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The terms of social, symbolic, legal and political recognitions establish living conditions and their frameworks, which is why feminism calls for the permanent expansion of borders concerning the recognition of human rights. In this sense, as several authors have pointed out, the fight for the eradication of sexual, patriarchal and gender-based violence has become an epistemology for social change . In this article, I shall justify why it is important to articulate public policies that consider children and adolescents, along with women, as subjects of gender-based violence. Before delving into this reflection, I want to state the reasons that have…
When we talk about working and promoting attitudes that are part of egalitarian and inclusive anti-masculine masculinities, we are being structurally preventive, because we want to do the total opposite of what the patriarchy wants to impose. It has always been said that this system cannot be changed, that it is impossible. But we must challenge this patriarchal order, and we must do so by starting to develop attention skills and the ability to care for other people. To do this we need to cultivate the capacity for empathy because it is only that way that can we generate new…
The term institutional violence, coined by human rights organizations, has a great communicative power and aims to leave behind the paradigm of the individual offender in order to focus on administrations. It also aims to leave behind the model of formal recognition of rights to move onto one where these rights are effectively enforced. The inclusion of this new field of violence involves the recognition of a historical debt to women’s and feminist movements, a conceptual advancement and a tool of great transformative potential. First step: building a compliance and assessment framework based on the due diligence standard The inclusion…
Origins and outreach intersectionality The concept of intersectionality arises in the context of American black feminism (from authors such as Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) (1989)— with the aim of grasping the situation of structural discrimination and inequality suffered by black women from a feminist and anti-racist perspective. The key point was to show that these two axes (gender and race) separately could not explain their situation of inequality, but rather it was necessary to see how they interlinked and shaped a particular oppressive experience. Today, the term has expanded and it is used to show how different axes of inequality (such…
Law 17/2020, of 22 December 2020, amending Law 5/2008 on the right of women to eradicate gender-based violence, has updated the conceptual framework by incorporating new forms of gender-based violence, among which are vicarious violence and second-order violence. In both cases, reference is made to the violence perpetrated against the woman’s environment: children, family, friends or professional network, as a way to continue causing her harm and suffering, punishing her network of support and isolating her. The visibility of these two forms of violence were a demand of the feminist movements and their regulatory acknowledgement must strengthen the protection of…
Feminicide has been defined by Law 17/2020 as “gender-based murders and homicides of women, inductions to suicide and suicides as a result of pressure and violence exerted against women”. The Catalan legislation includes therefore a concept that has been widely developed from theory, feminist activism, comparative legislation and international law. In particular, the concept of ‘feminicidi’ has been one of the translations of the English expression femicide, which was used for the first time as a denouncement of the misogynist murders of women by the sociologist Diana Russell in the Court against Crimes against Women, held in Brussels in 1976…
The historical, political, social and international context that marked the creation of the League of Nations in 1919-1920, after the end of the First World War, and the international treaties that ensued, coincided with a particularly intense period in the history of Catalonia. Catalonia, like so many other parts of the world, was in a state of effervescence, in part due to the new global context that was just taking its first steps, but also because of domestic dynamics, both within Catalonia and linked to the (always complex) relationship between Barcelona and Madrid. A significant proportion of Catalan society had…
Josep Puig i Cadafalch: a statesman with international aspirations Josep Puig i Cadafalch (Mataró 1867 – Barcelona 1956) is more often remembered for his distinguished career as an architect, archaeologist and art historian. As well as being the architect who designed Casa Amatller, Casa de les Punxes, the Casaramona factory and so many others, Puig i Cadafalch also sponsored the historical-archaeological expedition to the Pyrenees in 1907 that, among other things, discovered the Romanesque frescoes of Taüll, and the excavations in Empúries, and wrote L’Arquitectura Romànica a Catalunya (Romanesque Architecture in Catalonia), which brought him international recognition. However, Puig i…
In the early spring of 1921, Josep Puig i Cadafalch placed the Mancomunitat de Catalunya (Commonwealth of Catalonia, comprising the four provincial councils), of which he was president, at the disposal of the delegates who had come to Barcelona to take part in the International Conference on Communications and Transit, the first intergovernmental conference organised by the League of Nations, formed just over a year earlier. Over a period of one and a half months, from 10 March to 20 April, a large part of this Conference’s sessions were held at the Palau de la Mancomunitat, the former Palau de…
This year marks a century since the formation of Acció Catalana by young activists who split from the Lliga Regionalista. One of the key proponents of this split was Lluís Nicolau d’Olwer. Rather than a vocational politician, he was a scholar and humanist who went into politics, as a moral imperative, as he always said. With Acció Catalana, he began an important political career that led him to take part in the Pact of San Sebastián in 1930 and the Revolutionary Committee that was formed after that meeting. When Primo de Rivera took power in 1923, Nicolau d’Olwer went into…
The attempts to internationalise Catalan aspirations for self-government. Union des Nationalités and the Catalan volunteers in the First World War Before the outbreak of the Great War, certain sectors within Catalan nationalism began the process to internationalise their aspirations for self-government. In 1912, the architect and Lliga Regionalista leader Josep Puig i Cadafalch, who would later become the second president of the Mancomunitat, represented the Catalanists at the Union des Nationalités (UdN). This organisation acted as an information, publicity and propaganda centre and as a lobby for those who identified themselves as oppressed nationalities, particularly European nationalities, fostering a current…
Josep Maria Batista i Roca (1895-1978) was the first intellectual, academic, university professor and public figure who was a lifelong proponent of Catalan independence, proclaimed it publicly and acted accordingly . His political action was based on strengthening Catalonia and its national spirit and awareness, nurturing character and preparing the leaders of tomorrow, inspired by the British model. Batista i Roca was one of the few intellectuals who truly sought to establish a position for Catalonia in the world – Catalan geopolitics. He would do this on five levels: pan-Catalanist, pan-Occitan, Iberian, European and, lastly, Hispanic. We will briefly outline…
The European national minorities after 1919 Initially, the League of Nations was hampered by three shortcomings: the defection of the United States, the exclusion of Germany and the absence of Russia. France demanded infeasible war reparations from Germany, the runaway inflation destabilised the fragile Weimar Republic, the French occupied the Ruhr between 1923 and 1925, and Austria was denied the right to unite with Germany after losing Hungary and the Slavic possessions of the defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, the League of Nations created organisations that have endured, such as the International Labour Organisation, and successfully mediated in conflicts such as…
One of the constants of Francesc Maspons i Anglasell’s life (1872-1966) would be his Europeanism and his deep knowledge of international law. Born on 22 July 1872 in the Barcelona neighbourhood of El Raval, at no. 17, Carrer d’en Xuclà, his parents were Francesc Maspons i Labrós and Pilar Anglasell i Buxeres, two families that had been part of the Catalan Renaixença movement in its early days. With strong roots in the town of Bigues (Vallès Oriental) since the 12th century, the lineage had produced a large number of lawyers and notaries. Advocating a romantic, eminently rural Catalanism in which…
When studying diplomatic relations and interactions between political players of varying levels and status, there is one axiomatic premise that must be accepted: the parameters of realpolitik do not always align with legal and theoretical principles. It is very common for political movements, armed groups, political parties or territorial entities without any state recognition to establish contacts and dynamics that are characteristic of internationally recognised administrations. In this respect, the 1930s are paradigmatic of this break with legally established procedures on an international scale, especially after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in January 1933, but there were also other cases.…
In September 2020, the European Commission published the First Report on the Rule of Law of its 27 memberships of the European Union. The independence of the judiciary, corruption, and media pluralism –with an emphasis on the fundamental rights to freedom of information and expression– are the axes of this examination of the democratic quality of the States. In the case of Spain, shadows appear in these areas. To address the issue of news pluralism, the European Commission report takes into account the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) produced by the Center for Media Pluralism and Freedom (CMPF) of the European…
Digitization, globalization and liberalization have been and still are the main vectors for the transformation of communication systems in recent years. We have moved –we are in the process– from a system characterized by mass communication (unidirectional, to a mass audience) to another on which there is still no consensus on the name. Some authors discuss between individualized communications, personalized, self-communication of masses (Manuel Castells), hybrid (Andrew Chadwick), among other terminology. In any case, one of the characteristics of this system or ecosystem is the concentration of property in a very high and growing degree. Technological convergence, which has been…
Democracy and the media is a binomial that highlights the interdependence between the two concepts. It is considered fundamental for the proper functioning of democracy that citizens have access to a set of plural and diverse means that allow them to access ideologically plural information; and as a result, be able to freely exercise their vote. In fact, the European Union’s commitment to respecting the freedom and pluralism of the media and to defending freedom of expression —which includes the right to receive and disseminate information without interference by public authority— is enshrined in the Article 11 of the EU…
It is undeniable that freedom of expression, freedom of the media and, consequently, media pluralism, in all its faceted definitions and interpretations, are cornerstones of contemporary liberal democracies. They are instruments to ensure peaceful political and social debate, and are the basis for other essential democratic rights, starting from the right to vote. Media pluralism: a growing interest for the European Union In the last two decades, the European policy debate has experienced a renewed interest for media pluralism. This attention was either ignited by some national cases that proved problematic for the intertwining of media and politics (e.g. Italy,…
The Audiovisual Communication Law of Catalonia of 2005 sets a general mission and goal in order to define the provision of the public radio and television service, as well as its functions, along with the same general orientation as the Spanish regulation and those of all the states of the European union. It basically assigns the obligation to encourage through the programming of its channels and services the support and promotion of basic democratic values. Among the main ones, we can find freedom of expression and information, the right of participation, the pluralism of voices in the service of citizenship…
On 17 December 2001, the Catalan Parliament unanimously passed Law 26/2001 on Development Cooperation. Looking beyond its content, the fact that it has a legally binding regulatory framework and that it involves the creation of new instruments and structures, as well as a clear commitment towards a substantial and sustained increase in resources, was a reflection of both social demand and political consensus. Through this article, I would like firstly to put the process through which the law was created into context and, secondly, highlight the most innovative and significant aspects of the legal text. As regards its implementation and…
According to Heeks , digital technologies have impacted international development in three particular ways: they now reach almost all low-income communities, both in urban and rural contexts (reach), they are relevant to almost all development issues and sectors (scope), and they play a vital role in all aspects of development processes (depth). Given the changing patterns in the field of international development these three impact dimensions can be associated with the major challenges: transformation (incremental developmental changes are no longer sufficient), inclusion (decision making beyond elite circles), and sustainability (development within the remits of planetary boundaries) . Digital technologies have…
Decentralised development co-operation (DDC) lacks a harmonised statistical definition and is often embodied in diverse legal frameworks and governance structures that vary according to levels of decentralisation across countries. Attempts to provide a unifying definition of DDC often fall short of capturing the diversity of actors involved and their value-added to deliver development co-operation and finance in support of sustainable and inclusive development and recovery. DDC can include activities beyond aid, or what is counted as Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows . In 2005, a first OECD report defined DDC as, “Aid extended by the public sector other than the…
The development era reordered the world after the Second World War, drawing a geography divided between “developed” countries and “underdeveloped”, or poor, countries. Although the concept of “development” already existed, it became hegemonic when the Government of the United States, the new world power at the time, made it the core of its international policy in 1949. The United Nations was created not only to prevent future wars, but also to foster development in those two-thirds of the world, especially in the geopolitical South, which were classified as “underdeveloped” at the time. This was the time when the Declaration of…
In December 2021 I participated in a major Public-Private Partnership (PPP) conference in Istanbul, attended primarily by participants from emerging economies. There was considerable enthusiasm for PPPs as a mechanism to help developing countries achieve their sustainable development goals (SDGs). This continued enthusiasm was interesting in the light of reduced global keenness for PPPs over the last two years, due to the fact that unexpected COVID pandemic induced force majeure risks in the projects . It was noteworthy that one of the distinguished PPP conference speakers made the following comment during his speech – “PPPs need to be seen as…
The age of guerrilla movements has come to an end, but homicidal violence has not subsided The second half of the 20th century was marked by the emergence of guerrilla groups across the length and breadth of Latin America. Most of these groups followed the model of the Cuban Revolution and the “foco” theory used by Ché Guevara, in other words the creation of small groups (or focos in Spanish) throughout the region to obviate the need for the right social, political and economic conditions for revolution. Some of these groups used guerrilla tactics in rural areas, from where they…
Ecofeminism is a movement on the rise Ecofeminism experienced a rebirth in 2019, just before the emergence of the current pandemic. Among other factors, this was due to the strength of the feminist movement and the youth climate movement, as thinker Alicia Puleo explained. She also correctly pointed out that another of the reasons behind this increased strength is ecofeminism’s focus on indigenous women ho defend the land against extractivism, which sometimes even costs them their lives. Many young women identify with this movement, which began in the early 1970s. But it is now, after 50 years of ecofeminist history, that…
For some time now, people have been asking me whether the work done by NGOs still has any meaning, or whether they are a vestige of our society that is now obsolete. And the next question is whether the NGOs themselves should continue to exist. It makes you seriously wonder whether they’re right. And if they’re not, we need to have a good explanation as to why. When cooperation started in the 1960s, it basically stood on three legs, generosity, transfer and assistance. Transfer because it was about transferring money, trained people and knowledge from us to the countries that…
As the world emerges from the COVID pandemic and grapples with the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on supplies of food and energy we need to be thinking about changing the way things work more than ever. COVID has wreaked havoc with economies. The World Bank estimates that COVID has pushed over 147 million people into absolute poverty, wiping out some of the gains of the last 10 years and the war in Ukraine has sent wheat and oil prices spiralling, threatening the chances of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
In transitions to democracy, especially third wave transitions in Africa, there has been the assumption that women’s participation in politics will increase and gender inequality will diminish. One of the main assumptions is that women will be represented by women in government who will champion women’s issues (called substantive representation). Of the mechanisms employed by African governments to increase women’s representation, in line with global developments, are the use of quotas and reserved seats. Globally where quotas have been used women’s descriptive representation (numbers of women) have increased. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have more than doubled their women’s representation since…