Cooperation and Chocolate: The Story of One Colombian Community’s Quest for Peace
A member of Comunidad de Paz de San José, a “Peace Community” in Colombia, cultivating cacao.
All photos from Operazione Colomba
A community in Colombia is ditching traditional capitalist models in order to build a collective future.
Jan 14, 2021
When it’s time for harvest, Germán Graciano Posso, a 38-year-old Colombian farmer, leaves his village, La Florencita, with a group of co-workers and heads into the hills where the cacao trees grow surrounded by a lush rainforest. Cacao pods the size of giant lemons hang off the trees’ branches: They come in various colors green, red, and purple but tend to turn yellow when they ripen. Posso harvests the fruits by hand, cracks them open with a machete, and collects the grape-sized seeds, which are covered in a white, squishy casing. Then he places the seeds in a wooden box where the casing undergoes a process of fermentation. Finally, Posso spr
A Joint Statement on the Decisions of Some European Countries Threatening the Principle of Non-refoulement of Refugees
Changes to asylum policies in several European countries may pave the way for a violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights
Since the end of 2019, we have witnessed clear changes in the policies of several European countries regarding asylum and especially the reception of Syrian refugees. The reasons for the changes made by the governments of these countries have ranged from reports claiming improved security conditions, which is in clear contradiction to European and international reports, to those which are based on Article 32 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The latter includes an exception to the principle of non-refoulement and allows the expulsion of a refugee against whom a final ruling has been issued for committing a crime that poses a danger to the society s/he lives in. However, the reli
Albania: dealing with a new migration framework on the edge of the empire
17 December 2020
In 2014, Albania was formally accepted as a candidate for membership to the EU. The country is aiming to approximate its domestic law with the EU legal acquis within the next two years, prompting big changes in the country s immigration and asylum system - at least on paper. Currently, those systems cannot be said to meet fundamental rights or EU legal standards, but given conditions within the EU itself - notably in Greece - it remains to be seen whether this will be a barrier to Albania joining the bloc.