Trade Unions, Deregulation, and Social Dialogue: An Interview with Vitaliy Dudin
Vitaliy Dudyn is one of those lawyers for whom the idea of fighting for justice defines his professional practice. This shouldn’t surprise us, as it is the foundation of any legal profession. However, what makes Vitaliy an outstanding lawyer is his understanding that achieving individual justice is impossible without a collective struggle for rights. As […]
Children of the Occupation: “I Feel Like a Nobody. It’s Like I Don’t Exist”
In 2014, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions were occupied. At the time, many children aged 10–15 lived there. Some of them left together with their parents, but then returned to the occupied territories, while others never left at all. During the 10 years of war, the children grew up, but for various reasons they […]
The anti-social ferocity of Ukrainian neo-liberals
The recent statements of Minister of Social Policy Oksana Zholnovych about "destroying everything social" and "taking Ukrainians out of their comfort zone" have caused significant public outcry and a wave of criticism. Yet this is not the first time that officials directly involved in social policy have publicly taken anti-social stances. What does the presence […]
Nine Months in a Juvenile Shelter. Musician David’s story about Deportation to Russia
On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued warrants of arrest for russian*[1] president Vladimir Putin and children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children. The court's statement holds them accountable for the harm inflicted upon Ukrainian children due to the war crimes of forcibly displacing individuals from […]
Swimming Upstream: Stories of people who challenged employer tyranny in Ukraine
In the current Ukrainian context, the demand of society for fairer living conditions and the demand of the people who are ready to promote and defend them is increasingly strong. And experience shows that there are more and more people in Ukraine who put the pursuit of truth and the protection of public interest above […]
Weapons of war: sexual violence of Russian military during the full-scale invasion in Ukraine
War-time sexual violence exists for as long as wars themselves. Memory about mass sexual crimes during World War 2 still lives, for example, those committed by Wehrmacht and its allies on the occupied territories, by the Imperial Japanese Army (the phenomena of the so-called “comfort women”), by the Red Army in Hungary and Germany, etc. […]
Decent Work during and after the War
On October 7th, the world celebrates World Day for Decent Work. On this day, the workers bring to mind their right to decent work, and unions of the world hold massive protests drawing their governments' attention to low wages, unsafe working conditions, and other problems millions of people still face. The right to work […]
Countering housing dispossession in Cluj, the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe
The pursuit of international recognition of its urban policies turned into a major source of legitimacy for the Romanian municipality of Cluj-Napoca. The city has been designated the 2015 European Capital of Youth. Next year it made it into the national final stage of the competition for the 2021 European Capital of Culture; losing the […]
Social Protection in Postwar Ukraine: Time to Change Approaches
In April 2022, a new consultative body was established under the President of Ukraine: the National Council for the Restoration of Ukraine from the Consequences of War. The Council works on 23 fields of social life. Selected experts are supposed to draft plans for postwar restoration in each of these fields. The fields include social […]
Six cats, thirty people, four mortar shells. Two weeks in the occupied Kyiv suburb
For almost two weeks – from February 24th to March 10th – me, thirty other people, and six cats were living in the dormitory of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in the township of Vorzel’, an administrative part of neighbouring Irpin’, so a suburb of Kyiv’s suburb. The majority of the building’s denizens moved out throughout the first […]
