By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Oct 27 2025 – Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has been awarded the European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma for his decades of work supporting Roma rights.

Through sustained philanthropic efforts, Soros, who founded the Open Society Foundations (OSF), has supported projects across the continent advancing the rights, dignity, and empowerment of Roma—Europe’s largest ethnic minority.

His son Alexander, who is chair of the board of directors of the OSF, accepted the prize, which was established in memory of Holocaust survivors and pioneers of the Roma civil rights movement, Oskar and Vinzenz Rose, in Berlin on October 23, on his father’s behalf.

He said, “My father’s partnership with Roma communities has always been grounded in a deep belief in justice, dignity, and self-determination. This prize is a powerful recognition of that shared journey—and a call to continue the fight against prejudice and exclusion.”

Soros’s philanthropy has supported Roma-led organizations to confront discrimination, expand access to education and justice, improve early childhood development and healthcare, and amplify Roma voices in public life.

Among some of the most significant projects have been the creation of the European Roma Rights Centre, the Roma Education Fund (REF), and the Decade of Roma Inclusion, which collectively helped more than 150,000 Roma students attend school, challenged segregation before the European Court of Human Rights, and elevated Roma voices in public discourse.

Meanwhile, the 2024 launch of the Roma Foundation for Europe (RFE)—an independent, Roma-led institution established with a 100 million EUR pledge from the Open Society Foundations—was a key moment in support for Roma across the continent.

Speaking after the prize was awarded, those involved in some of these institutions highlighted not just how these projects have changed the lives of Roma individuals and advanced Roma rights more widely, but also the impact Soros and his work have had on Roma communities in Europe.

“Over the past two decades, REF has supported thousands of young Roma across 16 countries to complete higher education and build successful professional careers,” Ciprian Necula, Executive President of the REF, told IPS.

“Today, there are Roma doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, IT specialists, economists, social workers, journalists, and artists whose professional journeys began with REF’s support. Our most meaningful contribution has been creating genuine pathways to education and employment, proving that talent exists in every community when access and opportunity are fair.

“The work of George Soros has been extremely important to Roma communities. No other individual or institution has supported Roma communities with such consistency and vision. His contribution went far beyond financial support; he helped us build institutions, nurture leadership, and develop long-term strategic perspectives.

“His legacy is one of trust, solidarity, and shared responsibility, a reminder that real progress happens when marginalized communities are not only supported but empowered to lead their own change.”

Zeljko Jovanovic, RFE President, told IPS, “Without the Open Society Foundations, the Roma movement as we know it simply wouldn’t exist.”

“George Soros put Roma issues on Europe’s agenda and helped build the first networks of activists, researchers and policymakers working together for change. Over time, his support helped cultivate a generation of Roma professionals and advocates able to design and run their own initiatives. That legacy made today’s Roma-led institutions possible, including the Roma Foundation for Europe,” he said.

“The Roma Foundation for Europe is the most important step in building a Roma-led institution on a European scale in decades. It builds on the long tradition of support for Roma civil society that started with the Open Society Foundations but takes it further—focusing on leadership, education, economic participation, culture and political voice. There’s been a strong sense of ownership and hope [among Roma towards the Foundation]. Many Roma see the Foundation as something long overdue—a space where Roma lead, set the agenda and work with others as equals. It’s not just another organization that speaks about Roma but one that gives structure, power and voice to Roma-led ideas, from business and education to culture and politics,” he added.

Soros has said that he would be donating the 15,000 EUR endowment that comes with the award to the Roma Education Fund.

Necula said the money would be used to expand the Fund’s digital education program.

“This initiative will give Roma children and youth access to technology, digital skills training, and new learning opportunities. In essence, we will turn vision into action, transforming education into opportunity for our children. By investing in digital education now, we ensure that no child is left behind in the transformation shaping our economies and communities,” he said.

In comments after being awarded the prize, Soros spoke of his long-standing relationship with the Roma and highlighted the continued discrimination they face.

“The Roma have endured centuries of discrimination and marginalization, rooted in a long history of violence—from the Holocaust to forced sterilization, child removals, and evictions. These injustices continue to resurface, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, when Roma fleeing the war in Ukraine faced barriers to shelter and aid,” he said.

“I’ve always believed that open societies must protect the rights of all people—especially those who are excluded. Working alongside Roma leaders and communities has been one of the most meaningful parts of my life’s work,” he added.

Meanwhile, Alexander has pledged to continue his father’s fight for Roma rights, equality, and support for communities’ empowerment.

“As a child, I accompanied my parents on visits across Europe to meet Roma leaders and their families. Those experiences left a lasting impression on me and shaped my own commitment to human rights. Today, as chair of the Open Society Foundations, I am proud to carry forward this vital work and stand alongside Roma communities in their pursuit of equal rights and freedom. The discrimination that Roma experience is a threat to all of Europe. None of us is free until we are all free,” he said.

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By Penny Becker, Ralph Regenvanu and Safiya Sawney
WASHINGTON, USA, Oct 27 2025 – As biodiversity loss including ocean degradation, pollution and climate change threaten our planet, islands, and particularly global small island nations, often don’t get the spotlight they deserve. Often labeled as vulnerable, the world’s small island nations are in fact powerful beacons of resilience.

Their urgent challenges are sparking bold innovation, deep collaboration, and some of the most remarkable ecological recoveries on Earth. That’s why we are calling for the United Nations to establish a Decade of Island Resilience for 2030-2040.

Stories of success on islands are as abundant as the islands themselves. Although small islands are ubiquitous, global small island nations who are independent sovereign states span the global oceans. In the Pacific and Caribbean region, independent small island nations continue to advocate to the international community for equity in recognizing their special circumstances as a case to increase financing and resources to combat the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution.

These islands, often highly indebted, with small economies and remote geographies, are primarily dependent on their coastal assets to drive their main revenue generation – tourism and the blue economy.

Several of these island nations have leveraged the power of collective effort and have initiated innovative approaches at the domestic and regional scale to conserve and preserve their biodiversity and cultural identities.

Brown Booby in the Marshall Islands. Credit: Bren Ram/Island Conservation

Efforts like the Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity inspired by the work of the Micronesia Challenge Initiative and the 30×30 OECS Transformation Program to advance progress towards the Global Biodiversity Framework are providing a new pathway to building island resilience.

Thanks to holistic conservation action, thousands of new native seedlings are now carpeting the forest floor and seabirds populations are surging on Bikar Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The people of Ulithi Atoll in Yap State are enjoying increased food security and access to essential resources after successful restoration brought Loosiep Island back from the brink of ecological collapse.

Restored island biodiversity, in particular coastal and marine ecosystems, have been proven to trap tens of millions of metric tons of carbon, grow corals four times faster, regenerate native vegetation thousands of times faster, and support orders of magnitude more fish biomass. Healthy and well managed biodiversity also increases the resilience of islands to combat climate change.

Although islands continue to endure the harsh and often devastating everyday challenges of being on the front lines of the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, declining ocean health, and climate change, these stories show how islands are investing in their ability to fight back—driven by incredible optimism and their right to exist.

Because of their unique geography, islands are natural proving grounds for scalable conservation strategies, where science-based biodiversity restoration, ocean action, and climate resilience can be developed, perfected, and expanded globally driven by the needs to island communities. Their immense potential for impact means they deserve the world’s attention.

As representatives of global small island nations, conservation science, and community-led initiatives, we are united in support of the island led United Nations-sanctioned Decade of Island Resilience to help bring islands to the front of global priorities about climate resilience and the future of holistic restoration.

Island Conservation, an international NGO with more than 30 years of success working with island communities to restore their precious ecosystems, formally proposed this initiative in May of 2025 to help direct attention to the outsized role islands can play. And last month, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature adopted this call as an official Resolution.

The Global Islands Partnership (GLISPA)—a long-time convenor and internationally recognized island led platform will work in partnership with Island Conservation to transition this resolution into a platform for catalyzing island progress thorough its Island Biodiversity Coalition.

If established, the proposed Decade of Island Resilience would serve multiple vital functions: coordinating scientific research, mobilizing financial resources, amplifying indigenous and local voices, integrating traditional and local knowledge into implementation and scaling successful approaches, such as enhancing the delivery of adequate and consistent financing and ensuring the retention of domestic capacity in the implementation of solutions across the world’s islands.

And in doing so, it would amplify existing efforts that direct the world’s attention to islands—the globe’s nature-based solution for the delivery of high-impact resilience, restoration, and revitalization.

The timing is critical. We are in the last five years of the 2030 Agenda. As we implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), advance the UN’s Global Biodiversity Framework including the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS, and recognize the special circumstances of small island developing states to drive ambition and action for a regenerative ocean future, and pursue the race to net zero emissions, global small islands are where we should look for integrated solutions.

A Decade of Island Resilience wouldn’t just benefit global small islands: it would help us develop environmental solutions for our entire planet. If we can succeed in a global small island context—where problems are contained and solutions tangible—we’ll have a blueprint for addressing our global environmental crisis.

A Decade of Island Resilience would create a global platform for ambitious partnerships to scale efforts globally between governments, scientific institutions, civil society, private sector innovators, and, most importantly, island communities.

The choice is clear: invest in island resilience now, or lose irreplaceable biodiversity, cultural heritage, and proven solutions to our most pressing global challenges. The world’s islands are ready to lead. Are we ready to support them?

Penny Becker, PhD., is CEO, Island Conservation; Honorable Ralph Regenvanu is Minister for Climate Change, Energy, Meteorology, Geohazards, Environment and Disaster Management for the Republic of Vanuatu; and Ambassador Safiya Sawney is Special Envoy and Ambassador for Climate Change, Government of Grenada and Board Chair for the Global Island Partnership

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 27 2025 – The African continent has long been monopolized by European colonial rulers, with France having the largest number of colonies, ruling over 35 territories, followed by Britain with 32. A bygone era of colonial rule on the continent, “once carved up and ruled by European powers hungry for imperial glory,” has virtually ended—almost.

Currently, they are all members of the 55-nation African Union (AU).

Described as a non-self-governing territory in northwestern Africa fighting for decolonization, Western Sahara is the last African colonial state yet to achieve independence and dubbed “Africa’s last colony.”

With an estimated population of around 600,000 inhabitants, it is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa and the second most sparsely populated territory in the world, consisting mainly of desert flatlands.

A former Spanish colony, it was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Since then, it has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and its indigenous Sahrawi people, led by the POLISARIO Front.

On October 30, the UN Security Council is scheduled to vote on a draft resolution on the future of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

According to a published report, the United States has circulated a draft resolution supporting Morocco’s 2007 autonomy plan for Western Sahara as the basis for a mutually acceptable solution.

The draft, which supports extending the UN mission’s mandate, calls for negotiations to begin without preconditions based on Morocco’s proposal, framing it as the “most feasible solution” for a “genuine autonomy within the Moroccan state” and a lasting resolution.

Dr. Stephen Zunes, a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, and co-author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, told IPS the autonomy proposal is based on the assumption that Western Sahara is part of Morocco, a contention that has long been rejected by the United Nations, the World Court, the African Union and a broad consensus of international legal opinion.

Western Sahara, he pointed out, is a full member state of the African Union, and the United Nations recognizes it as a non-self-governing territory.

“To accept Morocco’s autonomy plan would mean that, for the first time since the founding of the United Nations and the ratification of the UN Charter eighty years ago, the international community would be endorsing the expansion of a country’s territory by military force, thereby establishing a very dangerous and destabilizing precedent, with serious implications for Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine as well as Israeli-occupied territories.”

If the people of Western Sahara accepted an autonomy agreement over independence, as a result of a free and fair referendum, he argued, it would constitute a legitimate act of self-determination.

However, Morocco has explicitly stated that its autonomy proposal “rules out, by definition, the possibility for the independence option to be submitted” to the people of Western Sahara, the vast majority of whom – according to knowledgeable international observers—favor outright independence.

On October 24, the Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations and Coordinator with MINURSO, Dr Sidi Mohamed Omar, sent a letter to Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia of Russia, current President of the UN Security Council, in which he stressed the position of the Frente POLISARIO on the US draft resolution.

“The Frente POLISARIO underscores that the draft resolution, which reflects the national position of the penholder, is a very dangerous, unprecedented departure not only from the principles of international law underpinning Western Sahara as a question of decolonization but also from the basis upon which the Security Council has addressed Western Sahara.”

“It also contains elements that strike at the heart of the foundations of the UN peace process in Western Sahara and constitute a grave violation of the international status of the Territory.”

Acting under the relevant Chapters of the UN Charter, the Security Council has firmly and consensually established the basis of the solution and the process leading to it, namely negotiations under the auspices of the Secretary-General without preconditions and in good faith with a view to achieving a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, the letter said.

As confirmed by the International Court of Justice, sovereignty over Western Sahara belongs exclusively to the Sahrawi people who have an inalienable, non-negotiable, and imprescriptible right to self-determination to be exercised freely and democratically under the UN auspices.

Therefore, any approach that sets a prefixed framework for the negotiations or predetermines their outcome, circumscribes the free exercise by the Sahrawi people of their right to self-determination, or imposes a solution against their will is utterly unacceptable to the Frente POLISARIO, the letter said.

According to a Security Council report, October 2025, an immediate issue for the Council is to renew the mandate of MINURSO and consider what changes to the mission’s mandate, if any, are necessary.

The underlying issue remains how to facilitate a viable and lasting resolution to the long-standing deadlock over the status of Western Sahara.

Two fundamentally diverging positions have made a resolution to the conflict difficult.

On the one hand, the Polisario Front’s demand for the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination, which has been recognized by the International Court of Justice in its 16 October 1975 advisory opinion and supported by several member states.

And numerous UN General Assembly resolutions, such as resolution A/RES/34/37, have affirmed the “inalienable right of the people of Western Sahara” to self-determination and independence. The Council has also called for a “just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”

On the other hand, Morocco claims sovereignty over the territory, and its Autonomy Plan has received support from an increasing number of member states in recent years. In 2007, the Council adopted resolution 1754, which, in its preambular paragraphs, took note of Morocco’s proposal and welcomed Morocco’s efforts as serious and credible to move the process forward towards resolution.

Significant obstacles remain in the peace process. Hostilities have persisted at a low to medium intensity, falling short of large-scale confrontation. Moreover, Morocco controls over three-quarters of the Western Sahara territory and has made substantial investments in the region, including a $1.2 billion port project in Dakhla.

In addition, settlers of Moroccan origin account for nearly two-thirds of the approximately half-million residents of Western Sahara

Elaborating further, Dr Zunes said: “even if one takes a dismissive attitude toward international law, there are a number of practical concerns regarding the Moroccan proposal as well: One is that the history of respect for regional autonomy on the part of centralized authoritarian states is quite poor, as with Eritrea and Kosovo, which only gained independence after a long a bloody struggle, and more recently with Hong Kong.”

Based upon Morocco’s habit of breaking its promises to the international community regarding the UN-mandated referendum for Western Sahara and related obligations based on the ceasefire agreement in 1991, he said, there is little to inspire confidence that Morocco would live up to its promises to provide genuine autonomy for Western Sahara.

“A close reading of the proposal raises questions as to how much autonomy is even being offered. Important matters such as control of Western Sahara’s natural resources and law enforcement (beyond local jurisdictions) remain ambiguous.”

In addition, he pointed out, the proposal appears to indicate that all powers not specifically vested in the autonomous region would remain with the Kingdom.

Indeed, since the king of Morocco is ultimately invested with absolute authority under Article 19 of the Moroccan Constitution, the autonomy proposal’s insistence that the Moroccan state “will keep its powers in the royal domains, especially with respect to defense, external relations and the constitutional and religious prerogatives of His Majesty the King” appears to afford the autocratic monarch considerable latitude of interpretation.

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