Human rights

The rising emergency of asylum seekers in Serbia

12/12/2013 -  Federico Sicurella Belgrade

They flee Countries like Syria, where their lives are endangered, but are rejected by the local population who sets up barricades and fires. The tragedy of asylum seekers in Serbia

Reyhanlı – fleeing the war

28/11/2013 -  Fazıla Mat Istanbul

Over 600 thousand Syrians, fleeing the war, arrived in Turkey. Most of them are in the Hatay province. Our report from Reyhanlı

Balkans: women and war

03/12/2013 -  Nicole Corritore

Thousands of women were victims of sexual crimes during the Balkan conflicts. Most of them receive no support from the region's states, despite the progress marked by international criminal law in prosecuting these crimes

Europe, Azerbaijan, and caviar

21/11/2013 -  Luka Zanoni

The recent presidential elections in Azerbaijan, regarded by the OSCE as probably among the worst ever seen in the history of this institution, were deemed free and transparent by MEPs led by Italian Pino Arlacchi. Our analysis

Torture in Republika Srpska: the police in the dock

15/10/2013 -  Rodolfo Toè Banja Luka

The Council of Europe against Republika Srpska. Strasbourg reports serious offences committed by the police in Banja Luka, allegedly guilty of crimes that qualify as torture

Romania, the importance of the after-school programs

03/10/2013 -  Giorgio Comai Bucharest, Drăxeni

Despite the declarations of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, the after-school service in Romania still lacks adequate support from the State. Our report

Croatia: suspected psychiatric abuse

26/08/2013 -  Drago Hedl Osijek

Last July, the wife of a judge from Osijek was subjected to forced hospitalization, for no apparent reason. The dramatic case has raised the attention of the public and the media on the abuse of psychiatry in Croatia

Armenian homophobia

14/08/2013 -  Onnik Krikorian Yerevan

Proposed anti-gay propaganda legislation raises human rights concerns in Armenia, where violence against sexual minorities is supported by representatives of the institutions

Sejdić-Finci, a judgment ignored

19/07/2013 -  Andrea Oskari Rossini

Jakob Finci, president of the Jewish community of Sarajevo, has been expecting for four years for the application of the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights that bears his name. An interview

Health and corruption in Serbia

29/07/2013 -  Federico Sicurella Belgrade

A young woman wrote to Osservatorio to denounce the treatment her Grandmother was subjected to in the Serbian healthcare facilities. Her letter tells of requests for money, humiliating treatment and working negligence

Romania: the children's emergency

26/06/2013 -  Cristina Bezzi

The migratory flow from Romania to other European countries has left behind hundreds of thousands of children, who are experiencing a “transnational childhood”. The phenomenon is particularly intense in the Romanian Moldova

Topovske Šupe: memory of the Holocaust at stake

19/06/2013 -  Federico Sicurella Belgrado

In Belgrade, the building that housed one of the first Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe will be razed to the ground. Its place will be taken by a shopping centre. The protests of the citizens

Turkey-Azerbaijan: from #occupygezi to #occupyfountainsquare?

11/06/2013 -  Arzu Geybullayeva

What impact have the protests in Turkey on neighboring countries? Azerbaijan certainly can not give lessons in democracy, and yet ...

Azerbaijan's flower people

20/05/2013 -  Arzu Geybullayeva

On May 10th Baku celebrated the anniversary of former President Heydar Aliyev, while introducing tighter measures to control the opposition

The Chișinău center for Eastern border migrants

27/05/2013 -  Bernardo Venturi Chișinău

The Moldovan capital Chișinău has its own center for migrants, to reject them before they even get to the European Union. We paid a visit

Life in Gali

29/04/2013 -  Francisco Martinez

In his contribution for the dossier “Abkhazia, twenty years after the war”, Francisco Martínez shares with Osservatorio's readers the materials he gathered in late 2010 while visiting the region, including video interviews in Gali, Sukhumi and Tbilisi

Belgrade and its street children

10/04/2013 -  Federico Sicurella Belgrade

There are more and more children living and working on the streets of Belgrade. The institutions are having a hard time dealing with the phenomenon. A temporary daycare center that has become a model for the whole region, the Svratište, recently risked shutting down

LGBT in Turkey: they are our children

11/04/2013 -  Alberto Tetta

A documentary movie gives voice to the families of lesbians, bisexuals and transexuals in Turkey. “My child” is an intense work, gaining increasing attention. We met its director, Can Candan

Bosnia: religion, nationalism and pedophilia

04/04/2013 -  Rodolfo Toè Sarajevo

Revelations on the sexual abuses by the Tuzla bishop - Karadžić and Mladić’s spiritual guide - have dragged the Serbian Orthodox church through one of the major scandals of the latest years. The victims’ declarations, the reconstruction by the Bosnian reporter who was able to get a hold of the records of the witnesses’ depositions

Kosovo: Challenging Homophobia

21/03/2013 -  Francesco Gradari

“Challenging Homophobia” is the title of the first European project for the protection and promotion of the rights of LGBT people in Kosovo.It was started to support a growing LGBT community, but has been intimidated by violent episodes tolerated by the institutions. Simon Maljevac from the organization Legebitra is one of the promoters of this initiative

One billion rise in Serbia too

08/03/2013 -  Federico Sicurella Belgrade

Cases of family violence, particularly against women, are not decreasing in Serbia. Now, however, the fight against abuse can count on two more forces – the Museum of violence that just opened in Belgrade and the many people who danced for One Billion Rising

Sex Education in Croatia. The war between the Church and government

04/02/2013 -  Drago Hedl Osijek

It is open clash between the Croatian Catholic Church and the center-left government. The disputed issue is sex education in schools, recently introduced in the broader context of civic education and health

Serbia: education, the market and democracy

17/01/2013 -  Federico Sicurella Belgrado

What principles should underpin Serbia's educational system from now to 2020? The answer lies in the Strategy for the Development of Education, recently adopted by the government. The document, however, does not appeal to many intellectuals denouncing it subjects education to nationalism and the market economy

Between Syria and Turkey: the Kurdish factor

17/01/2013 -  Alberto Tetta Ceylanpinar

In north-eastern Syria, a region with a Kurdish majority, the civil war becomes a clash between the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish-Syrian separatists of the Democratic Union Party (PYD). A report by our correspondent from the Turkish-Syrian border

Baku, where “Internet Governance” doesn't sound good

21/12/2012 -  Arzu Geybullayeva Baku

Last month the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was held in Baku. Amidst doubts on the choice of the host country, the distribution of reports on freedom of expression at the venue was blocked and the computers of assistants to vice-president of the EU commission Neelie Kroes were hacked

The 1800 inmates of Moldova's psychiatric hospitals

03/12/2012 -  Natalia Ghilaşcu

Psychiatric patients in Moldova are often forced into huge facilities, where freedom is restricted more than is necessary and the sick are vulnerable to abuses. A report by our correspondent

Russia, NGOs become "foreign agents"

21/11/2012 -  Irina Gordienko* Moscow

Today, a new federal law on NGOs enters into force in Russia. All associations working on human rights will have to register as "foreign agents", and could stand accused of high treason. The Russian government, apparently frightened by the wave of protests against electoral fraud, introduced the new law to restrict the activities of organizations researching the election process, but the law will affect all NGOs, especially in the Caucasus

In Abkhazia, worried about the language law

06/11/2012 -  Giorgio Comai

The law "On the state language", approved by the authorities in Sukhumi in 2007, risks exacerbating inter-ethnic relations in Abkhazia, a territory that remains largely multi-ethnic, even after the ethnic cleansing that happened during the war. Our correspondent went to Abkhazia to find out more about it. A feature story

Visas, Serbia, and Fortress Europe

13/11/2012 -  Federico Sicurella Belgrade

Three years ago, the elimination of visa requirements for Western Balkan citizens to travel in the EU was a breath of fresh air. Now, however, due to the numerous asylum requests, the Western Balkans are facing the threat of the measure being revoked. The case of Serbia, between asylum seekers and re-admissions

Macedonia: The Communist Reality

05/09/2012 -  Risto Karajkov Skopje

In Macedonia, the process of dealing with the communist past of the country is becoming more and more to resemble a reality show. Lists of former secret service agents are published on the internet, civil servants are removed from office, new categories of citizens end under screening. But some warn that privacy and civil rights are at stake