in reality, a severe rollback of LGBTQ+ rights. This legislation, which prohibits same-sex marriages, LGBTQ+ adoptions, and positive media representation of queer individuals, aligns with Russia's influence and the Orthodox Church’s anti-LGBTQ+ stance. As Georgia nears the October elections, populist, anti-Western rhetoric intensifies, weaponising anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments. Pro-Russian parties leverage these sentiments to sway voters. The Georgian Dream Party, led by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, stands poised to capitalise on this, hoping to cement Georgia’s ties with Moscow and looking forward to criminalising even more LGBTQ+ communities.
This article critically analyses Afghanistan's future in the aftermath of the third Doha Accord, scheduled from June 30th to July 1st, 2024. Addressing issues from economic vulnerability to regional terrorism, it explores the exclusion of women from these pivotal discussions, highlighting gender disparities and human rights violations in Afghanistan's transitional process. While Taliban participation marked a positive step, the article examines intricate dynamics influencing Afghanistan's journey towards stability.
Migration from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to the United Kingdom embodies a complex tapestry of intersecting factors, notably gender, sexuality, and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV). This article delves into the intricate dynamics shaping these migration journeys, drawing on theoretical frameworks, empirical evidence, and policy considerations. By focusing on the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and SGBV, it explores the challenges faced by individuals and proposes actionable recommendations for policy and practice.
Colombia has been dealing with longstanding internal conflicts provoked by both structural and immediate causes. Against this backdrop, the current government led by Gustavo Petro has adopted an innovative approach to deal with increasing levels of violence and the proliferation of armed groups. This article proposes an early assessment of the first year of Petro’s mandate, highlighting the results he achieved as well as the main challenges he is facing.
The departure of Western forces from Afghanistan marked a drastic shift for Afghan women, once granted freedoms during the Taliban's absence. Now, under Taliban rule, a "suicide pandemic" disproportionately affecting women has emerged. Taliban-imposed gender restrictions have triggered a mental health crisis, and the rollback of women's rights and their erasure from public life has led to profound despair and mental health deterioration. Such institutionalized oppression prompts some women to view suicide as the only option to escape their desperate situation, signalling a worrisome impact of the Taliban’s regime on women’s survival.
It is now over ten months since the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, have been barely surviving with dwindling reserves of food, medicine, gas, and electricity. The aftermath of resumed Armenian-Azerbaijani hostilities has forced the migration of 5 out of 6 inhabitants to the state of Armenia, with the remaining population being deprived of dignified living conditions. To understand this humanitarian crisis and why it is nigh constitutive of a genocide, this article will delve into a brief history of the region and the territorial dispute that has surrounded it for decades, understanding the motivations behind the actions of both countries and how they have evolved overtime.
This article explores how the Wagner Group’s (WG) expanding footprint in Africa can exacerbate the migration crisis in Europe. It argues that the group can provoke irregular migration by supporting violence and political oppression in Africa and cooperating with hybrid warfare tools against EU borders. It also reflects on the challenges for the EU to address such threats and comments on what could be done by the Union to contain the WG in Africa.
The crisis in Sudan has unfolded due to the outbreak of conflict between the Rapid Support Force (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which has resulted in mass civilian displacement and a dire need for aid throughout the country [1]. These events echo the Somalian human security crisis of 1993 resulted in the starvation of 300,000 Somalis due to regime collapse and conflict between several rival factions [2]. Despite clear differences between these two cases, the similarities of their outcomes are clear, as both conflicts have produced mass food insecurity, civilian suffering, and potential regional instability [3]. A lack of institutional stability has been a common causal factor in their human security crises [4].
Having the world’s lowest fertility rate, South Korea faces a complex demographic crisis amid an intense gender war, where marriage and childrearing have become politicized. As a response to the government’s pro-natalist policies aimed at reinforcing the country’s demographic security and an increasing economic precarity among young Koreans, radical feminists have taken a political stance against patriarchal and conservative expectations placed upon women in Korean society. Articulated around the 4B movement, they say no to sex, dating, marriage, and children, reinforcing a growing trend for Korea’s demographic future.
Honduras has been named on several occasions the worst place in the world to be a woman. High levels of gender-based violence persist in a climate of chronic generalised violence. The obvious threat of criminal groups, gangs, and corruption, belies the less perceptible threat of an embedded patriarchal and sexist culture. Women and young girls experience a wide range of violence in both private and public spaces that perpetuate their vulnerability and victimisation in a state that is unwilling and unable to protect them, driving many of them to flee the country.
The European Commission has finally put out its word on the decades-old phenomenon of antigypsyism. From physical attacks in the East to dormant systematic discrimination in the West, Roma people are the taboo story of Europe. Despite the recent efforts of the European institution for inclusion, anti-Roma sentiment is deeply rooted, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified the problem.
