WRITTEN BY Ciska Wittouck, Freya Vander Laenen, Stijn Vandevelde, Sara Rowaert, Natalie Aga, Sofie Van Roeyen, Kurt Audenaert, Wouter Vanderplasschen, Tom Vander Beken
This essay describes
lived-experience based strategies for persons with mental illness who offended
(PMIO) and their families. These recommendations are derived from the results
of a multidisciplinary research project which aimed to develop
multidisciplinary strengths-based strategies for PMIO and their families.1,2
These recommendations can inspire a broad range of practitioners and policy
makers from the criminal justice system as well as the mental health systems
working with PMIO and their family.
Innovative approaches in countering violent extremism are not only a question of philosophy, but also of pragmatism. We need a new dialogue to strategize how to establish a consensus/springboard from which to reinforce local, national and global security. We don’t need to analyse what has not worked, but actually focus on analysing what is working.
WRITTEN BY Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas - Director a.i. of UNICRI
The
development of modern technologies along with the acceleration of globalization
and increasing inequalities are generating new paradigms and unpredictable
risks. This has huge impact on populations all over the world. Today, millions
of people are coping with crises stemming from climate change, violent
extremism, organized crime, and a general lack of vision on how to develop
sustainable responses. Threats, uncertainties and socioeconomic disparities,
and the need for new effective and innovative approaches are symbiotic in every
corner of the world.
WRITTEN BY Pierluigi Casale, Vladimir Osin, Grazina Raguckaja and Giulia Violatto
“All our knowledge begins with senses, proceeds to the understanding and ends with reason.”
Introduction
For Immanuel Kant, our senses are the gate to perceive
information from the environment and to generate our knowledge. Yet, in the age
of advanced technology, our senses are easily becoming subject of manipulation.
In such context, the fundamental question arises whether we, humans with
manipulated sense, can continue relying on our own decision making. There has
been an unprecedent progress in the quality of techniques for human image
synthesis based on Artificial Intelligence
(AI), which can manipulate our sense of sight. Deepfakes constitutes the
most famous example of it. In just few years, many alarming examples of fake
content have involved politicians, governments, technology leaders, and media
celebrities. What does this mean for our future, the future of our societies
and the future of our countries? What will this manipulation entail at the
moment we exercise our rights as citizens and voters?
Eight to twelve million tons of plastics end up in the
oceans every year. One of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG),
Goal 14 on life below water, calls upon states to prevent and significantly
reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities,
including marine debris, by 2025. Following China’s ban of all imports of non-industrial
plastic wastes in 2018, exports of plastic wastes by high-income countries have
shifted to South East Asian countries putting unbearable stress on their waste
management systems. Despite worldwide attention devoted to the ocean plastics
crisis, these practices are likely to aggravate the problem. It shows that
current efforts are not sufficient to achieve the SDG target 14 for marine
plastic litter and microplastics.
On the 9th of November 2019, we celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, an event which has become a global icon for positive, disruptive change, a symbol of reunification and justice.
For Save the Dream, an organisation working to promote
safe access to sport and its educational and social values, the temptation to
associate the power of sport with the demolition of the Berlin Wall and any
other barrier between or within nations was so strong that it resulted in the
launch of the global campaign “When Sport Breaks Down
Walls”, in cooperation with the International Olympic Truce Center
(IOTC) and the support of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC).
