Assessing the effectiveness and progress of efforts to ‘build states in order to build peace’ (Call and Wyeth, 2008) is inevitable for several reasons. Politicians want to know what is being achieved with the resources that they have allocated to the state building endeavours abroad. They want to judge …

It has been almost fifteen years since the brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) started, and has been causing tremendous suffering for the Congolese civilians ever since; leaving millions of people dead, and causing another hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, while …

The aim of this report is to determine whether there exists a difference in the public access to justice between several member states of the European Union. The report examines the judicial structures of three member states, along with the circumstances surrounding the access to the courts. A case study …

This paper reviews how economic modelling provides a deeper understanding of drug markets. The exercise focuses on ‘soft drugs’ (cannabinoids) in the Netherlands and outlines the effects of prohibition and legalisation. The purpose is to present an overview of analytical tools to non-economists. Based …

Many believe that public international law is important and crucial in resolving international disputes. It is indeed an essential resource in controlling states and other international actors. The UN has developed advisory standards, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other international …

In November 2006, SOMO published a report that criticised labour conditions in Nokia's factories in Asia. This report revealed conditions where workers work up to 72 hours a week with compulsory overtime, have insecure employment contracts and work in unsafe factories, where no or inadequate protection …