EDITIONS

The purpose of this article is to explore the multifaceted dimensions of the concept of social protection and the role of social work in (not only) wartime conditions. This is necessary, because social workers are often acting “helpless” confronted with massive global crises or even wars or war-like conditions. This article tries to sharpen the possible role and position of social work and with this the expectations on the discipline and profession of social work.

To reach this, this article wants to shed light on the subject and the understanding of “crisis” and the different perspectives surrounding the interdisciplinary and multi perspective concepts of social protection, social support, and resilience.

This perspective allows to a better understanding of the underlying principles, challenges and potential solutions related to social protection in times of crisis. In times of crisis, ensuring social protection and social support becomes an urgent priority for affected populations and even individuals. Social protection encompasses a wide range of measures designed to protect individuals and communities from the adverse effects of crises and to provide them with the necessary resources and assistance to cope with the challenges they face.

This article is on the one side a s theoretical examination of the key terms. On the other hand directly affected people have their say: The co-author as a Ukrainian narrates her migration experiences and the results of a student – peer project with affected refugees from Ukraine in Eastern Switzerland are presented.

The results are concrete and surprise at some points and sharpen the task and role of social work: First, feeling safe and getting (social) support and psychological assistance in the trauma and war situation is much important even to feel welcome and resurrected. But then mobility, networks, and the change to support their families, relatives and friends at home have a great importance. It is also very important to be able to travel to Ukraine (home) from time to time and to be able to return to the host country. The task of social work is a very special one: It is not primarily the role of the benefactor and care giver, but of the professional who makes things possible and supports and empowers the people who feel it. The article also makes clear, that a one-dimensional and static understanding of crisis, flight, migration and needs no longer works in today’s world global situations and crisis.

Keywords: Social work, social protection, social support, crises, war in Ukraine, Ukrainian refugees, needs.

The main objective of the article is to specify the reasons why, unlike in other EU countries affected by the financial crisis, no restrictions on civil liberties, characteristic of the neo-militant democracy, were introduced in the Republic of Cyprus. These liberties include the limitation to the freedom of assembly, the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech, the freedom of association, and the freedom of religion. The author applied qualitative source analysis as the main research technique. The analysed publications include legal acts adopted by the legislative and executive bodies of the Republic of Cyprus between 2012 and 2019 as well as reports of various non-governmental organizations monitoring respect for civil liberties in Cyprus. The study covers the period between 2012 and 2019. The initial turning point is the year of a sudden financial meltdown and the consequent budget problems, banking system crisis and social unrest. In turn, the final turning point was 2019, namely the last year before the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The article contributes to research on the concept of neo-militant democracy in contemporary European countries in the context of the functioning of the Republic of Cyprus during the financial crisis.

Keywords: Cyprus, financial crisis, democracy, neo-militant democracy, civil liberties.

Educational leaders are questioning the “traditional’ curriculum, does not provide students with the appropriate employment skills for the modern industrial and knowledge economy. The context of this article is the choice of metaphor to best communicate our Master of Business Administration program. Our design is grounded on systems thinking and two important concepts are stressed, organization structure and operational excellence. The article does not justify this design but concerns how best such a design could be communicated to the reaching staff, students and other institutions.

Keywords:  Employment skills for business, Operational Excellence, Curriculum development.

Civil society is a springboard for building democratic values. The definition of civil society informs us that its main purpose is to develop a specific issue for a self-created group, which ultimately affects the good of the state. Over the centuries, the relationship between the citizen and the state developed in different ways, and today, different legal norms regulate their relationship. The conversation started at the end of the last century, when the states came to the conclusion that democratic states or states on the way to democracy should not go to war with each other. But the question is how democratic values and the essence of its value are determined. We may be talking about the importance of creating an equal and free environment, but the state alone cannot establish all of this if citizens’ consent and their actions are not interconnected. In particular, citizens were given the opportunity, of course, within the framework of the law, to make various important decisions, which actually will not only help them, a specific group, but will also have a positive impact on the state. Nowadays, a number of associations are formed, the most popular are non-governmental organizations, the main area of which is the protection of human rights as much as possible within the state, raising awareness in various directions from the information point of view, etc. It should be added that the non-governmental sector is a significant push in society, especially in Central Europe and the USA. In addition to non-governmental organizations, which mainly operate in the private sector, at the local level, the central government creates various associations where the local population is involved, and in fact, this becomes an example of the fact that the government is interested in the opinion of the population and, based on certain initiatives, has influence through the involvement of the people. This last particular approach is, in practice, a bit difficult for developing countries to implement as they are still in their infancy. Therefore, in developing countries, the non-governmental sector is more relevant and effective. Additionally, one of the significant directions of civil society is the media, which has a great influence on the population within the state. We can safely say that the more independent and demanding the media is, the more healthy and correct information is spread, which is an important key to the formation of society on specific issues.

Keywords: civil society, legal norms, non-governmental organization, media.

Two important institutes of administrative law will be discussed in this paper, namely, the principle of legal reliance and the principle of legality, their origin, their place in the General Administrative Code of Georgia, their relation to the constitutional principles and to other principles of public law. The issue of conflict between these two principles takes significant part in the paper. The aim of the paper is to analyse the grounds for the principles of legal reliance and legality, the established caselaw related to them and to reveal significant challenges often faced by an administrative body, in the case of conflict between the mentioned principles. Herewith, the paper will present those problematic issues, which are related to the coexistence of the mentioned institutes, also, the ways for their solution and recommendations.

Keywords: the principle of legal reliance, the principle of legality, protection of reliance of interested party, revocation of act, collision of principles, proportionate and fair decision, conflict of public and private interests.