Human rights

The Palme Center was founded in 1992 by the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the Swedish Cooperative Union and has currently 29 member organisations from the Swedish labour movement. The board is chaired by Ingvar Carlsson, previously Prime Minister. Operations are led by Secretary General Thomas Hammarberg and Carin Jämtin heads development cooperation activities. The Palme Center runs extensive meeting and seminar activities, which together with the web service and a magazine form a broad opinion-moulding platform. Each year the Palmecenter and its member organisations work with almost 200 projects. These deal with everything from adult education to human rights, democracy and reconciliation.

The federal state of Hesse is self-conscious of the challenges of globalization. The federal state government (Landesregierung) supports the numerous actors of the civil society in their international relations and helps whenever its intervention as facilitator is necessary in order to provide access for private measures and programs.

Through development cooperation, Hesse contributes to the promotion of trade and economic development as well as to ensuring the protection of human rights and the promotion of peace and understanding among nations. This way, Hesse contributes to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Economic development is a necessary condition in order to eliminate poverty. Strengthening the private sector helps enabling economic growth, employment, leads to employee qualification and generates income. Hence, Hesse’s development cooperation concentrates on projects aiming at economic growth and the integration of its partners into the global market. This represents also a means of improving the conditions in developing countries for foreign private investments. To achieve these purposes the government of Hesse works close together with associations and organizations active in the field of development cooperation, notably with the Network for Development Policy in Hesse (Entwicklungspolitisches Netzwerk Hessen) and with local actors of the economy.

Hesse supports above all educational projects as well as projects facilitating the transfer of know-how and the strengthening of market-oriented economies – from self-help projects to qualification projects in international marketing.

These measures also include the promotion of Fair Trade. On the one hand, Fair Trade is a means of supporting producers in developing countries; on the other hand, it provides opportunities for action to citizens who, in their role as consumers, wish to contribute to a fair shaping of globalisation.

The federal state of Hesse supports development education and information, on globalisation issues and education for sustainable development, following the motto „shared responsibility in thinking and acting“. This enhances the understanding of global inter-dependencies and encourages cooperation with partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

For the past twenty years, Vamos e.V. has been fighting for humane living and working conditions all over the world. In cooperation with partners in the South with whom we have a North-South-tandem cooperation, we distribute pamphlets, organize travelling exhibitions, as well as cultural and informational events about creating a more just North-South relationship. Our main topics are: the Millennium Development Goals and how to achieve them, working conditions in the international sporting goods industry and the cut flower industry of so-called third world countries, protection of the rainforest and of the rights of the indigenous peoples.

The Society for Development Cooperation in Solidarity Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania e. V. (GSE), as the state agency for global learning in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, is a provider of development education in schools and day care centres in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Using target group and experience-oriented methods, the topics of Global Learning / Education for Sustainable Development are discussed with children and conclusions are drawn about the everyday lives of girls and boys. In addition to the work with children in kindergartens and primary schools, we offer further training for educators (elementary and primary level), in which we present approaches and methods of Global Learning, which the participants can later use in their educational work and thus help to establish development policy topics in the educational work with children. Every year, the GSE participates in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Development Days with its own projects.