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On Contemporary Socialist Revolution

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Marx’s critique of capitalism is, in essence, the thought of a socialist revolution. It is the fundamental idea for determining the integrity and relativity of the “Marxist” attribute’s authenticity. The view that a “correct theory is the consciousness of a world-changing practice” is the self-consciousness of Marx’s revolutionary thought. Based on this self-consciousness, and relative to it, Marx’s own thoughts acquire a Marxist legitimacy. Marx’s views do not all correspond to his theory of revolution. Marx’s thought was not the theory of a socialist revolution from the very beginning, it became so later, with the development of capitalism and the workers’ movement. Marx’s thought became the theory of a socialist revolution when the proletariat in the most developed capitalist countries in Europe became a political force capable of changing the world.

 According to Marx, the existential and, thus, the general social crises are the result of the economic crisis of capitalism when the relations of production (proprietary relations) become obstructive to the development of the productive forces. This is clearly indicated by Marx’s view in „A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”, the founding stone of his theory of revolution:  “At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production, which turn into their fetters. Then begins an epoch of social revolution.” The working class is “wedged” between productive forces and productive (proprietary) relations.  Class consciousness tells the worker not to try to abolish capitalism as long as it continues to develop its productive forces and thus enables his existence. Since the capitalist mode of developing the productive forces is progressive, the workers’ struggle against capitalism, as long as it continues to develop its productive forces, hinders progress and is therefore unacceptable. At the same time, a socialist order, as the final overcoming of capitalism, can be created only when capitalism has exhausted its potential for development. Without such conditions, a revolution is not based on objective historical conditions, but on political voluntarism. The elimination of the bourgeoisie from the political arena by the proletariat is historically legitimate only when the bourgeoisie becomes a reactionary force, precisely, when capitalism has exhausted all potential for the development of productive forces and when the bourgeoisie, through repression, struggles to safeguard private ownership, which hinders further development of productive forces. According to Marx, the proletariat can become the “grave digger” of capitalism only on the basis of the economic and the resulting general social crises, which cannot be resolved without a radical step out of the capitalist world.

                       By overlooking that capitalism is essentially a destructive order, Marx overlooked the specificity of capitalist dialectics. According to Marx, the development of capitalism involves the development of conflicts between the productive forces and productive (proprietary) relations, but not between the capitalist development of productive forces, on the one hand, and nature as a life-creating whole and man as a natural and human being, on the other. In spite of Marx’s critique of the plundering and destructive capitalist relation towards the soil, according to Marx, capitalism is progressive as long as it continues to develop its productive forces.  Actually, for him, the problem is not in the productive forces of capitalism and the fatal consequences of their development, but in the limited possibilities presented by the relations of production, that is to say, by private ownership, which will stop further growth of the productive forces, “compelling” capitalism to “self-destruction”. It turns out that it is precisely the development of productive forces based on private ownership that leads to the increasingly dramatic existential and, thus, the general social crises, as they arise from an mounting destruction of nature and man as a human and biological being. The increasingly dramatic destruction of the world indicates that capitalist “progress” and the survival of humankind are antagonistic to one another. Marx’s view of soil exhaustion suggests that the survival of humankind is threatened precisely by the economic development of capitalism. It follows that workers should fight against the economic development of capitalism, which means against the capitalist mode of development of productive forces, and not “wait” for productive (proprietary) relations to become an obstacle for further development of productive forces. A contemporary socialist revolution can result from the existential crisis caused by capitalism, but it can also serve as a bulwark preventing capitalism from destroying the environment and climate to such an extent that life would be impossible on the planet. A contemporary socialist revolution cannot be of an aposteriori and essential character, but, rather, of an apriori and existential character.

                   With capitalism becoming a destructive totalitarian order, Marx’s conception of socialist revolution has become obsolete. Marx does not arrive at the concept of socialist revolution relative to capitalism as a destructive totalitarian order, but relative to capitalism as an exploitatory order with a “revolutionary”  character. For Marx, a socialist revolution is the last revolution in the history of humankind and therefore the final act in man’s struggle for freedom.  At the same time, by sticking to existential apriorism, Marx does not regard the socialist revolution as the beginning of a decisive struggle for survival, but as the end of the historical process of man’s bonding with nature and the beginning of the true history of humankind. Following that idea, Gajo Petrovic, one of the most distinguished representatives of Yugoslav praxis philosophy, regards Marx’s notion of the revolution as the overcoming of the social and political moment and the final resolution of man’s relation to nature and to himself as a natural being. In those terms, the socialist revolution is the “essence of being” (“The Thought of Revolution”). However, the concrete “essence of being” cannot be acquired from an abstract notion of nature and man, but only in relation to the totalitarian and destructive practices of capitalism. Capitalist “progress” has brought humankind to the brink of an abyss and thus “resolved” all contradictions within it and completed the critique of capitalism. Capitalism does not liberate man from his dependence on nature. It rather makes him, through its destruction of nature, more dependent on it. Not only does it not create the possibilities of “leaping from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom”, it creates a new – destructive and, thus, totalitarian realm of necessity. A socialist revolution can acquire its concrete historical dimensions only in relation to the lethal consequences of the development of capitalism and with respect to its destructive potential. Rather than being the beginning of man’s true freedom, it is the beginning of a decisive struggle for the survival of humankind, which will alleviate the consequences of the capitalist destruction of nature and man and open the possibilities for man’s liberation from the natural elements and class society, enabling him to realize his universal creative powers and turn society into a familial community of free people.

                       Marx arrives at the idea of a socialist revolution by departing from an idealized anthropological model of man as a universal creative being of freedom, and not from the concrete historical nature of capitalism as a destructive order and, in that context, from the need to prevent the destruction of life on the Earth. The character of the proletarian revolution is no longer determined by humanist ideals, as is the case with Marx. It is, rather, conditioned by the existential challenges that capitalism, as a destructive totalitarian order, poses for humankind.  Since the early days of capitalism, destruction has been its immanent feature, but, with the development of “consumer society”, it has become its dominant characteristic. There is an increasing possibility that annihilation of humankind and of the living world will become the “collateral damage” of capitalist “progress”. It is in this context that the development of the contemporary workers’ (socialist) movement and the strategy and tactics of the struggle against capitalism should be considered.  It is one thing when revolution is conditioned by economic crisis, but completely something else when revolution is conditioned by an increasingly lethal ecologic crisis.  The awareness of the destructive nature of capitalism has become a necessary condition for the development of the contemporary global anti-capitalist movement.  The increasingly dramatic ecological crisis creates conditions for a more radical critique of capitalism and for a more radical political struggle for the survival of the planet and the creation of a new world. So, it is of utmost importance to develop a life-creating consciousness, one which will initiate a political movement capable of doing away with capitalism before it manages to degrade nature to such an extent that humankind will not be able to establish the ecological balance necessary for its survival. Given the fact that capitalism is by its nature a destructive order, it can be concluded that the time for doing away with capitalism and creating a new (socialist) order does not come when productive relations become an obstacle to the development of productive forces, as Marx contends in departing from pre-capitalist history, but with the onset of capitalism. This is clearly indicated in Fourier’s critique of (capitalist) progress, which suggests that capitalist development is based on the destruction of the living (natural) environment, i.e., that it has an anti-existential character.

                       A contemporary critique of capitalism and the political struggle against capitalism should deal not only with its current but, above all, with its potential threats to the survival of humankind. If we wait for the planetary eco-system to be degraded to such an extent that it becomes an immediate threat to the survival of man, then the fate of humankind is sealed.  In this context, we can clearly see the fatal consequences of “ecological movements” that seek to alleviate the effects of capitalist “progress” by technical means and in a mechanical way. Ultimately, they serve to suppress the anti-capitalist movement struggling to eradicate the causes of global destruction and erase the illusion that, based on capitalist progress, the survival of nature and humankind can be achieved by scientific and technical means. The technical devices of the “ecological” movement have become coins for buying time for capitalism and thereby reducing the period within which the ecological balance can (still) be re-established to prevent the destruction of humankind.  At the same time, man’s “adjustment” to artificial climate conditionscauses such changes in his organism that he no longer has the ability to survive under natural conditions. For a capitalistically degenerated man, a healthy natural environment becomes anathema.

                       Economic crisis can accelerate the dissolution of capitalism and prevent it from debasing life on the planet  so much that man’s survival becomes impossible. However, economic crisis by itself does not necessarily breed a revolutionary consciousness at the levels of the oppressed workers.  The most compelling example is the creation of fascism in Germany and other European countries spurred by the capitalist economic crisis of 1929.  Ecocidal capitalism has created the possibility for a new fascist barbarism, which, guided by the logic of “it’s either them or us”, could destroy billions of “superfluous” people in order for the most powerful capitalist corporations to gain control of the globe’s raw materials and energy resources. The theory of the “golden billion” indicates the way in which the most powerful capitalist clans are planning to “solve” the increasingly dramatic economic and ecological crises. Similarly, to believe blindly that the economic crisis by itself could incite workers to start a revolution may result in the workers being destroyed, as natural and human beings, before they can even take their place on the last historical battlefield, where the destiny of humankind is to be decided.  One of the most important tasks for leftists is to organize working people in such a way as to prevent the dissatisfaction created by capitalism from becoming the means for establishing a capitalist dictatorship – as was the case in Europe at the time of the great economic crash of  1929.

                      With its growing destruction of life on the planet, capitalism increases existential anxiety that, unless a new order based on a rational treatment of nature is initiated, becomes an existential panic causing man to support any measures, regardless of their validity or justification, that he believes (being convinced by the ruling propaganda machinery in which he has been terrorized into placing his faith) will enable him to survive.  The ruling order manipulates its subjects with the fear of a “perceived threat”. Capitalists actually use this existential fear to provoke conflicts among people, races, nations, religious groups… The Nazis used the same kind of manipulation.  The fear of existential uncertainty caused by the capitalist economic crisis was turned by the Nazi propaganda machinery into a fear of “judeo-bolshevism”.  Through propaganda, the destruction of “judeo-bolshevism” was made an obsession: by destroying the “enemy”, man can “free” himself from the existential fear caused by capitalism. It is a targeted sublimation, where the “enemy” acquires certain characteristics that most efficiently provoke a desired reaction through the activation of two of the most important instinctive drives: existential fear and suppressed sexual energy. The very sight of Hitler triggered in the Germans a hysterical reaction of an orgasmic quality.  Today, this fear is all the greater since we are facing the biological demise of the white race, ever deeper economic crises and ever harder struggles for employment, fatal climate changes, exhausted energy resources and raw materials, reductions in commerce, and the disappearance of the “American dream”, which demands a constant rise in the consumer’s standard of living…

                   Capitalism in the most developed capitalist countries may also deprive people of their humanity to such an extent that they come to regard the destruction of other nations as the only “solution” for their own survival. This will come to be the basis of the collective counsciousness:  a struggle for survival by technical means used to annihilate billions of people. An increasingly hard life and the immediate existential threat looming over entire nations deprive man of humanity and thus of compassion for and solidarity with other people and nations. Just as contemporaneous with Hitler’s “thrust toward the East” (Drang nach Osten) the German petty-bourgeoisie did not want to know about the atrocities committed by the German army, so today’s petty-bourgeoisie in the most developed capitalist countries close their eyes to the everyday atrocities of capitalist companies and their mercenaries (united in NATO) and consciously blend into the dull dissonance of the destructive capitalist chorus – submissively reconciling themselves to the loss of their elementary human and civil rights and passively accepting the creation of a police state. The “consumer society” is for the petty-bourgeois the only world in which they can live and the only world they can fantasize about. The ever deeper crises of capitalism do not bring people who have been degenerated by a “consumer” way of life to fight against capitalism for a humane world, but, rather, to fight for their own consumer standards at the cost of becoming, themselves, capitalist executioners. The immediate reaction of a petty-bourgeois to the decline in consumer standards is not to wish for change in the ruling order, but, instead, to plunder and destroy other people. They are well aware that the story about “terrorism” is but a mask hiding the strivings of the most powerful capitalist corporations to conquer the world, but they accept this fable as a sedative to appease their consciousness, since the ruling order (still) provides a relatively high standard of living to the “consumer”. The capitalist petty-bourgeois continues to be one of the pillars of fascism. The systematic reproduction of technical and biological means of mass destruction is indicative of the true intentions of the most powerful capitalist groups in the West.  One of the most horrible truths, which demonstrates the utter monstrosity of capitalism, is that the survival of over six billion “superfluous” people is not based on thousands of years of civilization and “democratic values” in the West, but on the fact that Russia is capable of annihilating Europe and the USA within twenty minutes.

                      The degeneration of “consumer society” leads to a decline in the purchasing power of working people and grossly increased unemployment.  There is a need to stabilize capitalism at a lower production-consumption level, while with the growth of overall capitalist reproduction, with further the development of science and technology, the “white collars” will become predominant. The working “masses” from the traditional lines of production are no longer the means by which the reproduction of capital will be accelerated, but they are, in fact, a burden on and an increasing political threat to the ruling order.  Instead of integrating workers into capitalism through the consumer way of life, the strategic landmark of the ruling order is the elimination of the “superfluous” population. With the ever deeper economic crises of capitalism, an growing number of workers become the mortal enemies of capitalism, and the ruling order will employ any available means (criminalization of society, narcotics, alcohol, contaminated food and water, lack of medicines and medical services, deadly viruses, sterilization and the like) to eliminate the “superfluous” and ensure survival. This is one of the causes of contemporary fascism, whose contours are most visible in the USA. It is the realization of the idea of the “golden billion”, which, with the demise of “consumer society”, will have an effect not only on the populations in the countries on the “margins of capitalism”, but also on an ever-broader spectrum of working people in the most developed capitalist countries. The increasingly threatened existence of humankind creates the conditions for radical implementation of the social-Darwinist concept according to which only “the strongest will survive”, while science and technology become the exclusive means for ensuring the dominant position of capitalism and for the creation of artificial living conditions that will protect these survivors from increasingly dangerous climate changes. That is why the Western rulers from the shadows try to use science and technology to create a “new man”, one who, with his artificially created “genetic qualities” and thanks to the military techniques at his disposal, will be capable of exterminating the surfeit of the “unfit” and establish global domination. The “terminators”, “Rambos”, “predators” and similar Hollywood freaks, glorifying the destructive power of the capitalistically misused technology, clearly show the psychological profile of contemporary capitalist fanatics. The power to rule becomes the power to destroy.

                       The plight of the bourgeois class is the best indicator of the tendency of capitalist development. The development of capitalism goes hand in hand with the development of the bourgeois class; when the bourgeois class starts to perish, so does capitalism. In the West, the general social crisis acquires a pre-revolutionary character.  The bourgeois class is disintegrating and, in so doing, is creating a society where fewer and fewer people can become rich, while the number of poor people is increasing. We are witnessing the proletarization of the bourgeois class and the fascization of the capitalist class. Consequently, the emancipatory heritage of civil society is being destroyed and the space for pacifist political options diminished.  The biological demise of the European peoples is gaining momentum, becoming one of the most important sources of fascistoid hysteria.  At the same time, we see the rise of technocratic utopias and apocalyptic consciousness: the myth of the omnipotence of science and technology, idea of the man-cyborg, the idea of leaving the planet… Due to the global “balance of fear”, based on the nuclear arsenals of the USA and Russia, a new global war to revive the living potential of capitalism becomes impossible. The political stability and economic development in the East are becoming extremely important, as they prevent the increasing crises in the West from breeding a new fascist beast that could destroy the Slavic and Asian peoples. Political and social conditions are being created that could resolve the crises in the West by abolishing capitalism and creating a true socialist society.

                       The existential crisis is the basic precondition to the struggle for a new world.  Just as the Great War fully revealed the contradictions of capitalism and led to the existential crisis that caused the workers’ rebellion, directed by the Bolsheviks and leading to the creation of a socialist order, the existential crisis brought about by contemporary capitalism should be directed towards the creation of a communist society. Capitalism manages to alleviate, by way of technology, the immediate effect of the ecological destruction of the planet and to dampen the power of reasoning, marginalizing the existential issues through a consumer life style and the entertainment industry. The ever more dramatic consequences of capitalist destruction force man to develop his mind and his universal creative powers, since they are the only way to mitigate the consequences of capitalist destruction and create a humane world.

  The struggle for the development of the mind is, actually, a political struggle, as it enables the development of libertarian humanism, which is at the heart of man’s refusal to come to terms with the existing world and the source of a visionary consciousness. Similarly, capitalism creates the possibility of establishing a rebellious sociability. Increasingly difficult living conditions force people to leave their solitary hide-outs and unite in the fight for survival. With capitalism threatening the survival of mankind and causing ever greater poverty, the increasingly serious ecological crisis could become the immediate cause of a socialist revolution.  A severe accident in one of the nuclear power plants in Europe, as was the case in the Fukushima nuclear disaster, could trigger a revolutionary wave, which might mark the end of capitalism.

  The increasing contamination of the environment; the ever wider social differences and the growing immiseration of the working classes; the conversion of the state and other social institutions into the means for servicing private capitalist business interests; the alienation through privatization of the political sphere from the citizenry … – all this creates conditions for the development of a broad political movement with the possibility of overcoming traditional class divisions and class struggle and preventing a dilution of the struggle against capitalism, a struggle that redirects this energy for potential change towards “ecological projects” in an attempt to lessen the deleterious consequences of capitalism and contribute to its “perfectioning”.  The “anti-globalist movement” is one of the potential forms of the struggle against capitalism. It has the potential to unite the global political forces and movements opposed to contemporary imperialism, with its genocidal and ecocidal character. At the same time, it could have a corrective effect on the development programs which are based on the destruction of nature and the development of a consumer mentality.

                    The most important result of the economic crisis of capitalism in 2008 is that the working class in the West has shown that it is still alive as a political force and that the struggle against workers as a potentially revolutionary force is still the primary concern of capitalists.The economic crisis of 2008 showed that class war in the most developed capitalist countries is not over and that, after a long futile experience of “consumer society”, the working class is still capable of doing away with capitalism and creating a new world.  In the light of new developments, it turns out that one of the most invalidating “oversights” of the Frankfurt philosophers was their dismissal of the working class as a possible agent of social change.

                    By becoming a destructive totalitarian order, capitalism “has overcome” both the principle of progress and the principle of social justice, making the principle of struggle paramount for the survival of humankind.  It is no longer about man being threatened just as a citizen and a worker, but also as a human and natural being.  Capitalism has “transformed” the historical being of the working class in such a way that its main historical task is no longer to abolish class society and liberate workers from oppression, but now it is to prevent the destruction of life and save humankind from destruction. The struggle against capitalism as a destructive order should become the basis for the political integration of workers and their cooperation with the social movements fighting for the survival of life on the planet. Since the issue is global ecocide, there is a need for a global struggle against capitalism.  It is the most efficient and most humane way in which humankind can become united. The struggle against capitalism enables the working class to “come of age” in every corner of the world and to become part of a global anti-capitalist front. With capitalism becoming a worldwide destructive order, the distinction between center and periphery has become irrelevant. Every corner on this planet where the struggle against capitalism is being carried out has become the center of a global revolution.

Translated from Serbian by Vesna Todorović, English translation supervisor, Mick Collins

New Social Compact

Talking tolerance in polarised societies

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hijab

EU research projects provide fresh insights into what it takes for communities to accept different religious and world views.

By ALISON JONES

Ann Trappers harnessed a shock in her native Belgium to help heal social wounds across Europe. 

After Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels in March 2016 left 35 people – including three suicide bombers – dead and more than 300 injured, Trappers and her colleagues at a non-governmental organisation called Foyer sought to rebuild community trust and cohesion. 

No taboos

They used the NGO’s long-established youth centre in the religiously and ethnically diverse neighbourhood of Molenbeek. Their experience fed into a research initiative that received EU funding to explore and foster religious tolerance in eight European countries. 

‘One of the ways in which we worked to counter radicalisation was to ensure it didn’t become a taboo subject,’ said Trappers, programme coordinator at Foyer. ‘We wanted young people to be able to talk about it freely and safely in the setting of the youth centre.’

Concerns about growing polarisation in Europe have pushed the issue up the EU political agenda. 

The portfolio of a vice-president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, includes dialogue with churches as well as religious associations and communities. The portfolio is called “Promoting our European Way of Life”. 

The EU is also putting its weight behind various initiatives – including the Radicalisation Awareness Network – aimed at helping communities in Europe live harmoniously together. 

The EU project in which Trappers was involved ran from May 2018 through October 2022 and was called RETOPEA. It brought together academic organisations from Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Poland and Spain as well as non-EU countries North Macedonia and the UK. 

The project explored ways in which religion is regarded in the educational, professional and social realms. It also examined how peaceful religious coexistence has been established over history. 

Past and present

The idea was to use insights gained from the past to inform thinking about religious tolerance today. 

‘It’s not often you get the opportunity as a historian to make your work relevant,’ said Patrick Pasture, who coordinated RETOPEA and is a professor of modernity and society at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium. 

The project delved into more than 400 primary source extracts from historical peace treaties, contemporary news reports and cultural snippets. 

Based on these materials, teenagers from Foyer and other youth associations in each of the participating countries joined workshops to create their own video blog – or “vlog” – about religious tolerance and coexistence. 

The vlogs, available on the RETOPEA website, include interviews with passersby, drawings and other creative work.

Pasture said the act of working together took the focus away from the participants’ differences.

‘The most important thing will always be that people have to learn to talk – to refrain from immediately judging,’ he said. 

Spreading the word

Pasture was struck by the number of students who were unaware of the religious beliefs of classmates and by how open they were to talking about the issue. 

He said most participants were upset about the divisiveness of contemporary discussions of religion and ‘hated’ the rise of polarisation.

Around a year after RETOPEA wrapped up, the results and materials collected are informing actions by interfaith organisations, governmental bodies and European teacher associations. 

The project team is regularly invited to make presentations at teaching workshops and seminars in the EU and beyond – places ranging from Austria and Italy to Jordan and Wales. 

And the European Association of History Educators – established in 1992 to build educational bridges on the continent following the collapse of communism in eastern Europe – includes the RETOPEA materials on its website. 

Middle ground

Another EU-funded research project looked specifically at the notion of tolerance – how it feels for people to push themselves to accept “others” and what it feels like to be “tolerated.” The research relied mainly on questionnaires and online experiments. 

‘People have their own opinions and their own beliefs and we can’t just expect them to give them up and consider everything of equal value,’ said Maykel Verkuyten, who led the initiative and is a professor in interdisciplinary social science at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. 

Called InTo for Intergroup Toleration, the project ran for five years through September 2022.

In conducting studies in the Netherlands and Germany, Verkuyten and his team were pleasantly surprised to find that a clear majority of people regarded tolerance as an important societal value. 

He said that most respondents agreed with, for example, the following two presented statements: “I accept it when other people do things that I wholeheartedly disapprove of” and “Everyone is allowed to live as he or she wants, even if it is at odds with what I think is good and right”.

On a cautionary note, the team also found that it’s far easier to move people towards greater intolerance than it is to make them more tolerant. 

Verkuyten is driven by an interest in the middle ground of the whole subject – where space exists for differing views without any desire either to crush or to celebrate them. 

He said this zone must be promoted through civics courses, human-rights lessons and other educational initiatives to help ensure the health of democracies and multicultural societies. 

‘There is something in between being very negative, discriminatory, and fully embracing all diversity,’ Verkuyten said. ‘That’s essential for a functioning liberal democracy and indispensable for a culturally diverse society.’

Research in this article was funded by the EU via the European Research Council (ERC). This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.

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Women’s Health Security: Threats for Women in Refugee Camps

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A young Rohingya girl holds her brother outside a youth club in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. © UNHCR/Vincent Tremeau

Women’s Health Issues

Natural disasters and socio-political conflicts in a country are events that can disrupt people’s lives and encourage the flow of refugees. Refugees are people who have to leave their home areas for their safety or survival. A refugee’s home area can be a country, state, or territory. most refugee law is based on a 1951 United Nations document, the Convention, relating to the status of refugees. The 1951 Convention was created to deal with the large number of people displaced by World War II. (National Geographic, 2023).

In these situations, women and girls do not have access to basic materials, such as pads, clothes, and underwear, needed to regulate monthly blood flow. As the number of refugee women  increases,  health  problems  are  prevalent  due  to  the  lack  of  access  to women’s production health services throughout the refugee camps, even though women need a private space to change clothes, breastfeed, or rest. This high refugee population requires more than just basic care, including antenatal care, postnatal care, hygiene care, and care during menstruation, which is a widespread problem for women around the world. In the case of Rohingya refugee women, they mostly use natural materials such as mud, leaves, dung, or animal skins to regulate their menstrual flow. In addition, lack of access to water and private latrines and increased open defecation put women and children at greater risk of disease. therefore, this paper aims to discuss the constraints on vital hygiene practices that pose a health threat to women in refugee camps (Kashfi Pandit, 2022).

Syrian refugees often report high rates of gynecological problems, including menstrual irregularities,  reproductive  tract  infections,  severe  pelvic  pain,  and dysmenorrhea. Married Syrian  refugee  women  living  outside  refugee  camps  particularly  suffer  from micronutrient deficiencies, sexually transmitted infections, and mental health symptoms. In addition to the impact on physical health, women also have a significant impact on mental health due to the pressures of living as refugees, such as the lack of opportunities to earn a living, substandard living conditions, lack of access to food and transportation, the possibility of having to adapt significantly in bearing additional social burdens to ensure the care of their children (SAMS Foundation, 2019).

In 2017, Rohingya refugees also caught the attention of the public in large numbers, with more than 700,000 Rohingya people entering Bangladesh. With this influx of refugees, the condition of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is greatly affected. SRH issues in Rohingya women and girls include increased risk of morbidity, mortality, and gender-based sexual violence, higher risk  of sexually transmitted diseases causing unwanted pregnancies, and the potential for unsafe abortion and its complications. The rape of women in refugee camps violates the sexual and reproductive health rights of adolescents, the non-use of contraceptives can increase their population and allow the transmission of HIV among them, but the absence of a good sanitation system and hygienic environment causes women to suffer (Semonti Jannat, 2022).

Similar to Syrian refugees, Rohingya refugee women and girls also urgently need sexual and reproductive  health  services,  including  antenatal  care,  delivery assistance, postnatal care, family planning services, menstrual health, safe abortion, and prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. As many as 85 percent of refugees still do not have access to latrines, which can lead to outbreaks of communicable diseases among refugees (Karin et al., 2020). The lack of gender-segregated latrines and hygiene means that women in refugee camps must walk to the forest in the dark, leaving them vulnerable to harassment, violence, and even attacks from wild animals. (Semonti Jannat, 2022).

Health Security

Health security is a state of freedom from disease and infection. Health is an essential component of human development and individual well-being and is recognized at the global level as a basic need if people are to achieve an optimal quality of life. Basically, human development and individual well-being cannot be achieved if the person is not adequately protected from threats and does not feel safe. Therefore, health security and human security are closely interconnected (WHO, 2002). In the case study of women’s health in refugee camps, it is clear that women and girls feel unsafe and have their health compromised. Thus, international assistance is needed to address women’s health issues in refugee camps because these refugees have difficulty getting adequate health facilities, causing insecurity to increase, and people find it difficult to take the initiative to protect themselves.

Contribution of International Organizations

In the case of Syrian refugees, there is a government organization called the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which is a global medical aid organization that is at the forefront of crisis relief in Syria and surrounding areas to save lives for every patient in need. In 2016, SAMS supported 66 Syrian reproductive health centers, helping deliver nearly 40,000 babies and providing a quarter of a million reproductive health services. In 2017, SAMS also provided 457,043  reproductive health services in Syria and provided reproductive health training to communities. In Lebanon, the organization supports women’s health services through a specialized  Obgyn  mission,  as  well  as  opening  mental  health  and  psychosocial  services focused on helping mothers and supporting healthy parenting practices, treating anxiety disorders and speech disorders in children, and addressing the psychological wounds of conflict victims. SAMS reaches out to several countries, including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Kurdistan (Society et al., 2023).

In the case of Rohingya refugees, there are also non-governmental organizations that address similar  issues,  namely  the  Bangladesh  American  Society  of  Muslim  Aid  for  Humanity (BASMAH), an organization based in the United States dedicated to providing assistance to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. BASMAH has established health clinics to serve Rohingya refugees located in Bangladesh due to the lack of hygienic and sanitary quality of their living quarters, which are highly susceptible to diseases. Every day, hundreds of Rohingya patients, consisting of women, girls, the elderly, and men, also receive free services, free medicines, emergency  services,  and other health consultations. About 1.3 million Rohingya refugees, consisting of 75% women and children in a day there, are 300 patients receiving health services from doctors under BASMAH. Since 2017, BASMAH has been working directly in the camp and creating programs to help refugees. These programs include clean water, a learning center, an education project, medical care, empowering women, orphans & helpless children, dental care service, winter project, Qurbani, zakat / sadaqah, Ramadan iftar, feed the hungry, home for the homeless, rohingnya refugee support, skill development center, urgent earthquake relief, eid gifts for children (BASMAH, 2023).

However, women’s health problems in refugee camps still occur, and these organizations have not reached all refugees in the world. They only serve Syria, Bangladesh, and surrounding areas. But, in Africa it has not been equally assisted. The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified that there were 46 attacks on health workers that killed eight people, and health facilities were also looted and used by armed forces. The incident caused refugees in the African region to not get help. Thus, the issue of women’s health is still a problem and has not been resolved until now (Renewal, 2023).

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New Social Compact

The Vast Potential of the Human Spirit

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Girls read from their textbooks at the Dasht-e-Barchi Education Centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. (file) © UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani

With hope and courage, we must rise to the challenges before us. We must rise to the challenge of a world set afire by climate change, forced displacement, armed conflicts and human rights abuses. We must rise to the challenge of girls being denied their right to an education in Afghanistan. We must rise to the challenge of a global refugee crisis that is disrupting development gains the world over. We must rise to the challenge of brutal and unconscionable wars in places like Sudan and Ukraine that are putting millions of children at risk every day. 

By ensuring every single child has access to quality education and embracing the vast potential of the human spirit – especially the 224 million girls and boys caught in emergencies and protracted crises that so urgently need our support – we can rise to this challenge. It’s a chance for girls with disabilities like Sammy in Colombia to find a nurturing place to learn and grow, it’s a chance for girls that have been forced into child marriage like Ajak in South Sudan to resume control of their lives, it’s a chance for refugees like Jannat in Bangladesh to find hope and dignity once more.

As Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies, has successfully completed its first strategic plan period and now enters its second strategic period, we are seeing time and again the power of education in propelling global efforts to deliver on the promises outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other crucial international frameworks. By ensuring quality holistic education for the world’s most marginalized and vulnerable children in crisis settings, we invest in human capital, transform economies, ensure human rights, and build a more peaceful and more sustainable future for all.

The achievements outlined in ECW’s 2022 Annual Results Report tell a story of a breakout global fund moving with strength, speed and agility, while achieving quality. Together with a growing range of strategic partners, ECW reached 4.2 million children in 2022 alone. It was also the first time girls represented more than half of the children reached by ECW’s investments, including 53% of girls at the secondary level, which is a significant milestone in achieving the aspirational target of 60% girls reached. Now in its sixth year of operation, ECW has reached a total of 8.8 million children and adolescents with the safety, power and opportunity of a quality, inclusive education. An additional 32.2 million children and adolescents were reached with targeted interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic.   

We are also seeing a global advocacy movement reaching critical mass, together with stronger political commitment and increased financing for the sector. In 2022, funding for education in emergencies was higher than ever before. Total available funding has grown by more than 57% over just three years – from US$699 million in 2019 to more than US$1.1 billion in 2022.

However, the needs have also skyrocketed over this same period. Funding asks for education in emergencies within humanitarian appeals have nearly tripled from US$1.1 billion in 2019 to almost US$3 billion at the end of 2022. This means that while donors are stepping up, the funding gap has actually widened, and only 30% of education in emergencies requirements were funded in 2022.

With support from key donors – including Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, as the top-three contributors among 25 in total, such as visionary private sector partners like The LEGO Foundation – US$826 million was announced at the ECW High-Level Financing Conference in early 2023. Collective resource mobilization efforts from all partners and stakeholders at global, regional, and country levels also helped unlock an additional US$842 million of funding for education in-country, which was contributed in alignment with ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programmes in 22 countries, and thus illustrates strong coordination by strategic donor partners who work in affected emergencies and protracted crises-contexts.  

We must rise to this challenge by finding new and innovative ways to finance education. To date, some of ECW’s largest and prospective bilateral and multilateral donors have not yet committed funding for the full 2023–2026 period, and there remains a gap in funding from the private sector, foundations and philanthropic donors. In the first half of 2023, ECW faces a funding gap of approximately $670 million to fully finance results under the Strategic Plan, 2023–2026, to reach more than 20 million children over the next three years.

The investments will address the diverse impacts of crisis on education through child-centred approaches that are tailored to the needs of specific groups affected by crisis, such as children with disabilities, girls, refugees, and vulnerable children in host communities. These investments entail academic learning, social and emotional learning, sports, arts, combined with mental health and psycho-social services, school feeding, water and sanitation, as well as a protection component.

Since ECW became operational, we have withstood the cataclysmic forces of a global pandemic, a rise in armed conflicts that have disrupted social and economic security the world over, the unconscionable denial of education for girls in Afghanistan, floods and droughts made ever-more devastating by climate change, and other crises that are derailing efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Now is the time to come together as one people, one planet to address the challenges before us. Now is the time to embrace the vast potential of the human spirit. With education for all, we can make sure girls like Sammy, Ajak and Jannat are able to reach their full potential, we can build a better world for generations to come.

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