Search

Begin New Search Publication Year within 3 Years

10861. Dramatic Partisan Differences On Blame for January 6 Riots

Author:
PRRI Staff
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
PRRI: Public Religion Research Institute
Abstract:
According to new data from PRRI, majorities of Americans say white supremacist groups (59%), former president Donald Trump (56%), and conservative media platforms that spread conspiracy theories and misinformation (55%) shoulder a lot of responsibility for the violent actions of the rioters who took over the U.S. Capitol on January 6. These views have stayed remarkably stable since mid-January, when 62% placed a lot of blame on white supremacist groups, 57% on Trump, and 57% on conservative media platforms that spread misinformation. There are not significant differences between these numbers and January data within subgroups, either. Additionally, about four in ten Americans put a lot of the blame for the Capitol riot on Republican leaders (41%), and 29% put a lot of the blame on white conservative Christian groups. Despite the lack of any credible evidence that substantial numbers of liberal or left-wing groups participated in the riot, 38% put a lot of blame on these groups.
Topic:
Governance, Leadership, Political Parties, Political Extremism, and Partisanship
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

10862. Tracking Vaccination by Religion at the County Level

Author:
PRRI Staff
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
PRRI: Public Religion Research Institute
Abstract:
Previous research conducted throughout 2021 by PRRI and IFYC has shown that religious affiliation is correlated with vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, and refusal. This report explores the relationship between religious identity and vaccination rates at the local level. It combines county-level religion estimates from PRRI’s 2020 Census of American Religion with county-level COVID-19 vaccination data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state sources to examine those patterns at the county level.1 The report focuses on only the largest religious groups in the country—those comprising more than 10% of the population—in order to reliably analyze the relationship between vaccination and religious populations across counties in all regions of the country. That includes white evangelical Protestants, white mainline (non-evangelical) Protestants, white Catholics, and the religiously unaffiliated.2 In addition to their geographic dispersion, these religious affiliation groups represent some of the most likely—and the least likely—religious groups to get vaccinated. In June of this year, a PRRI–IFYC survey found that white evangelical Protestants were the least likely group to be vaccine acceptant: Only 56% said they had gotten vaccinated against the coronavirus or would get the vaccine as soon as possible. Other white Christian groups were much more vaccine acceptant, including 74% of white mainline Protestants and 79% of white Catholics. Additionally, 75% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say they have gotten vaccinated or will get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Topic:
Religion, Local, Public Health, Vaccine, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

10863. Time to End Prohibition

Author:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Abstract:
The report ‘Time to End Prohibition’ marks the 10th anniversary of the Global Commission on Drugs. Ten years after the establishment of the Global Commission, the taboo on drugs has been well and truly broken. In the last decade, there were impressive reforms around the world at national and sub-national levels. More and more countries are decriminalizing drug use, adopting innovative approaches based on public health, and legalizing formerly banned substances. Recognition is growing that prohibition has failed to achieve its goals while having a detrimental impact on our societies. At the same time, the international drug control regime, created sixty years ago and built around the idea of a ‘drug-free world’, remains in place. In this report, the Global Commission urges global leaders to review the international drug control conventions in order to build a serious, modern and responsible drug control framework based on science and evidence and centered on human rights. It also calls for a more prominent role of the World Health Organization in the scheduling of substances and in ensuring access to controlled essential medicines.
Topic:
World Health Organization, Law Enforcement, Reform, Drugs, Public Health, and Decriminalization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10864. Drug Policy and City Government

Author:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Abstract:
As cities and urban settlements grow and are home to increasing numbers of people, the problems related to drug policies are becoming more visible and dire in cities around the world. Mayors and municipal councilors, the closest policymakers to their constituencies, increasingly have to respond to the presence of the illegal drug market and to the negative outcomes of national repressive drug policies. While they are not mandated with drug control policies, cities have been able to provide the most innovative and protective drug policies, policies that have inspired the adoption by the national institutions of policies such as harm reduction, effective prevention and peaceful law-enforcement. The members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, many having been mayors and municipal councilors, provide their analysis and recommendations on drug policy at the municipal level, and how pragmatic reforms on the ground can effectively address a top-down policy such as drug control.
Topic:
Law Enforcement, Reform, Public Policy, Drugs, Cities, and Harm Reduction
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10865. Manufacturing Moral Panic: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
This research explores how gender-restrictive groups are using child protection rhetoric to manufacture moral panic and mobilize against human rights, and how this strengthens the illiberal politics currently undermining democracies. The report’s comparative analysis of three country case studies (Bulgaria, Ghana, and Perú) underscores recurring strategies, narratives, and actors and gives insight into how gender-restrictive groups collaborate and engage in coalitional work across the globe. This significant new research includes important findings and recommendations for funders.
Topic:
Human Rights, Children, LGBT+, Gender Minorities, and Gender
Political Geography:
Bulgaria, Peru, and Ghana

10866. Case Study 1. Peru: How Gender-Restrictive Groups May Lose the Legal Battle, but Win the Communications and Cultural War

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
Peru is the birthplace of one of Latin America’s strongest transnational gender-restrictive movements. Understanding its sociocultural and political context sheds light on the operation of gender-restrictive groups and the rise of neoconservative politics in the region. Lima is geopolitically and strategically important because it hosts the headquarters for various gender-restrictive organizations in the region, including Ceprofarena, the Office for Latin America of the Population Research Institute, Latin American Alliance for the Family, Opus Dei, and Sodalicio de la Vida Cristiana (interview with George Hale, 2020). Therefore, many strategies that instrumentalize children32 to manufacture moral panic and oppose “gender ideology” in countries such as Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile are oftentimes planned or tested in Peru, or implemented in the country after their success elsewhere. Concretely, the Don’t Mess With My Kids (DMWMK) movement33 in Peru is representative of how genderrestrictive groups instrumentalize children to threaten children’s rights, along with gender-justice, in a country with disturbing evidence of gender-based violence and intense sexism. The Peruvian case also illuminates the ways in which gender-restrictive groups identify key battlefields related to women’s and children’s issues—such as Comprehensive Sexuality Education—that they use as a toehold to advance gender-restrictive initiatives in many policy areas and at several political levels.
Topic:
Human Rights, Children, LGBT+, Gender Minorities, and Gender
Political Geography:
South America and Peru

10867. Case Study 2. Bulgaria: "How Children's, Women's, and LGBT Rights Got Lost in Translation; The Development of the Most Effective Gender-Restrictive Movement in Eastern Europe

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
The Istanbul Convention (IC) was the first European treaty to provide a comprehensive framework to address all forms of violence against women and girls. With wide support from across the political spectrum, the EU presented it to member states for ratification in 2011. Despite the endorsement of 18 European countries, Bulgaria became the first country to decide against ratifying it in 2018. Furthermore, the Bulgarian Constitutional Court declared the treaty unconstitutional. Though this decision took many by surprise, it was the culmination of years of work by gender-restrictive groups in the country. As a member of the European Union since 2007, Bulgaria is a signatory of multiple international declarations that protect LGBT,60 women’s, children’s, and human rights. However, over the last decade—and particularly since 2018—the country has also seen the rise of well-organized gender-restrictive groups that have successfully worked to curtail the advancement of human rights and gender justice.61 Bulgaria’s rejection of the IC was the first of a series of events that jeopardized human rights by directly undermining LGBT, women’s, and children’s rights.
Topic:
Human Rights, Children, Women, LGBT+, and Gender
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria

10868. Case Study 3. Ghana: How Faith-Based, Gender-Restrictive Groups Sowed Homophobia and Reaped Political and Social Power

Author:
Juliana Martínez, Ángela Duarte, and María Juliana Rojas
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
The actions of faith-based, gender-restrictive groups85 in Ghana gained international attention in 2019 due to two main events: the World Congress of Families (WCF), which convened in Accra, and the opposition to the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) program proposed by the government. Though the two were not originally related, faith-based, gender-restrictive groups used the WCF as a platform to amplify their message against the CSE program, as well as LGBT86 rights more broadly. The Ghanaian case illustrates how faith-based, genderrestrictive groups use the rhetoric of protecting children and leverage entrenched anti-LGBT sentiment in many English-speaking countries in Africa to manufacture moral panic. This strategy both effectively advances a genderrestrictive worldview and strengthens the social capital and political power of these groups. Furthermore, the anti-LGBT cause allowed these groups to work across denominations and religions—for example, Evangelicals with Catholics87 or Christians with Muslims—to create a powerful interfaith alliance that constitutes a serious threat to gender justice88 in Ghana.
Topic:
Human Rights, Religion, LGBT+, Homophobia, and Gender
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

10869. Shifting the Field: Philanthropy’s role in strengthening child- and youth-led community rooted groups

Author:
Marcela Rueda Gomez
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Elevate Children Funders Group
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to map current practices in philanthropic support for child and youth led work at the community level and provide strategic advice to donors on how to strengthen their funding modalities through participatory approaches. The recommendations from this process will pave the road for members to challenge their own practices; build on momentum to shift money down to the grassroots level; explore ways to influence the broader sector; and influence and shift the wider donor community thinking and approaches.
Topic:
Children, Youth, Philanthropy, Funding, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10870. Greenwashing under growing regulatory scrutiny

Author:
Busisipho Siyobi
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Good Governance Africa (GGA)
Abstract:
On 10 March 2021, a set of ‘green finance’ rules designed by the EU to prevent greenwashing – the act of claiming that a fund is sustainable when in reality it is working against sustainability objectives – was applied to certain financial services sector firms in the EU. These rules – known as the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) – effectively categorise products as sustainable and non-sustainable. Asset management firms will be subject to rigorous disclosure requirements should they want to credibly market their funds as promoting sustainability. These rules are an attempt to regulate what is currently a disordered market, where firms are quick to employ the ESG concept for marketing purposes, but investors have no way of ascertaining whether the claimed credentials are legitimate or verifiable. In our view, this regulatory trend towards preventing concept abuse is a welcome development and will help to separate the wheat from the chaff in a world that is under immense pressure to achieve low-carbon growth. Early adopters of ESG principles – those who mainstream social and environmental responsibility into how the firm is governed – will see optimal long-run returns. Those who engage in greenwashing or are too slow to adapt will suffer long-run decline.
Topic:
European Union, Finance, Business, Sustainability, and Greenwashing
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe