An aerial view of a highway
Documentary Photography
The Urban Now
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Boulevard Lumumba runs through Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2013. Its energy and fragility define a moment suspended between the country’s colonial past and its neoliberal future. Urban Now: City Life in Congo is a photo exhibition that explores this tension, offering an artistic and ethnographic view of life in Congo’s urbanizing worlds.

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Image credit: © Sammy Baloji
Women carring water from a well
Women’s Rights
What Counts as Work?
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Residents of Khuba Ram, a village in Rajasthan, India, fetch water from a well, a daily unpaid task done mostly by women. How to accurately measure the contributions of unpaid “women’s work” is a problem that has vexed economists for years. One of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals attempts to provide some clarity.

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Image credit: © Michael Martin/laif/Redux
Women mourn at a memorial
International Justice
The Aftermath of Atrocity
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Women mourn the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre at a cemetery and memorial near the eastern town in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 2011. The Open Society Foundations work to ensure justice and accountability for atrocities, human rights violations, and crimes against humanity around the world.

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Image credit: © Sean Gallup/Getty
Riot police
Governance & Accountability
Our Closing Public Spaces
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Riot police are deployed on March 27, 2016, at a citizens march to commemorate victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussels. Across the globe, governments are shutting down spaces for civic engagement. The Open Society Foundations are working to forge a new solidarity that emphasizes our mutual interrelatedness, and keeps our public spaces open and free. Photo credit: © Olivier Polet/Reporters/Redux

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Image credit: © Olivier Polet/Redux
Two men playing a drum
Drug Policy Reform
A Chance to Get It Right
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In January 2014, São Paulo launched an innovative new program called Operation Open Arms in an area known as Cracolândia, where many people who use drugs congregate. The new program offers housing and low-threshold employment opportunities to over 500 homeless drug users. The Open Society Foundations support harm reduction efforts for people who use drugs in Latin America and around the world.

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Image credit: © Sebastian Liste/NOOR

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About George Soros

Investor and philanthropist George Soros established the Open Society Foundations to help countries make the transition from communism.

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Our Mission

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people.

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Open Society Voices

The Power of Ideas to Fight Racism and Xenophobia
November 1, 2016Chris Stone

It is time to double down on support for a new generation of leaders of color.

No One—Not Even the President—Can Declare Torture Lawful
October 31, 2016Baher Azmy

The Fourth Circuit just rendered the most definitive appellate court opinion proclaiming the illegality of torture since 9/11.

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Events

Nov
15
Which Steps Towards European Policies Against Anti-Gypsyism?

The Open Society Foundations, the German Federal Foreign Office, and the European Commission host a seminar encouraging policymakers to step up efforts combating prejudice against Roma communities.

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