HELSINŠKE SVESKE №17: How to attain european standards - the Situation of Serbian Prisons 2002-2003.

Author(s): Marija Jelić,Nataša Novaković,Marijana Obradović,Milosav Kiurski / Language(s): English

(English edition) Throughout the totalitarian rule of the regime of Slobodan Milošević and his henchmen, which lasted for over a decade, the country’s prisons remained shut to public scrutiny. Information about the state of human rights of the prisoners and the conditions in which they served their sentences was the exclusive privilege of the state authorities directly involved and of the individuals and institutions concerned with the matter for purposes of scientific research. The question of prisoners’ human rights was completely marginalized by war, crimes, economic hardship and daily violations of citizens’ human rights and freedoms up to 5 October 2000. For many a convict, being locked away to serve a sentence of imprisonment did not mean mere deprivation of liberty for a set period of time, but also the start of a cruel struggle for survival in the gloom of lawlessness, corruption, torture, inhuman conditions and society’s total lack of interest in his or her life behind bars. It was only after widespread prison rioting broke out in November 2000 that the public’s attention was drawn to the conditions in which the prisoners served their sentences. The prisoners put out announcements throwing light on the substandard and inhuman conditions prevailing in Serbia’s penitentiaries and prisons. During the riots, groups and individual prisoners made statements complaining that the prison conditions were far below the levels set by relevant international standards and domestic prison rules. The prisoners alleged serious violations of their physical and psychological integrity, humiliating and degrading treatment, unjust punishment and general arbitrary treatment by prison personnel. They complained of, among other things, torture by beating, lack of minimum personal hygiene facilities, absence of medical treatment and health care, and corruption among prison administrative staff. Some of the allegations and complaints were partly confirmed by competent officials of the Ministry of Justice. As a palliative for the utterly unsatisfactory prison conditions, federal and republican amnesty laws were duly introduced to be finally adopted respectively on 26 February 2001 and 13 February 2001. Nonetheless, although a number of convicts were fully amnestied and a percentage of sentences commuted, the conditions in which prisoners served their sentenced remained unchanged. In addition to the factors mentioned above, the inhuman conditions in Serbia’s prisons endured and multiplied also owing to the country’s isolation of many years, during which time no international organization other than the International Red Cross was granted access to its prisons. Domestic non-governmental organizations were also kept at arm’s length and only rarely allowed to see what went on inside. In view of the circumstances enumerated above, it was clearly necessary to introduce continuous monitoring of prisons by an independent, non-governmental institution in order to obtain a realistic picture of the prison conditions. The new government is aware that admission to the Council of Europe and to other international organizations depends in part on the conditions in which sentenced persons serve their prison sentences, as well as that the public must be informed about those conditions. So, after presenting the concept and objectives of the Prison Monitoring project, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia was granted permission in May 2001 to visit institutions for the enforcement of criminal sanctions. This meant that for the first time in the history of this state an NGO could apply for and be granted permission to visit places of detention, custody and imprisonment without any restrictions, to interview prisoners with no personnel being present, and to talk to personnel without the presence of administration officers. Between June 2001 and October 2003, the Helsinki Committee paid a total of twenty-one visits to institutions for the enforcement of sanctions entailing the deprivation of liberty. During the period covered by this report (April 2002 to October 2003) the Helsinki Committee visited twelve institutions (one maximum-security prison, two closed prisons, three open prisons, two district prisons, one psychiatric prison, one reformatory, and one juvenile prison). In launching the project, the Helsinki Committee was principally guided by Article 64 of the European Prison Rules which states: ‘Imprisonment is by the deprivation of liberty a punishment in itself. The conditions of imprisonment and the prison regimes shall not, therefore, except as incidental to justifiable segregation or the maintenance of discipline, aggravate the suffering inherent in this.’ The Helsinki Committee hopes that its efforts to complete the project and publish this book will make a small but valuable contribution towards achieving this goal.

Bundeswehr 3.0. The political, military and social dimensions of the reform of the German armed forces

Author(s): Justyna Gotkowska / Language(s): English

This reform of the Bundeswehr, launched in 2011, is the latest of the three decisive stages in the post-war transformation of the German armed forces. The reform aims at “constructing” the armed forces anew in the political, military and social dimensions.The present paper presents the evolution of the role of the armed forces in German foreign and security policy and the ongoing process of “constructing” a new Bundeswehr. It analyses the process of redefining the objectives and principles of: the Bundeswehr’s participation in international operations, its current military transformation, and changes in its image and social identity. It also presents the implications of this broader transformation for political and military.

Bundeswehra 3.0. Polityczny, wojskowy i społeczny wymiar reformy sił zbrojnych RFN

Author(s): Justyna Gotkowska / Language(s): Polish

Rozpoczęta w 2011 roku reforma Bundeswehry to jeden z trzech przełomowych etapów w powojennej transformacji sił zbrojnych RFN. Ma na celu „skonstruowanie” na nowo niemieckiej armii w wymiarze politycznym, wojskowym i społecznym. Niniejszy tekst przedstawia ewolucję roli sił zbrojnych w polityce zagranicznej i bezpieczeństwa RFN i proces „konstruowania” nowej Bundeswehry.W tekście omówiona została redefinicja celów i zasad zagranicznego zaangażowania Bundeswehry, kierunki przekształceń wojskowych, zmian wizerunku i społecznej tożsamości armii oraz konsekwencje tak szeroko pojętej reformy dla współpracy politycznej i wojskowej w ramach NATO i UE.

Closing the gap? Military co-operation from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea

Author(s): Tomasz Dąborowski,Mateusz Gniazdowski,Justyna Gotkowska,Jakub Groszkowski,Andrzej Sadecki,Andrzej Wilk / Language(s): English

The contracting defence budgets in Europe, the difficulties in developing the EU’s security policy, NATO's transformation, the reorientation of US security policy and the problems experienced by European defence industries – all together have in recent years created an increased interest in political, military and military-technological co-operation in Europe.It has manifested itself in concepts of closer co-operation within NATO and the EU (smart defence and pooling&sharing), bilateral and multilateral initiatives outside the structures of NATO and the EU (such as the Nordic Defence Co-operation or the Franco-British co-operation) and debates about the prerequisites, principles and objectives of bilateral, multilateral and regional security and defence co-operation. // The present report aims to analyse the potential for security and defence co-operation among selected countries in the area between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, i.e. the Nordic states (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), the Baltic states (Lithuania Latvia and Estonia), Poland's partners in the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) as well as Romania and Bulgaria. The authors were guided by the assumption that those states are Poland's natural partners for closer regional military co-operation. It may complement ‘the Western’ direction of Poland's security and defence policy, i.e. relations with the partners from the Weimar Triangle and the US. Its goal is not to replace the existing security structures but rather to strengthen military capabilities in the region within NATO and the EU.

Federalna Służba Bezpieczeństwa w zwierciadle rosyjskiego dowcipu sieciowego

Author(s): Jolanta Darczewska / Language(s): Polish

Dzięki mediom społecznościowym rosyjski humor polityczny przeżywa burzliwy rozwój. Problematyzując rzeczywistość polityczną i społeczną, stwarza karykaturalny, metaforyczny obraz instytucji i wydarzeń, które wzbudziły zainteresowanie społeczeństwa. Jako rodzaj echa opinii publicznej, jest przyczynkiem do badań społecznej percepcji Federalnej Służby Bezpieczeństwa. Obraz tej służby w dowcipach jest niekorzystny. Niweczy to działania wizerunkowe samej FSB, jak i wysiłki propagandowe Kremla, mające na celu zjednanie obywateli Rosji do promowanych odgórnie mitów politycznych, takich jak np. mit czekistowski. // Niekorzystny wizerunek FSB jest „rozmywany” dowcipem sztucznym, pisanym na zamówienie i replikowanym w sieci w zorganizowany sposób. Antydowcip jest niewybredny, wykorzystuje narzucone odgórnie stereotypy propagandowe, pełni funkcję dezinformacyjną i demaskatorską, jednoznacznie wskazując przeciwnika politycznego Kremla. // Omówiona problematyka stanowi także przyczynek do charakterystyki relacji między oficjalną propagandą a opinią publiczną. Unaocznia, że propaganda zauważalna staje się nieskuteczna, a sam proces kształtowania opinii jest skomplikowany i długotrwały. Wymaga ponadto stałego poszukiwania nowych, atrakcyjnych technik propagandowych, dostosowanych do gustów i oczekiwań poszczególnych grup społeczeństwa.

Civilians in contemporary armed conflicts. Rafał Lemkin’s heritage

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Polish,Ukrainian

The volume presents the proceedings of the international conference on Rafał Lemkin’s Heritage organized in Lviv by the University of Warsaw, the University of Lviv and the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation. Lemkin’s life-long commitment to the struggle for the dignity of individuals, groups and nations was the key message of the conference attended by international experts. The keynote paper on Rafał Lemkin’s Concept of Genocide was delivered by Professor Adam Rotfeld, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.Rafał Lemkin, a distinguished jurist and one of the most impressive figures of the 20th century, coined the word ‘genocide’ and initiated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. His ideas had a lasting impact on international protection of human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law and are reflected in The Responsibility to Protect norm which entails the prevention of mass atrocity crimes. Lemkin’s work continues to inspire the international community in their efforts to protect individuals and nations.

THE BLACK MARKET FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MANIPULATION

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Around the turn of the decade, when the popularity of social media sites was really beginning to take off, few people noticed a secretly burgeoning trend — some users were artificially inflating the number of followers they had on social media to reap financial benefits. Even fewer noticed that organizations such as the Internet Research Agency were exploiting these new techniques for political gain. Only when this innovation in information warfare was deployed against Ukraine in 2014 did the world finally become aware of a practice that has now exploded into federal indictments, congressional hearings, and a European Union Code of Practice on Disinformation.

Eseje z dziedziny moralności, polityki i literatury

Author(s): David Hume / Language(s): Polish

A selection of D. Hume’s works presents the achievements and opinions of the Scottish author, mainly in the domain of political philosophy. Despite more than two and half centuries passing since the original publication of these works, the modern reader can find in them ever valid and inspiring deliberations on the freedom of speech and civil liberties, the boundaries of political conflict, political parties and factions or the conditions of obedience to authority. Most of the essays collected in the book – today counted among the classics of the genre – appear in Polish for the first time.

System socjologii

Author(s): Ludwik Gumplowicz / Language(s): Polish

A book written especially for the Polish reader – an attempt at proving the author’s worth to the Polish academic community, which had earlier rejected Gumplowicz’s habilitation theses because of his strong anticlerical views and Jewish background. A review of ideas on conflicts, race, and the formation of states. By combining the perspectives of a sociologist, historian and lawyer, he created an original concept of the development of humanity, also featuring reflections on contemporary Austro-Hungary.

Militarne i pozamilitarne aspekty współczesnego bezpieczeństwa międzynarodowego. Wybrane problemy. T. 1

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

"Today, it seems obvious that research on international and national security must cover all types of threats and factors affecting its form, the dynamics of the processes that create it, and the possibility of maintaining the adopted status quo. The current paradigm of research into security goes beyond mere attempts to understand the principles of the use of armed force by states, and the control of such activities, at the same time, however, it does not abandon this perspective but takes it into consideration in the analysis. It results from the very essence of the concept of security, which etymologically and semantically does not have to be limited to military security or external security. The state of certain stability and predictability of social relations in the national and international dimension should be recognized as security, therefore it is beyond dispute that it is necessary to take into account not only the classically distinguished soft aspects of security (economic, social, political etc.), but also other factors that may even indirectly affect the security situation of a given community, such as cultural, demographic, institutional and legal aspects. Only a holistic and interdisciplinary view on national, regional and global security can contribute to a true understanding of the dynamics of threats to the values that modern societies have committed to protect. In order to explain what security is and how to respond to the challenges resulting from ensuring it, it is not sufficient to consider only one of many scientific and praxeological perspectives. Only the synergistic utilization of different tools will enable getting a little closer to understanding security threats and their dynamics. However, a thorough and reliable consideration of all these perspectives is beyond the capability of one researcher.What was the result of such a defined scope of research were twelve chapters written by invited researchers and collected in this volume. The adopted title of the collection, i.e. Military and non-military aspects of contemporary international security. Selected problems corresponds to the aim of the research and is supposed to give evidence for taking into account all the aforementioned challenges and the multiplicity of possible scientific perspectives, not limited to only one discipline or subject. At the same time, the publication is to be an attempt to take into account the multiplicity of threats and research perspectives in the scientific reflection over broadly understood security. It should be emphasized that this volume is only the first part of the two planned, because of the fact that the conducted research went beyond the scope of merely one publication and required the preparation of the second collective work. "(Excerpt from the introduction)

Wybrane problemy międzynarodowej współpracy wywiadowczej. Czy NATO ma wywiad?

Author(s): Jarosław Stróżyk / Language(s): Polish

The publication is concerned with the functioning of international intelligence cooperation in international organisations (NATO, EU) on the multilateral and bilateral level. The text analyses the latest changes in the NATO structures, introduced after the NATO summit in Warsaw, in 2016, at the time of a heightened threat from Russia.

Militarne i pozamilitarne aspekty współczesnego bezpieczeństwa międzynarodowego. Wybrane problemy. T. 2

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Gândirea militară românească sub amprenta clausewitziană

Author(s): Adrian Lesenciuc / Language(s): Romanian

This book plays two roles: to suggest the possibility of re-reading military thinking - especially the Romanian one - after applying the ideological markers on the dominant schools of thinking, but especially after applying the markers for pointing out Clausewitzianism. These markers paint ideological "-isms" in different colours: Clausewitzianism, Anticlausewitzianism, Neoclausewitzianism and enable the interpretation of the radiography of military thinking outside ideological debris.

Marksizm a socjologia. Wybór pism

Author(s): Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz / Language(s): Polish

Selection of the writings of Kazimierz Kelles-Kraus (1872-1905), philosopher, sociologist, writer and pedagogue, author of a concept that reconciled the needs of the nation with international socialism. His works, although Marxist in spirit, combined themes from the theories of German idealists, French positivism, and sociology of his times - "social psychology", building bridges between the study of behavior of individuals and holistic social systems.

Режим Путіна: перезавантаження-2018

Author(s): Maxim Rozumniy / Language(s): Ukrainian

The current state of domestic and foreign policy of the Russian Federation is considered. The resources that can be used to keep the current leadership of the Russian Federation in power, the main trends of socio-economic and domestic life of Russia, its foreign policy are analyzed in respect of its political interests and means of achieving geopolitical goals. The main scenarios for the Kremlin's policy of restoring imperial status, including the reintegration of the post-Soviet space, confrontation with the West, and Russia's expansion in strategically important regions of the world, have been identified. The publication was prepared by the Center for Research of Problems of the Russian Federation of the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

Komunikowanie dla bezpieczeństwa

Author(s): Katarzyna Ewa Derlatka / Language(s): Polish

Communication seems to be such an obvious need and function of life, that it ceases to be perceived as a powerful force influencing behavior, human attitudes, events, and is one of the bases for guaranteeing security. The ability and skill to communicate through the meanderings of time has taught the next generations how to live, how to protect themselves, how to achieve the basic human need of safety. The tam-tams, smoke signs or bells once used were meant to warn and transmit simple messages to keep groups safe. Today there are many communication tools that need to be considered in communication strategies and procedures for security. A contemporary problem in the global communication system is the multidimensionality of information. We can call this phenomenon hybridization of information, which is not only the transmission of the content itself, but has different purposes, contains different tools, is a commodity, a weapon, a strategic resource of any security entity. Information as a hybrid can be seen in five aspects - as information in crisis management, information fulfilling media functions, information as a weapon, information as a tool of influence, and information as a tool of prevention. The intentions of the creator of the information and the sender determine whether the information is a threat or not. The aim of this book is to make readers aware of how much depends on communication, proper transmission of information, understanding it by the audience, but also correct preparation of the message, so that it is not falsified, incomprehensible, and finally unnecessary, because it will not meet the sender's objectives. Communication for our common security is a priority.

The Role of AI in the Battle Against Disinformation

Author(s): Alfonsas Juršėnas,Kasparas Karlauskas,Eimantas Ledinauskas,Gediminas Maskeliūnas,Donatas Rondomanskas,Julius Ruseckas / Language(s): English

Detecting and countering disinformation grows increasingly important as social media sites have become a leading news source for most people. Efficient disinformation campaigns lead to negative real-world consequences on a global scale, both in politics and in society. Machine learning (ML) methods have demonstrated their potential for at least partial automatisation of disinformation detection and analysis. In this report, we review current and emerging artificial intelligence (AI) methods that are used or can be used to counter the spread and generation of disinformation, and briefly reflect on ongoing developments in anti-disinformation legislation in the EU. This overview will shed light on some of the tools that disinformation-countering practitioners could use to make their work easier.

Mask Gate as a Continuous Media Event in a Hybrid Media Space

Author(s): Lilly Korpiola,Petro Poutanen / Language(s): English

This study examines the evolution of the “Mask Gate” media event that took place in Finland amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and state of emergency in 2020. In March-August 2020, there was a dispute between various public health institutions and authorities as to whether the public should be required to use face masks. This investigation focuses on the construction of the media event, specifically on the interplay and dynamics between social media and mass media, as well as the public reactions evoked by the Mask Gate in Finland. Our aim is to describe the critical turning points in the development of the media event, thus tracing the evolution of such media events in the present media system. We illustrate our case with the help of a data set consisting of 391 033 messages about respiratory masks found on social media and traditional news media outlets. We focus our analysis on a subset of this data set concerning the “Mask Gate”. On the basis of our analysis, we present a timeline of the Mask Gate as well as analyse the most important actors, platforms and affective reactions that played a role in the construction of the event. An autopsy of such a notable media event can assist organisations in developing their communication competencies for risk, strategic and crisis communication situations, in which it is imperative for an organisation to restore its public legitimacy.

A Look Into WeChat – Enabling an Analyst to Search and Monitor Content

Author(s): Alvin Lim / Language(s): English

WeChat, or Weixin (微信) in Mandarin, is a multi-function mobile application (app), first launched by China’s Tencent Holdings in 2011. A distinction between WeChat and Weixin must be drawn because they are two separate products, with WeChat intended for the international market while Weixin is aimed at the domestic Chinese market (Tencent, 2020). For this report, the names WeChat and Weixin are used to describe the internationally and domestically oriented products, respectively.

How Did The Nordic-Baltic Countries Handle The First Wave of COVID-19?

Author(s): Iselin Engebretsen,Elina Lange-Ionatamishvili,Miranda Karin Michélsen Forsgren,Rakin Sayed / Language(s): English

What is this project? When the Covid-19 virus struck Europe in 2020 with the full force of a pandemic, eight countries allied in the Nordic-Baltic region immediately faced a challenge to their hard-won partnership. For three decades Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden had been building a common purpose. How would that friendship respond to the greatest health scare in a hundred years? This report aims to answer this question by looking at developments in the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) through a Strategic Communications lens. Why a Strategic Communications lens? To understand fully the pandemic that gripped these eight partner states is to paint a picture that goes beyond the number of human lives lost or the rise in unemployment, fall in national economic growth, and assumption of state debt so punitive to their taxpayers. Any complete picture would also tell the story of how governments chose to speak to their electorates, and how civil society would respond to unprecedented measures imposed in peace time: curbing individual freedoms, it may be assumed, would elicit a consequent questioning of trust between government and governed.