Education & Youth
Failing Another Generation
Roma in the Czech Republic face widespread and persistent discrimination—starting at school. Roma children are funneled into so-called “practical schools”—dead-end institutions where they are taught a limited, low-level curriculum. Dominik Žiga (center) is pictured above with his mother Yveta Gáborová, older brother Nikolas, and younger sister Jessica. Dominik attended a standard school near the family’s home. Then, in January 2012, the school administrators told Yveta that Dominik needed to be transferred to a “practical” school. “He started at the standard school but he always returns home with bruises,” Yveta said. “The kids stab him with their pencils and pens. I take him back to the school, angry at all the bruises and the teachers say, ‘I didn’t see anything.’ The teacher said to me, ‘We aren’t used to having Roma children here.’”
More from this collection »Rights & Justice
Justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been called the worst areas in the world to be a woman or child. For the past 15 years, women and girls in the region have suffered mass sexual violence on an unimaginable scale, perpetrated by the Congolese army, rebels, militias, and others. Impunity has been the rule, and simply finding courtrooms and judges is next to impossible beyond the provincial capitals. In response, the Open Society Foundations have supported the creation of mobile gender courts able to properly try rape cases. The courts have brought a measure of justice—and dignity—to victims and demonstrate that, with modest support, local institutions can respond even under the most challenging circumstances. The above photo, of a local police station holding cell for a mobile court, is from the Open Society report Justice in DRC: Mobile Courts Combat Rape and Impunity in Eastern Congo.
More from this collection »Governance & Accountability
A More Inclusive Europe
Muslims in Europe are a diverse and growing population of citizens as well as newly arrived immigrants. Though the majority of Muslims are a longstanding and integral part of the fabric of their cities, many Muslims still experience discrimination and suspicion. The At Home in Europe Project seeks to improve the integration of Europe’s minority and marginalized communities, including Muslims. The above photo, commissioned as part of the Muslims in Paris report, portrays Sufis in the Paris suburb of Drancy.
More from this collection »Health
A Light in the Dark
People who use drugs often face stigma and discrimination when trying to get basic health care. Based in St. Petersburg—a city where 70 percent of HIV cases are the result of injecting drug use—the Humanitarian Action Fund fights for the health and human rights of injecting drug users, as well as other marginalized groups such as sex workers, migrants, and street children. The organization, a grantee of the Open Society Foundations, operates a mobile clinic on a refurbished bus that travels to areas where drug users live and buy drugs. For the last decade, the bus has been a light in the dark, offering clean needles and syringes, alcohol swabs, condoms, psychological counseling, blood testing, basic medical services, and information about safer injecting, HIV, and hepatitis.
More from this collection »Media & Information
Paradise Rivers
Despite the divisions that have formed since the Soviet Union collapsed, the two rivers that run through the countries of Central Asia still bind the region inextricably. In the documentary photography series “Paradise Rivers,” Carolyn Drake follows the rivers from beginning to end through five countries, crossing into the lives of people and layers of history that they intersect along the way. Above, Uzbek women weed a cotton field in the Kabodiyon district of southern Tajikistan.
More from this collection »Improve Lives.
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An Indian court has revoked the patent on a Hepatitis drug because the process of creating it was not innovative. The decision may spur the production of a host of more affordable generic drugs to treat disease.
The U.S. will sentence John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent, to 30 months in jail for breaching official secrecy laws. Most European countries would have responded less harshly.
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Senior Legal Officer, National Security and CounterterrorismOpen Society Institute–New York, Open Society Justice Initiative
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DirectorOpen Society Institute–Budapest, Roma Initiatives Office
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