In response to a crisis, the state can grant itself special powers to protect citizens from danger. However, as the Covid-19 pandemic showed, this increases the opportunities for abuses of power as many democratic checks and balances are weakened.

In February’s edition of Democracy Drinks Berlin, Liberties was joined by Flora Cresswell and Jorge Valladares of Transparency International to discuss the fallout of Qatargate and understand how the cash-for-influence scandal was allowed to happen.

The right to access information is a fundamental right, protected by most constitutions worldwide. When citizens can access information about how their government is performing, they can exercise their right to freedom of expression more meaningfully.

Judges rely on judicial interpretation to understand the meaning of the law. In European courts, the flexibility of judicial interpretation has been used to broaden human rights law to reflect evolving social norms and values.

What is advocacy work? What types of advocacy are there? What duties does it include? Why is it important?

The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged economies around the world. To tackle the damages caused by the pandemic, in late 2020 the European Union created an unprecedented stimulus package to support the recovery and investment efforts of member countries.

Civil liberties are natural rights inherent to every citizen which protects them from tyranny by the state. The degree to which these liberties are enjoyed by people is an important indicator of the quality of a given country’s democracy.

LGBT is an umbrella term capturing anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender. There are many definitions of sexual orientation to describe a person’s ways of relating sexually to others, beyond the binary of homosexual or heterosexual.

As NGOs become increasingly popular, and essential, in the public sector, it’s important to understand the role they play in society and the impact they have globally and locally. But what is an NGO, how does it function, and what is its purpose?

Whistleblowers can be essential in bringing to light illegal activities, corruption and threats to the public good. Yet despite their crucial role, legal protections for whistleblowers are lacking or non-existent in many EU countries.