Editorial

No. 50 — 2020
Inequality and democracy: an introduction to the debate

What do we mean by inequality, what are its causes, and how is it related to democracy? These questions are so fundamental and far-reaching that demand an exploration of the intersection between economic processes, social phenomena and impacts on the political sphere. This topic is inextricably steeped in ideology, but it also seeks to shed light on issues such as the differing political itineraries of social or economic policies, the so-called decline of the middle class, the reasons behind the rise of populism, and why we are now talking about the decay of liberal democracy. What inequality are we talking…
No. 50 — 2020
Human rights and political repression around the world

When we wonder about the health or state of human rights around the world, we usually turn to studying the domestic or international regulations adopted and put in place by states in various geographic areas. While such analysis is essential, it is evident that these are purely formal and academic factors. Nowadays it is not enough just to note how drawing up regulations designed to safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms has come to a standstill. Instead, we should also look at the evident rollback of many of the gains made over decades of political and social struggles. From this…
No. 50 — 2020
Human Rights in China, Russia and the United States of America

The twenty-first century is definitely a multipolar century. The last few years have been characterized by a return to tensions between major regional powers, in particular between the United States and China, with Russia clamoring for the superpower status. China is very openly seeking to promote its political model and become the world’s leading economic power, while Russia seems rather interested in discrediting democracies and increasing its sphere of influence and the United States in maintaining its status as the world’s hegemon and economic leader. We could describe these three countries in terms of gradations, with China being an assumed…
No. 50 — 2020
The Human Rights Situation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Violations and Remaining Challenges in Times of Pandemic

Since the early 1990s, sub-Saharan Africa has been experiencing what some authors call the “third wave of democratisation in Africa” . This has gradually led to the consolidation of multi-party systems based on political plurality and the participation of civil society, with a slow move away from the single-party state systems that had progressively established themselves in most countries on the continent since the 1970s. Although the results are uneven, the countries on the continent have kept moving in this direction, equipping themselves with the tools and goals they need to continue progressing towards greater levels of democracy, political participation…
No. 50 — 2020
Human Rights in Asia

Asia’s importance globally is undeniable. The rise of China as a global player has led to an increase in competitiveness not only with the United States, but also with India and other regional powers. Among the characteristics that make contemporary Asia stand out are the growth of regional conflicts, competition between countries and exclusionary nationalism. The 21st century is becoming a particularly ominous moment for human rights (HR). The main trend is the criminalisation of its defenders, which increases the tension between civil society and the States. 1. Introduction Without constructing a ranking, the most attacked rights may be freedom…
No. 50 — 2020
Human rights in the Maghreb and Mashriq

Assessing the state of human rights in two regions the size of the Maghreb and Mashriq entails analysing disparate societies stretching from the Atlantic coast of Mauritania and Western Sahara to the Persian Gulf. While Israel is not considered part of the Mashriq on cultural grounds, our report would be incomplete if we omitted any reference to the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Accordingly we have included Palestine in this section. 1. Human rights infringements Political regimes in the Maghreb and Mashriq are a relatively uniform collection of dictatorial governments or low-intensity democracies. Their very existence is in itself a…
No. 50 — 2020
Rights and freedoms in Latin America

This report is in the form of a summary, based on three documentary references, of the situation in the region of the Americas in terms of human rights and it gives an account of the political repression experienced over the last five years. The region of Latin America is considered one of the most dangerous in the world for its inhabitants, as documented by the most important academic output (Roniger, 2018; Gándara, 2019; Estepa, 2020; Estepa et al., 2020). This situation is also described in the 2020 preliminary reports of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human…
No. 50 — 2020
Europe at the crossroads: unprecedented threats to human rights exacerbated by the pandemic

EIn Amnesty International’s yearly analysis on the human rights situation around the world, Europe has been gaining unprecedented attention in recent years, in relation to issues that not long ago aroused little or no concern. Some of the trends that have taken a turn for the worse relate to essential issues of political freedom, freedom of assembly, right to protest and freedom of expression, all of which are fundamental rights and pillars of democracy. 1. Political repression and human rights in Europe: main trends The outlook is concerning, with several trends arising. The first one is located at the heart…
Territorial conflicts of sovereignty: a perspective from social movement studies

Center-periphery cleavages have often re-emerged in different times. Although the waves of new states established after World War I, the de-colonisation period and the breakdown of the Soviet Union have declined in intensity, also in the 21st century non-state nations continue to assert demands for collective self-determination in vastly differing political contexts, from Scotland to Catalonia to Hong Kong and New Caledonia and Bougainville (della Porta, O’Connor and Portos 2019a and 2019b). Territorial conflicts of sovereignty in the 21st century Disputes on territorial sovereignty tended however –and will continue– to assume very different forms, going from cultural claims raised by…
Introduction: a code for resolving sovereignty conflicts in the 21st century

Disputes over sovereignty –who governs, where and on whose behalf– have shaped Europe’s history since time immemorial, and the list of serious violations of rights that have accompanied these conflicts seems never-ending. Even today, well into the 21st century, one issue remains inaccessible to reasoned debate and democratic decision: modifying state borders. Sovereignty conflicts in the 21st century: an initiative for Europe. Why do we need a code of good practice to resolve them? The IDEES special issue “Catalonia – Spain: from conflict to political dialogue” analyses the various dimensions of this secular conflict in four interrelated axes, intending to…
Secession and EU internal enlargement

How should the European Union (EU) respond to a secession process from a member state when the new state expresses its wish to obtain member status in the EU? The answer depends on the possibility of the EU changing the attitude it has adopted regarding secession from a member state, which was simultaneously revealed by its “non-immediate entry” attitude toward Scotland and not-so-veiled opposition toward Catalonia, and which conditions should be fulfilled for a secessionist state to be considered a new member state of the EU. Recent European secessionist movements Regarding the recent European secessionist movement, Scotland and Catalonia presented themselves…
Claiming Sovereignty: States, nations and Self-Determination in the European Context

Sovereignty has been the foundation of political order in the modern world, defining the ultimate source of legitimate authority within states and underpinning the international order. Yet it has always been an elusive idea. It has, in modern times, been associated with the nation-state to the point that ‘nation-state’ and ‘sovereign state’ have, in international relations, become synonymous. In its starkest form, the idea is that the nation-state is vested with absolute sovereignty and that there can be no disputing the matter. The state is sovereign because it is sovereign by definition; or the state is sovereign because, by exercise…
Conditions for Legitimate and Effective European Intervention in Territorial Sovereignty Disputes

Political Contexts, Doctrinal Moves, and Framing Principles for a Code of Practice In thinking about the value of a code of practice, it is worth remembering its real limitations, which are political. Codes are technical – but they depend upon some prior moment of decision. A code, however detailed, will have no effect if not implemented, and its implementation – though sometimes subject to procedures that themselves can be technical – depends upon political will. The Political Context In Europe, as in the world more broadly, states’ territorial sovereignty is notionally a domestic, political matter. But the predominant sentiment is…
The nexus between sovereignty, globalization and minority rights

As the title of the present article suggests, the main intention of the author is to look at the nexus between the three main analytical categories: sovereignty, globalization, and minority rights. These connections (or lack thereof) are addressed in a wider context of territorial conflicts of sovereignty, usually involving regions and communities residing in them, trying to broaden the scope of their autonomy or to achieve the outright sovereignty on the one hand; and central governments of the states they are a part of, who are usually reluctant to positively respond to the aforementioned aspirations, on the other. The central…
Proceduralizing territorial conflicts in the name of constitutionalism

When conflicts arise, the binary alternative is to either fight over them, or to (try to) accommodate them. The legal challenge is to find procedural ways in which conflicts can be channelled. The paper looks at such possible ways based on the comparative practice. It also argues that the EU, while not best suited to adopt such rules, should encourage their adoption in its function of promoting the rule of law The question and the legal answer Territorial conflicts do arise as a matter of fact and require a response as a matter of law. As experience shows, secession takes…
Towards a More Effective EU Response to Domestic Sovereignty Conflicts

The European Union has assumed an active role in supporting those regions and nations in its near abroad as they emerge from sovereignty conflicts. However, faced with sovereignty conflicts à l’intérieur, especially when these are within, rather than between, member states, the EU response has been found wanting. Instead, EU spokespeople have insisted that these are internal matters for the member states. Article 4(2) of the Treaty on European Union provides a defence for such a stance, enshrining respect for the national identities of member states and ‘their essential State functions, including ensuring the territorial integrity of the State, maintaining…
Problematising the Role of the EU in Territorial Sovereignty Conflicts

The EU’s historical success as a peacemaker between France and Germany has inspired many to wonder whether the EU may also bring peace to other conflicts. It is true that historically speaking at least, the EU area itself has proved remarkably free of conflict. Having said that, the Union has not managed to play a significant role as an actor in the settlement of territorial sovereignty disputes that have taken place inside its borders, such as the ones in Northern Ireland, the Basque country or even Cyprus . Taking the cue from this somewhat paradoxical situation, the paper problematises the…
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Independence Referendums in Comparative Perspective

Democracies are quite paralyzed by the plea of nationality. There is no more effective way of attacking them than by admitting the right of the majority to govern, but denying that the majority so entitled is the particular majority which claims the rightWilliam Sumner Maine In 2017 a majority of the voters in Catalonia, the Spanish comunitat autònoma, voted overwhelmingly for independence in what supporters called a referendum –but which opponents called an illegal and unconstitutional act. The figures seemed impressive. Over 92 per cent voted for independence and just over seven percent voted no to the proposition, “do you…
Deliberative Constitutionalism to the Rescue of Complex Democratic Settings

Current debates about sovereignty should not be limited to issues of legality or legitimacy as is too often times witnessed on the terrain of politics. Time and again, we have seen political actors intervening on behalf of the majority nation – hiding behind the veil of legality – to undermine or seek to discredit claims made by minority groups and minority nations. The initiative led by the Eusko Ikaskuntza and the Institut d’Estudis Catalans comes at a crucial moment as several countries are facing internal tensions that are associated with a push in favour of centralization, symmetrisation, and performance. Unitary…
How and Why Should the EU Intervene in Conflicts of Sovereignties on its Territory?

Conflicts of sovereignties is a traditional topic of international law, in which two sovereign entities (States) are in conflict around one of their constitutive elements – usually a piece of territory – that they both claim as their. This is however not what is being discussed in the present chapter, since one of the parties is claiming its right to access to sovereignty, while the other is already enjoying sovereign rights, including over the territory and population of the claiming party. We are thus dealing with an asymmetric conflict in which one party claims sovereignty and the other “defends sovereignty”.…
Why Should the European Union Intervene in Territorial Conflicts of Sovereignty of its Member States?

This article considers why the European Union (EU) should intervene in territorial conflicts of sovereignty of its Member States from the perspective of the EU itself. The starting point for this article is the fact that the EU tends to adopt a pragmatic approach to taking new action in a specific area and will generally only do so if it considers there is a significant issue or problem to be addressed, which if not will become an obstacle to the integration process or the functioning of the Union. It will argue that the recent Scottish and Catalan processes and developments…
No. 49 — 2020
SDGs and human rights: the blueprint for sustainable recovery

When the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by world leaders in 2015, Barack Obama was still the President of the USA, and only virologists had the effects of a global pandemic on their radar. In the beginning of 2021, the world looks very different. Are the SDGs still relevant in the COVID-19 context? The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to more than 89 million people and nearly 2 million corona-related deaths have been registered across the globe . Donald Trump, who during his presidency pulled the USA out of both the Human Rights Council and the Paris Agreement on…
No. 49 — 2020
Innovation and technological change for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda

Milton Friedman, Nobel laureate in economics and founder of the “Chicago school”, was the father of a commonly held management principle according to which “the only responsibility of a company is to maximise the profit of its shareholders” (1970). As if they were guided by some kind of underlying universal order (Adam Smith’s famous “invisible hand”), he believed that companies whose sole objective was to maximise profits would spontaneously propagate shared value to society. There was no need to worry about external effects, such as environmental impact or social responsibility. Nor about the equitable distribution of prosperity. Not even long-term…
No. 49 — 2020
The fight against climate change and towards the SDGs: inseparable paths

2015 was a decisive year for multilateralism and sustainable development. Under the umbrella of the United Nations, we are making progress towards meeting the targets set at the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 17 SDGs in the 2030 Agenda. Both agreements articulate a common direction, and a political project based on different forms of cooperation and coalitions orchestrated around each country’s specific needs. Both pacts have the support of the vast majority of countries around the world. SDGs and Climate Change: A shared agenda Not only do the two pacts have many interconnected goals, but they also emphasise…
No. 49 — 2020
Education as a pillar of the 2030 Agenda

“Education is the point at which we decide if we love the world enough to take responsibility for it”, wrote Hannah Arendt more than 60 years ago. Education as a responsibility towards others and the planet on which we live. In short, this is the concept of quality education promoted by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An international political agenda, approved by the United Nations in 2015, that takes a comprehensive approach to tackling the main global challenges we face as individuals and communities. Quality education as a tool for progress and a pillar of the 2030 Agenda The…
From the Barcelona Process to the Union for the Mediterranean

The first Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference was held in Barcelona 25 years ago, and its Final Declaration launched what has become the so-called Barcelona Process. The commemoration is a good time to evaluate the path taken, critically analyse the current situation, and predict the future as effectively as possible. A Euro-Mediterranean Partnership for the Modernisation of the Arab Mediterranean World The Barcelona Conference 1995 was an extraordinary opportunity to ambitiously bring Europe closer to the Arab Mediterranean countries and to clearly improve the traditional problems of inequality, misunderstanding and confrontation that the Mediterranean world had endured since time immemorial. The general…
Social Movements and revolutionary episodes in the Mediterranean

How have revolutionary episodes and grassroot movements reconfigured the socio-political landscape in the Mediterranean? And what are the common features and new transversal trends that have shaped the politics of contention in the region? In this article we focus on the complexities of Lebanon’s 2019 uprising, commonly framed as thawra or revolution, and reflect on its significance for the broader scene of contentious politics that has shaped the Mediterranean in the last decade. In the conclusion, we briefly explore how the trajectory of Lebanon’s uprising and its broader connotations hold key lessons for new civic alliances in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership…
The Dilemma of Political Islamism

Since it emerged in the early 20th century, the nature of modern political Islamism has been the object of acrimonious discussions between its advocators and detractors. Given that its doctrine on the ideal Islamic state is often vague beyond the slogans and that some movements that form part of this ideological family have turned to violence, there have been very different interpretations of its essence and historical meaning. In fact, at the core of its project is the application of Sharia or Islamic law, which, as it is not codified, adopts a different meaning for each religious branch or Islamist…
No. 51 — 2020
Six reflections on the Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic is what the anthropologist Marcel Mauss called a “total social fact”, which affects all kinds of dimensions of our collective life, social, cultural, political, economic and, of course, health, while turning many personal lives upside down, individually or within the framework of the couple or family. It is a challenge for knowledge for reasons linked primarily to the specifics of the virus, as each day we discover how surprising it can be, but also because it still confronts us with its unpredictability, forcing us to think about history, the tragedy of human experience, and therefore to abandon…
No. 51 — 2020
A Vision for a Shared Mediterranean Project

“Not even fish would dare to swim in the [Mediterranean] sea without showing the insignia of the Catalan kings,” proclaimed Admiral Corral Llança, according to the Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner. A phrase that captures the eternal link between Catalonia and the Mediterranean. A unifying light that shines into the night of history and that today we want to rekindle with a view to the future. Indeed, the idea of the Mediterranean is a characteristic feature of Catalonia that has traditionally acted as an added value of its external projection. Evoked as a historical benchmark, the Mediterranean character of Catalonia has…