Category: ideas & commentaries

30 years ago, the UN convened a summit for social development, devoted to social justice, decent work, social integration and participation. This November, a – much weakened – UN will convene a review summit in Doha, Qatar, 4-6 November. As Isabel Ortiz, Odile Frank and I argue in our Global Social Justice op-ed, published in…

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Chair(s): Christoph Scherrer (University of Kassel, Germany)Discussant(s): Nicolas Pons-Vignon (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland) The panel highlights contributions from The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals, edited by Madelaine Moore, Christoph Scherrer and Marcel van der Linden. This reader  critically investigates the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda and how it relates to…

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The City of Wuppertal, the Johannes Rau Research Community  and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy convened  a symposium on the legacy of Professor Hans Singer (1910-2006) in early May 2025. Wuppertal is an understated locus of ideas, innovation and social reform. In the industrial revolution, it was a centre of weaving and…

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80 years ago, Germany was liberated from Nazi fascism, and in this spirit, there are many commemorative events this month. One that touched me deeply was a concert on the eve of 8 May, with a haunting piece composed by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963). It was one of his compositions dedicated to the concentration camp…

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A coherent analysis of poverty is absent from the 2030 Agenda. While the agenda does address redistribution, social rights, and resource consciousness, and makes important contributions to social protection and care policy, it makes only superficial reference to the need for regulating of the economy. The 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty: New horizons for global…

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“Feminism needs tectonic plates to shift, not a trendy make-over” (Bernardine Evaristo) In recent years, a number of countries have re-labelled their foreign policy as ‘feminist’. Sweden introduced the concept 8 years ago. Spain, Canada, France, Luxemburg, Mexico, Chile, and Libya, and others have issued feminist foreign policy statements. Germany has a commitment to feminist…

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We have the core human rights treaties and we have the Agenda for Sustainable Development with its SDGs. However, in the past few years, more and more countries are falling into violent conflict, overthrowing legitimate  governments. Human rights defenders and climate activists are persecuted. Even in stable democracies, climate commitments and SDG promises are not met.…

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Gabriele Köhler Myanmar: 900 people murdered by the junta which usurped power four months ago, 1000s arrested – many of them tortured, some to death. The elected government has been arrested and put on trial.  The World Food Programme predicts a hunger catastrophe. Income poverty is exploding. Access to already dismal health services has collapsed;…

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Um die globalen Ungleichheiten zu reduzieren, braucht es einen erneuerten Multilateralismus. Wie kann eine solche Reform aussehen? Allem voran muss das UN-Sekretariat gestärkt und als unabhängige moralische Kraft etabliert werden. Was meines Erachtens unbedingt reformiert werden muss: Die Finanzierung der UN muss autonom werden. Seit Jahrzehnten gibt es den Vorschlag, die UN und ihre Organisationen…

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https://zeitschrift-vereinte-nationen.de/suche/zvn/artikel/inklusion-zahnlose-konsensformel/ This volume looks at concepts and processes of social exclusion and social inclusion. It traces a number of discourses, all of them routed in a relational power analysis, examining them in the context of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 with its commitment to “leave no one behind.” The book combines analysis that…

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