Global Campus Student Abstracts 2024 on the topic Just Transition recently published!

We are thrilled to announce the publishing of the Global Classroom 2024 student abstracts, which marks the end of a six-month research journey. The Global Classroom 2024 programme, which focused on the theme "Just Transition: Conditions for Change of the Global Order," brought together students from eight regional Master's programmes in the Global Campus network to share their different viewpoints.

The conference, which took place from June 17-21, 2024, in Bishkek and Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan, and was co-organized with the OSCE Academy in Bishkek (GC Central Asia hub), featured research presentations by 24 students from 24 different countries on a variety of topics, including transitional justice, democratic institution building, frozen conflicts, peace building through art, and civil society engagement. The student papers, presented in five separate panels at the conference, take us across regions and countries, reflecting on issues in modern global governance and transitions in the past, present, and future.

The abstracts explore various tools, institutions, frameworks, and socio-political factors that either supported or obstructed transitions to democracy. Topics include the role of electoral observation in Kyrgyzstan (Tenizbaeva Akylai – GC Central Asia); the legacy of dictatorship in Chile’s constitution (Magdalena Schaub – GC Latin America & Caribbean); the influence of political families in the Philippines (Rizky Ashar Murdiono – GC Asia Pacific); challenges of consociation and power-sharing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Anju Sadasivam – GC South East Europe); and the dynamics of peace-making in the MENA region (Faten Hamze – GC Arab World).

2 Transitional justice

Global Campus students on this panel present a range of national and regional case studies. These include the connection between transitional justice and economic, social, and cultural inequalities in selected African countries (Eleonora Cambruzzi – GC Europe); the impact of compulsory military training for students on transitional justice in some Asia-Pacific countries (Anusha Shrestha – GC Asia Pacific); the failure of democracy in Afghanistan (Javad Mohammadi – GC Central Asia); the role of civil society in transitional justice processes in Mauritius (Marie Rebecca Jolicoeur – GC Africa); and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Kosovo (Orestis Nicolau – GC South East Europe).

3 Melt-down of frozen conflicts

These abstracts explore diverse perspectives on the role of institutions in relation to armed conflicts, revolutions, and war-related violence. Topics include the role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Oluwatosin Senami Adegun – GC Africa); reforms aimed at preventing LGBTQ+ rights violations that were perpetrated during the Northern Ireland conflict (Jessica Gill – GC Europe); political transitions in Armenia following the Velvet Revolution and the ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan (Anush Mkrtchyan – GC Caucasus); the relevance of Colombia's transitional justice experience for Mexico (Luis Fernando Herrera Martínez – GC Latin America & Caribbean); and the consolidation of power in Morocco and its connection to water security (Matthijs Mantel – GC Arab World).

4 Human rights compliance in times of transition

Students’ abstracts highlight various mechanisms and frameworks relevant to the enforcement of human rights, including: the role of International Human Rights Law in shaping transitional justice in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (Alina Salakhunova – GC Central Asia); the need to reform ASEAN’s non-interference principle, which hampers intervention in human rights crises like in Myanmar (Nattida Phonyong – GC Asia Pacific); the 2020 post-electoral protests in Belarus (Alexander Maltsev – GC Caucasus); participatory filmmaking as an emerging and effective tool for societies in transition (Catriona O’Sullivan – GC Europe); and the successes and failures of international peacebuilding initiatives in the MENA region (HibaTollah Ibrahim Raad – GC Arab World).

These abstracts address the challenges societies and countries face in achieving a truly ‘just’ transition. Topics include Haiti’s democratic transition and the role of the international community (Jean Bonaparte – GC Latin America & Caribbean); the difficulties the African Union and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) face in promoting just transitions and addressing coups, such as in Gabon (Kipkoech Nicholas Cheruiyot – GC Africa); Spain’s amnesty laws and transitional justice measures, questioning whether reconciliation can hinder justice (Raúl Suárez Pascual – GC Europe); and the connection between transitional justice and the decline of media freedom (Nejra Kravić – GC South East Europe).

After the publication of the abstracts, the students (many of whom have now graduated!) are currently working on the next stage of their research. This involves either publishing a more ‘accessible’ version for the Global Campus Human Rights Preparedness blog (or other platforms) or developing an academic article to submit to a journal, including the Global Campus Human Rights Journal .

Access “Just Transition: Conditions for Change of the Global Order. Global Classroom 2024. Collection of Student Abstracts” on our Open Knowledge Repository.