Rule of Law
The Open Society Foundations work internationally to develop effective and accountable justice systems. Nationally, we support and train lawyers and community paralegals, and seek to make justice accessible to all.
Protecting Civil Society
Defending Frontline Activists in South Africa
Increasingly, people willing to stand up for environmental and social justice in South Africa are being met with violence. A new Open Society fund will support these brave and vulnerable advocates for change.
Event Recap
A Shameful History of Weaponizing Citizenship
While the revocation of citizenship is not unprecedented in the United States, its history—and its implications for the future—raise profound questions about the nature of citizenship, Americanness, and democracy itself.
Beyond Sectarianism
An Iraq for All Iraqis
Protests in Iraq over corruption and joblessness are about more than the current’s failures. They are the expression of a rising generation’s desire to move beyond a spoils system based on ethnicity and sect.
Justice Delayed
An Overdue Reckoning with U.S. Torture
A new Hollywood film about the “torture report” offers a disturbing but necessary reminder to U.S. voters that justice still has not been done.
Event Recap
What’s Really Behind the Missing Women at Mexico’s Border?
‘City of Omens’ author Dan Werb examines the pattern of brutal violence against women taking place in Tijuana.
Community Health
Bogotá’s “Never Nobodies”
In a perpetual cycle of violence in a neighborhood in Bogotá, Colombia, hundreds of street dwellers have been murdered over the last decade, their deaths often going uninvestigated. The state refers to them as the “never nobodies.”
Freedom’s Front Lines
France’s War on Protest
By allowing the continued militarization of its police forces, the government in France risks normalizing authoritarianism and diminishing civil liberties. Recent confrontations between police and protestors only further emphasize the peril.
A New Beginning
For a Better Future, Sudan Must Confront Its Past
With Omar al-Bashir no longer in power, the temptation to move beyond his regime’s crimes is understandable. But unless Sudan grapples with its past, it risks trading one corrupt dictatorship for another.