The ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations is built around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The SDGs aim to promote economic growth and development while addressing climate change and conserving biodiversity in our oceans and forests. Academic and publishing communities are increasingly banding together to support and promote these ambitious goals.

ScienceOpen and some of our partners have dedicated themed collections to the SDGs, and we would like to promote each of the SDGs and the research available on them on our blog and social media channels from now onwards.

#ExploreSDGs

Join our #ExploreSDGs hashtag on Twitter, and let’s start highlighting the impact of research on preserving and strengthening justice, peace, and strong institutions by exploring the collections and journals publishing around SDG16.

SDG16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.

With the current situation in Ukraine, many collections are being updated with recent research titles on the effects of war and the steps to be taken to ensure the prevention of violence, abuse, and exploitation in such a difficult setting.

The latest research from Ukraine, you can explore in the Research from Ukraine collection, where some of the recent titles include topics related to SDG16 like:

• Scientists Against War: A Plea to World Leaders for Better Governance
• Older people: forgotten victims amid the Ukrainian humanitarian disaster

This collection will hopefully serve soon as a platform for discussing different ideas on peace-building, inclusion in democratic processes, and sustainable efforts on strengthening justice and institutions.

Reducing all forms of violence and ending abuse and exploitation

The first targets of SDG16 focus on reducing and bringing an end to violence, abuse, and exploitation, with a focus on children.

Hogrefe Psychology is one of the many collections covering the topic of the psychological well-being of children, especially in the context of violence prevention and recovery. The research titles featured in this collection, contribute to the discussion on building resilience and support mechanisms for the recovery of the communities that lived through traumas of war and violence, through better psycho-social services and inclusive education.

• “We Are Raising Our Children in Fear”: War, Community Violence, and Parenting Practices in El Salvador
• Life After Genocide: Mental Health, Education, and Social Support of Orphaned Survivors
• Drawing the Future: Psychosocial Correlates of Palestinian Children’s Drawings

Anti-Trafficking Review is another collection, with a focus on the promotion of a human rights-based approach to anti-trafficking, which falls as well under the goals of SDG16. This collection explores trafficking in its broader context including gender analyses and intersections with labour, children, and migrant rights.

• Online Child Sexual Exploitation in the Philippines: Moving beyond the current discourse and approach
• Child Trafficking vs. Child Sexual Exploitation: Critical reflection on the UK media reports
• Dilemmas in Rescue and Reintegration: A critical assessment of India’s policies for children trafficked for labour exploitation

Promote the rule of law and ensure equal access to justice for all

Our ever-expanding legal content spans geographical regions, jurisprudential theories, and legal systems from around the world. We recently dedicated a blog post to some of our legal content collections, which include publications on a wide range of SDG16 topics.

The Denning Law Journal, Lexonomica – Journal of Law and Economics and Medicine, Law and Society by the University of Maribor Press, and UUM Journal of Legal Studies are some of the collections featured in our latest blog, where you can learn more about recent scholarly work on promotion of peace, justice and strengthening of institutions.

• The Public Law of Gender: From the Local to the Global  – The Denning Law Journal
• Eroded Rule of Law, Endemic Violence and Social Injustice in Brazil – Lexonomica
• Business and Human Rights – Implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in Slovenia – Lexonomica
• International Surrogacy Arrangements – Perspectives on International Regulation – Medicine, Law and Society
• Transformation of Islamic Law on the National Legal System in Indonesian Constitutional Perspective – UUM Journal of Legal Studies
• Racism in Modern Russia : From the Romanovs to Putin – Bloomsbury Academic

State Crime Journal addresses the topic of rule of law as well, as many other Pluto Journals covering topics such as justice, rule of law, addressing of inequalities.

• Settler-Colonial Violence, Primitive Accumulation and Australia’s Genocide
• Punishment of Serious Human Rights Violations by Changing Internal Moral Codes
• Limits of Law in Ending Impunity for State Crime: Time to Re-frame the International Criminal Court’s Mandate?
• Reimagining narratives of resistance: memory work in the London Tamil diaspora

Pluto Journals produce world-class research publications at the forefront of humanities research today. Among the journals featured in this Super Collection you will find research articles, reviews, and commentaries on recent academic discussions about justice, peacebuilding and protection, war response, the relationship between economic development and the preservation of justice, fair trade, climate justice, and much more.

• War crimes and crimes against humanity: Decolonizing discourses of international justice – Journal of Global Faultlines
• Debating the role of Fair Trade in the context of socio-economic transformation in South Africa – Journal of Fair Trade
• Can we get climate justice in the courts? –Socialist Lawyer
• Strategizing Kashmiri Freedom Struggle Through Nonviolent Means– Policy Perspectives
• The Conduct of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Structure, Strengths, and Issues (2018-2020)– Policy Perspectives

Reducing corruption, strengthening institutions and representative policy making

Promotion of transparency, strong institutions, promotion of representative policy making,  strengthening the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance, and addressing corruption, organized crime and other  illicit financial and arms flows, are other important targets within SDG16.

Our content on such topics ranges from books to articles to reports, each offering a unique perspective on how to broaden knowledge and disseminate best practices in the field.

Highlighted Books:

• Money and Moralities in Contemporary Asia – Amsterdam University Press Books
• Realistic Hope: Facing Global Challenges – Amsterdam University Press Books
• Kyiv, Ukraine – Revised Edition : The City of Domes and Demons from the Collapse of Socialism to the Mass Uprising of 2013-2014– Amsterdam University Press Books
• Human Rights and Democracy: The Precarious Triumph of Ideals – Bloomsbury Academic
• Election Management Bodies in East Africa – African Minds
• Slavery in Yorkshire: Richard Oastler and the campaign against child labour in the Industrial Revolution – Huddersfield Books
• The Journey Home: Emerging out of the Shadow of the Past – Peter Lang Books

Highlighted Articles:

• Facial Appearance and Electoral Success of Male Italian Politicians: Are Trustworthy-Looking Candidates More Successful in Corrupt Regions?
• Human Security and Central Asian States
• Bribe Taking Acceptability and Bribe Payment Among Thai Organizational Employees: The Mediating Effect of Reciprocity Obligation
• Gender Differences in the Effects of Perception of Organizational Injustice on Workplace Reactivity
• Social impacts of corruption upon community resilience and poverty

Access to information and protection of fundamental freedoms

SDG16 aims to ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.

In particular, access to information stands out both on the targets of SDG16 and Science Open’s mission, which is to create a more open and accessible online learning and knowledge-sharing environment. SDG16 also promotes information access as a means of empowering communities, strengthening institutions, and protecting fundamental freedoms.

Below some of our highlighted publications:

• Broadcasting, Voice, and Accountability: A Public Interest Approach to Policy, Law, and Regulation – University of Michigan Press
• Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as a Constitutional Instrument of European Public Order
• Examining the Use of an Open Digital Health Library for Professionals

More on SDG16 on the collections by UCL Press and Emerald

UCL Press and Emerald Publishing have created separate topical collections, bringing together their own research from various journals in a single location.

UCL Press, as an institution, is committed to supporting each SDG through world-class research, teaching, and external engagement, as well as the way it operates. The UCL community of staff and students is taking the lead in responding to the challenges outlined in the UN SDGs, and the collection on SDG 16 is not to be missed!

UCL: UN SDG 16 Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Emerald Publishing, on the other hand, has organized its research into two topical collections, each of which addresses a cluster of SDGs and all related research. Emerald Publishing, as a global business, recognizes that issues such as inequality, sustainability, and the digital divide resonate with audiences far beyond academia, and that bringing together the best research in these areas makes it easier for academics, businesses, policymakers, and others to contribute to real change in society.

Emerald: Fairer Society

Support SDGs on ScienceOpen!

With our #ExploreSDGs campaign, we will be promoting collections that we find relevant to the SDG of the week on a regular basis. Join our Twitter campaign and share your own ScienceOpen research using the hashtags #ExploreSDGs and #ScienceOpen.

Don’t forget to include the keyword SDG16 in any publications that are relevant to the topic of Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and get in touch with our team if you are interested in curating a topical collection around any of the SDGs as a researcher or publisher.