EN 
NL LGBTI inclusion in the Western Balkans on the agenda during EuroPride
Photo: Participants of the training by FMS, Rainbow Rose and Labour at EuroPride in Thessaloniki Although significant progress has been made on LGBTI+ rights in recent decades, the struggle for full equality remains an ongoing challenge. Discrimination, violence and lack of legal protection are still widespread in many parts of the [...]
Rivals Hamas and Fatah strike deal: what does it mean for Palestine?
Photo: Palestinian flags at the grave of Yasser Arafat, co-founder of Fatah - Flickr On Tuesday 23 July, 14 Palestinian parties, including the rival factions Hamas and Fatah, signed an important declaration of 'national unity' in Beijing. This agreement, which was brokered by China, calls for a unity government to rebuild Gaza [...]
New generation of young people at Summer School in northern Macedonia
In early July, the Max van der Stoel Foundation together with the Progres Institute organised the annual Summer School on Lake Ohrid in northern Macedonia. The 17th edition of this event was dedicated to recruiting a new generation of young political talent inside northern Macedonia. This is of great importance now that the Social Democrats in the [...]
In Ukraine, daily life is dominated by certainties and uncertainties
Photo above: Kido Koenig (FMS) speaking at SD Platform event in Kyiv (July 2024) Earlier this month, the Max van der Stoel Foundation visited Ukraine, in cooperation with other political parties and foundations from Europe. The five-day visit was dedicated to visiting political actors and exploring social [...]
What does the future hold for Armenia?
Last week, the first of a series of trainings took place in Armenia, with the Max van der Stoel Foundation partnering with the SD Platform Armenia. The SD Platform has been doing important work for several years to motivate young people across the country to bring about political change from the bottom up. With its 'Future Factory' programme [...]
The fate of dissident Mikhail Krieger
Mikhail Krieger during an interrogation (Source: Antonina Favorskaya / Sota / Moscow Times) A Russian-Ukrainian anti-war activist recounts his life behind bars in his correspondence. For two posts on social media, he was sentenced to seven years in a penal camp. Miсhail Krieger was born in 1960 in Dniepropetrovsk - now Dnipro - in Ukraine's Soviet republic. [...]
Watch back now: debate with MEP candidates on the Western Balkans
Photo: Flags of EU Member States - Flickr On 26 May in Leiden, the FMS together with PAX, Free Press Unlimited, NHC, Dutch-Albanian Friendship Foundation and Humanitarian Intervention Committee organised a debate on EU integration of the Western Balkans! Teun Janssen (Volt), Ingeborg ter Laak (CDA), Reinout van Malenstein (NSC), Alisha Muller (VVD), Thijs Reuten (GL-PvdA) & [...]
All Eyes on Sudan
In Khartoum, Sudan's capital, heavy fighting broke out in April last year between the government army the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary army Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A bloody war has been raging in Sudan ever since. But even before this escalation in 2023, the country was experiencing major problems. The population of [...]
'A mood of hope and anger' in Georgia as 'foreign agent law' passed by parliament
Photo: Graffiti in Tbilisi in April-May 2024 (source: Jelger Groeneveld, Flickr) On 3 June, the infamous law on foreign agents was officially passed by the Georgian parliament. A final attempt to stop the law by Saloma Zourabichvili, Georgia's EU-friendly president, was rejected by the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority. The [...]
Western Sahara: British MPs embrace Moroccan plan, but at what price?
Photo: A Sahrawi with the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic - Wikimedia Commons On 25 May, 30 British MPs, mostly from the ruling Conservative Party, called on the British government to support Morocco's proposal for Western Sahara governance. This so-called Moroccan autonomy plan, proposed in 2006, offers Rabat control over [...]
